Bishop Nigel Stock announces retirement
THE Bishop at Lambeth, the Rt Revd Nigel Stock, will retire in August, after almost four years in post. The Archbishop of Canterbury said this week that Bishop Stock had been a “gracious and wise friend”, whose “love for, and service to, the Church of England and the Anglican Communion have been a blessing and an inspiration, not just to me, but to all of us at Lambeth Palace”. A successor will be announced next month.
Israeli Apartheid Week unhelpful, says Dr Ipgrave
ISRAELI Apartheid Week is “neither helpful nor constructive”, the Bishop of Lichfield, Dr Michael Ipgrave, who chairs the Council of Christian and Jews, has said. Jewish News Online reports his saying that it had become “a source of great tension between Jewish students and others on UK campuses. . . Rather than informing the dialogue around this complex issue it can often close down dialogue and leave Jewish students feeling intimidated, vulnerable, and insecure at a time of rising anti-Semitism in the UK and beyond.” The 13th annual Israeli Apartheid Week, a series of events held around the world, ran from 28 February to 6 March.
Letter expresses concern over Llandaff election
AN OPEN letter has been sent to the Bishops of the Church in Wales expressing concern that the confidentiality of the process for the election of the next Bishop of Llandaff has been “compromised”. The letter, from Changing Attitude Wales, seeks reassurance that “a strong candidate who identifies as LGBT+, and has the qualities identified in both the Diocesan and Provincial profiles for the next Bishop of Llandaff, will not find their opportunity to serve the Church in Wales as a bishop has been harmed”. No candidate nominated received two-thirds of the vote at a meeting of the electoral college last month, which means that the choice now falls to the Bench of Bishops.