Chris Hansen’s blog

There is an article in the Grauniad, er, Guardian today on this subject which was co-written by Stephen Bates, the Guardian‘s former religion correspondent, and which is well-written, well-sourced, makes sense, and is sensitive to the feelings of Dr. John and the Diocese.

The fact that the pastoral needs of the Diocese of Southwark took a back seat to church politics is something that we have all been annoyed about but no one else has highlighted it in any of the many thousands of words that have been written and spoken about this matter.

I suspect that there has now been a leak from someone who was actually at the selection meeting (how else would Bates know that 5 of the 6 Southwark representatives voted for John?). Whatever I think about the Archbishop of Canterbury, I think that it is right and proper that, given the normal secrecy about the process of selecting bishops for the Church of England, anyone who violates their oath of confidentiality about the process should be unmasked and deprived of their responsibilities in episcopal selection. Whether the secrecy and the process itself is good is another question. Both open election (as is practiced in the US, Canada, and some other provinces) and secret selection as practiced here can throw up exceptionally good bishops and exceptionally bad bishops, and proponents on each side can point to elected bishops and secretly-chosen bishops who turned out not to be very good bishops.

As a native-born American but an adopted Brit, I am on the whole in favour of open selection processes and elections. I do not believe that this is in the cards for the Church of England, either on a parochial level (the process for selecting an incumbent for a parish is broadly in line with the process for selecting a bishop) or on an episcopal level. Whenever I have brought the question up in appropriate fora (such as the Bishops’ Council or at various Synod meetings) the very idea of an open process has been greeted with the same horror that maggots on that American Airlines plane produced in the passengers. “We can’t do THAT here!” is the usual response, although some, who think of “our American cousins” and refer to “across the pond” with the same genial superiority that was once assumed for “our black brothers and sisters” and for “darkest Africa”, just laugh and say, “Well, that might be appropriate for America, but it just wouldn’t work here.” These latter people will never say exactly why it wouldn’t work here, though, and if pressed, will just chuckle a bit at my na

…and many happy returns of the day!

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…when he encounters someone who is really annoying, dangerous, or just doesn’t deserve to contribute any more genes to the gene pool than s/he has already. I would like to thank him for identifying himself so that great credit can go where credit is due.

Anyway, I think that I have a picture of Stabby below. I would like to propose to Stabby that he visit the person (not one of my blog friends but someone writing a syndicated site) who included an auto-starting video-clip with sound on his blog page. I would hope that Stabby would agree that such people need some&#8230correction and that Stabby would agree to make a house-call. Thanks in advance!

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In my entry on the possibility of the Very Rev’d Jeffrey John being appointed the next Bishop of Southwark, I wrongly reported that Prime Minister David Cameron was a Roman Catholic. I have been misinformed; David Cameron is a member of the Church of England,

I apologise unreservedly, and have placed a note in the original entry correcting the misinformation.

…and many happy returns of the day! I hope you will give us all a birthday present this evening!

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This is a very clever “fireworks” show, which shows some of your favourite comestibles being blown up as part of it.

As a dual US/UK citizen, I have almost forgotten the lyrics to the US patriotic hymn “America” (“My country ’tis of thee/Sweet land of liberty/To thee we sing”) as the lyrics I now normally sing to this tune are “God save our gracious Queen/Long live our noble Queen/God save the Queen!”

However, at the end of the 19th Century the American composer Charles Ives, as an 18-year-old organ prodigy, wrote Variations on America, which took the old tune as an inspiration for a tango, among other musical genres.

In honour of both my citizenships then, I found this video which presents various American images to the music of Charles Ives. Enjoy, and Happy Independence Day to all the USans among you.

When my alarm goes off at 7 am, Radio 4 gives the news, and then a look at the Sunday newspapers. I was startled at hearing that the Telegraph is reporting that The Very Rev’d Jeffrey John, Dean of St. Albans is on the shortlist to become the next Bishop of Southwark.

Here is the article. My commentary is at the end.

An openly-homosexual cleric has been nominated to become a senior bishop, in a move that threatens to provoke a damaging split in the Church of England.

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent
Published: 9:00PM BST 03 Jul 2010

The nomination of Dr Jeffrey John, the Dean of St Albans, threatens to provoke a damaging split in the Church of England

A confidential meeting, chaired by Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has approved Dr Jeffrey John, the Dean of St Albans, to be on the shortlist to be the next Bishop of Southwark.

He is understood to be the favoured candidate.

Dr John is a hugely divisive figure in the church after he was forced to stand down from becoming the Bishop of Reading in 2003 after it emerged he was in a homosexual, but celibate, relationship.

Promoting him to one of the most senior offices in the Church would trigger a civil war between liberals and conservatives and exacerbate existing divisions within the Anglican Communion.

Members of the Crown Nominations Commission, the body responsible for selecting bishops, will vote this week on whether Dr John’s name should now be put forward to the Prime Minister for final approval.

David Cameron has been made aware that Dr John is on the shortlist for the post and is understood to be supportive of such an appointment. Once the preferred candidate is rubber-stamped by Mr Cameron it is passed to the Queen for final approval.

In 2003, evangelical parishes warned they would withhold payments to central Church coffers if Dr John was consecrated as Bishop of Reading, before Dr Williams ultimately forced him to resign.

It is known that the Queen was “deeply concerned” by the rift.

Dr Williams and Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, who also sits on the commission, will face fierce criticism from the conservative wing of the Church if they allow Dr John to become a bishop.

Yet, at the commission’s last meeting, where Dr John was put on the initial shortlist of candidates for the Southwark job, neither archbishop blocked his name.

Liberals make up a majority of the commission and he is considered by many to be the outstanding candidate after a successful period in charge of St Albans cathedral.

The appointment of Dr John, who entered a civil partnership with his long term partner the Rev Grant Holmes in 2006, would mark a major victory for the pro-gay lobby in the Church of England, which has been disappointed at the lack of progress under Dr Williams.

Conservatives, on the other hand, would be incensed at the promotion of a cleric who has strongly argued for a more liberal attitude towards sexuality and is in a long-standing, though celibate, homosexual relationship.

Senior bishops led the opposition to his appointment in 2003, while African archbishops claimed that it would tear apart the Anglican Communion if an openly gay cleric was made bishop in the Church of England, considered to be the mother church.

The Communion has already begun to unravel following the appointment of openly gay and openly lesbian bishops in the US Episcopal Church.
This could shatter Dr Williams’ hopes of maintaining the fragile unity which currently exists in the Church.

While it would also upset evangelicals in the diocese of Southwark, the overwhelming majority of clergy in the diocese are believed to be very keen to have Dr John as their bishop.

He is well known in the diocese from his time serving as a canon at the cathedral before he moved to St Albans.

Regarded as an outstanding preacher and a champion of a more liberal reading of the Bible, he is considered to have enhanced his reputation at St Albans cathedral, which has seen its congregation grow under his leadership.

David Cameron is also expected to be favourable to the appointment as it would reflect the Conservative Party’s drive to shake off its “nasty party” image.

In an interview last year with Attitude, a gay magazine, the prime minister criticised the Church of England over failing to be more accepting in its attitudes to homosexuality.

“But I think the Church has to do some of the things that the Conservative Party has been through

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…but not the National one. My home town, Marblehead, Massachusetts, is the Birthplace of the American Navy and the Yachting Capital of the World. The first is due to the fact that the first American Naval ship, the U.S.S. Hannah, was commissioned and set out to sea from Marblehead at the beginning of the Revolutionary war. The second is due to the fact that Marblehead has the best natural harbour on the East Coast of North America. The following few paragraphs are taken from the Marblehead.org website, a link to which is found under the title.

Marblehead Forever

Marblehead is one of only a few communities that can claim title to an Official Town Anthem: Marblehead Forever. Popular with Marbleheaders since its composition in 1887, Marblehead Forever has been decreed by the Board of Selectmen as the town’s official anthem.

Marblehead Forever was written by Marcia Martin Selman. Born in 1856, Selman was an active member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. She graduated from the State Normal School at Salem (now Salem State College) and taught at the Orne Street School in Marblehead. Longing to become a minister, she studied at Tufts Theological School and graduated in 1896. The Reverend Selman took preaching assignments in several locations, eventually returning to Marblehead as pastor of the Universalist Church.

Because of her involvement with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, her original composition included the line, “and from whiskey bondage we will keep her free.” This was later changed to, “and from all dishonor we will keep her free.”

The Reverend Selman set the words of Marblehead Forever to the music of the hymn tune The Lily of the Valley, from a melody by J. R. Murray, “Songs of Rejoicing,” 1888. The Reverend Selman died in 1932.

Note: I have tried to find an online version of the music that is as fast as Marblehead Forever should be played. I have failed miserably, as all online versions of the music sound like dirges. Marblehead Forever is to be sung quickly, sprightly, like the wind was at your back. Here are the words:

Marblehead Forever
Original lyrics by Marcia Martin Selman
Music by J. R. Murray

The men of old were heroes, who fought by land and sea,
to preserve their homes from tyranny and shame,
And enrolled among the bravest writ high in history,
Stands Old Marblehead, beloved and honored name.

CHORUS
Then Marblehead forever! God bless the good old town.
May she never shame her noble ancestry.
She was first in Revolution, was first in ’61.
And from whiskey bondage we will keep her free

The men of old were heroes but they are in their graves,
and ’tis ours, their sons, the battle now to fight.
For our homes and altars tremble, before the greed of knaves,
who assail the cause of God and home and right.

CHORUS

Then up and do your duty! Too long ingloriously,
did we sleep while Rum held undisputed sway.
Now, rally with your ballots, and let his hirelings see
that when first we drove him out he went to stay.

CHORUS

Now to be perfectly honest with you, not only has Marblehead remained a pretty wet sort of town, alcoholically speaking, but she wasn’t kept free from whiskey bondage for very long. There was a bit of smuggling from Canada to Marblehead by sea during Prohibition, and by the time I was born, less than 20 years after Prohibition ended, there were package stores (New Englandese for “liquor stores”) in town and a couple of bars, perhaps even more than a couple. We had a Town Drunk (almost an official title) who had a sad tale but who, when incarcerated in a TV sanatorium later on in life, met and married one of the nurses, moved out of town, and disappeared from our lives.

Now tomorrow is July 4th. There will be fireworks and an illumination of the harbour in honour of the Declaration of Independence. As a Brit now, I don’t suppose I ought to be celebrating. However, a Marbleheader, Elbridge Gerry, signed the Declaration of Independence and became the fifth Vice President of the United States, and the first one to die in office. Marbleheaders rowed Washington and his army across the Delaware. Even though I am now only tangentially and historically American, I am still happy to be a Marbleheader. Whip!

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…and many happy returns of the day!