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Costings |
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Dear Friends in Christ,
I realise that it is several months since I wrote an edition of Costings to bring you all up to date with what has been going on in Cost of Conscience.
This can largely be attributed to, though not excused by, the fact that so many inter-related things have happened during the past months that I have found myself saying ‘well let’s see how X turns out’ where X may have been Cardinal Kasper’s Address to the Bishops, the Glastonbury Pilgrimage’s liaison with WaterAid, the Guildford/Gloucester reports, the General Synod in York or the Forward in Faith Assembly which has just taken place.
Now all of these are water-under-the-bridge it is possible to report on them without finding that what one has said or predicted has been immediately thrown into doubt by unforeseeable circumstances.
So let me begin:
Cardinal Kasper’s Address to the House of Bishops
This, as you must know, was such a seminal document that Cost of Conscience felt it must be given the maximum publicity. So at considerable expense we bought two pages of advertisement space in the Church Times and gave the verbatim text of his address.
The result was most gratifying. We received many expressions of thanks and donations towards the £2,500 which it had cost. It will surely go down in history as one of those defining documents which, with a clarity which would have done justice to any of the Anglican Divines of the 17th Century, has clearly defined for all concerned the consequences, ecclesial, doctrinal and ecumenical of pressing forward with the ordination of women as bishops.
The Forward in Faith
Assembly, October 2006
Fr David Houlding and Fr Jonathan Baker described for us the proceedings of the York Synod in July.
It cannot be said to often that the supposed ordination of women bishops is now bound to happen, though how soon is anyone’s guess. The Legislative Drafting Group which has been given the job of reconsidering the whole matter ab initio as well as producing draft legislation is faced with an unenviable task which has been likened to squaring the circle.
That is due, not least, to the fact that nothing but full recognition of their orders by every member of the Church of England will satisfy those women who suppose that they have been ordained as priests, whilst at the same time establishing the principle that those who dissent from this view are nevertheless loyal members of the Church of England.
Whichever party may be mistaken in its position will be required to abandon it and admit its error save in one particular circumstance, namely the establishment of a Free Province within the Church of England.
As Forward in Faith has never ceased to point out this is the only way which gives both sides the assurance they need. Anything which falls short of this, is bound to end in failure.
Alongside Reform
The General Synod in July was also remarkable for the way in which FiF and Reform worked together to safeguard each other’s interest. The result was highly satisfactory to both parties.
This sort of co-operation is something which a number of us have been striving for over the past ten years. It achieved formal recognition at the FiF Assembly when the motion proposed by the Bristol Area Assembly was carried unanimously which read: This Assembly sends greetings to its brothers and sisters in Reform, and pledges itself to continue to work with them and others to secure adequate structural provision for those in conscience unable to receive the ordination of women as bishops.
A similar motion was subsequently carried at the Reform Conference..
The Choose Life Survey
Choose Life, an organisation which is opposed equally to abortion and euthanasia, funded a survey into public attitudes towards both these subjects just before the Lord Joffe’s Bill (which would have moved us a step nearer legalising euthanasia) was due to be debated in the House of Lords. Much to his and his supporters’ surprise, the vote was lost, largely, it is believed, because of the unexpectedly clear attitude of doctors on this subject.
Of course the matter will not go away, but it came as a salutary reminder to those on both sides that the issue is not an open-and-closed one. A survey in Australia came up with a very similar set of findings. So we think that the £1,000 donated by Cost of Conscience was well spent.
Financial support for retired bishops.
Cost of Conscience has for several years been assisting the retired bishops Gaisford and Barnes financially to carry on the work which they continue to do so nobly. This year they were joined by Bishop David Silk, formerly Bishop of Ballarat, and we have included him in our disbursement of £300 each per year.
We were delighted that the Council of Forward in Faith agreed to match this amount.
The Glastonbury Pilgrimage
Mention of Bishop David Silk leads naturally to the subject of the Glastonbury Pilgrimage of which he is now the Chairman in succession to the late Bishop John Richards.
Under his Chairmanship the changes to the format of the Pilgrimage suggested by Bishop David Thomas and his Committee are now firmly in place. They have received wide support for the way in which the conduct of the day has improved as a result of their implementation.
At the 2006 Pilgrimage Cost of Conscience subsidised a number of coaches for those who would not otherwise have been able to afford to come. We set aside £1,000 for this purpose but only a proportion of this was needed.
The great step forward which the Pilgrimage has taken is a five-year association with the charity WaterAid which provides clean water for drinking and sanitation in areas of the world where these are lacking.
For the next five years (at least) the entire afternoon collection at the Pilgrimage will be donated to the work of WaterAid, and we hope by this means to raise enough money in 2007 to fund a specific project.
Parishes of our integrity will be urged to make a special effort to raise money between now and the Pilgrimage (on Saturday 16th June 2007)
In return, WaterAid will place their Publicity expertise (which is considerable) at the disposal of the Pilgrimage with a view to raising and widening the profile of the Pilgrimage, and getting us more notice in the local and national press.
The Pilgrimage Council believes that by providing a ‘focus’ to world-wide needs for a charity which has emphatically just one easily-understood aim we shall be able to demonstrate that we are not solely concerned with matters of doctrine and ecclesiology, vitally important though they be, but with the needs of people world-wide.
Training on the Read
This simple event which has made an enormous difference to the standard of reading in those churches where it has been tried continues to grow in popularity.
As I write this we have no less than five engagements to fulfil, including one sponsored by the Diocese of Llandaff.
The event is thoroughly enjoyable and professionally directed. We hope to expand our number of actor-teachers during the coming year to cope with the demand which we anticipate.
The event provides a small but significant amount of money to enable Cost of Conscience to continue its work.
The Trushare Website and News Service
The website at
www.Trushare.com now has several thousand pages and continues to receive many ‘hits’ daily. It has the archive of New Directions and access is totally free.
The JR Memorial Fund
This fund, set up in memory of the late Bishop John Richards to make grants to parishes with a view to their becoming ‘centres of excellence’ still has funds available for those who apply for them.
Our Future Plans
We are setting up a pilot scheme to enable seminars to take place up and down the country to advise parishes, especially their laypeople, how to secure their future during an interregnum. The first of these schemes will take place in the Bishop of Richborough’s area early in the New Year. If it is successful it will be followed by more such teach-ins in various parts of the country.
In Sum…
I hope you will by now have realised that the money which you so generously give us is being put to good use. Here are some words from Fr Ronald Crane:
COST OF CONSCIENCE AND YOUNG PEOPLE
Our dear friend Robbie Low described Cost of Conscience as "a kind of clerical think-tank". It is a good description for we have a reputation for thinking and studying, not least in Study Days and the Keble Conferences, but also by regular meetings with clergy and bishops and the occasional piece of market research! But that is not all there is to Cost of Conscience.
The influence of Cost of Conscience reaches far. Many an event has benefited from money and personnel, from encouragement and resources, not to mention advice and general support.
Such wide ranging occasions as the Ebbsfleet Children and Young People’s Eucharistic Festival, to the Sheepdip Youth Festivals; from the series of Youth Masses presently being held in the West Midlands to the Glastonbury Pilgrimage; and even Forward in Hope: all have received support from Cost of Conscience. This support might have been financial through the Bishop John Richards Appeal, or of a more general nature, but support it was; and support that was gratefully received.
There you have it. Cost of Conscience is not merely a dry clerical organisation, but part of the living body of a vibrant Church, rejoicing in the Catholic Faith and living that Faith to the full.
–-ooOoo—
Yours in Christ
