Communications Update

Communications Update – December 2008

Monthly news bulletin from the Communications Office, Church House, London.

Feel free to forward this to others, or to use in diocesan or parish newsletters, magazines or websites.

This news bulletin is issued to members of General Synod, recipients of the e-mailed daily briefing, within the National Church Institutions’ All Staff bulletin and to parish magazines via the http://www.parishpump.co.uk website. 

It can also be subscribed to at no charge for automatic delivery every month to email inboxes via http://www.cofe.anglican.org/commsupdate.html/

Please scroll down to read items. Comments, please, to Peter Crumpler, Director of Communications, at peter.crumpler@c-of-e.org.uk 

Key fingertip facts about the CofE can be found at http://www.cofe.anglican.org/about/thechurchofenglandtoday/

This month’s contents:

• Seasonal update ….Christingles shine out; More wait, less want, Christmas message to Anglican Communion
• ‘Dare To …’ young people draw own mission message
• Archbishop of Canterbury – calls for greener economy
• End Mugabe regime – Archbishop of York
• ‘Don’t leave it all to the BBC’, churches argue
• Sign up for support

• Lambeth Palace Library opens virtual doors
• New Chief Finance Officer for National Church Institutions
• New Chair announced for Board of Education and National Society
• Back to Church Sunday 2008 welcomes back 37,000 
• Church Commissioners elections
• DVD to help churches makes a difference for children
• More news from the Archbishop of Canterbury
• More news from the Archbishop of York

Seasonal update from CofE

• Christingles shine out as special service celebrates the big 40
  An estimated 1.1 million people will take part in Christingle services at Church of England churches, cathedrals and schools this Christmas – following a rise of 50 per cent in the last three years. Forty years since The Children’s society introduced the special service to the Church of England, the two organisations are expecting that anniversary services will draw in more people than ever. The number of children and adults attending Christinglecelebrations has risen by half since 2004, when three quarters of a million people took part in the services. Read the full story here
• More wait less want
  Putting the waiting back into wanting has proved an Advent hit for the CofE this year with more than 21,000 visits to the dedicated site by the middle of the month.www.WhyWeAreWaiting.com includes an introductory film featuring the Archbishop of Canterbury and an Advent Calendar with a difference made up of reflections, podcasts, and waiting tips. Read the full story here. The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, also added his voice to calls for people to rediscover waiting, recommending a Spiritual MOT in his podcast on the web-based Advent calendar, WhyWeAreWaiting.com. Details here
• Christmas message The Archbishop of Canterbury has sent a Christmas message to churches across the Anglican Communion. “Human beings, left to themselves, have imagined God in all sorts of shapes; but - although there were one or two instances, in Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt, of gods being pictured as boys - it took Christianity to introduce the world to the idea of God in the form of a baby: in the form of complete dependence and fragility, without power or control.” Read the full text here

‘Dare To …’ young people draw own mission message
Young people from dioceses all over England showcased the ambitious new ways they are doing mission at the ‘Dare To…’ event in December at Church House in Westminster - whilst an artist captured the spirit of the day in a new piece of graffiti-style art. The young project leaders welcomed an invited audience of 80 young people from various dioceses - including some of the 10 dioceses that will qualify for pump-priming grants of up to £3,000 from the Church of England’s Youth Evangelism Fund (YEF) in 2009 for the creation of more exciting new projects in their areas. Full details here

Archbishop of Canterbury – call for greener economy
In advance of the EU summit this month, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of the Church of Sweden and the Presiding Bishop of EKD wrote to the President of the Council of the European Union, HE Nicolas Sarkozy, urging him to ensure that "that climate considerations are not marginalised in the search to find short and medium term solutions to immediate economic pressures. Read the full text here

Archbishop of York calls for Mugabe regime to be toppled.
Dr John Sentamu has called for the international community to bring an end to the "charade of power sharing" and to remove the administration of Robert Mugabe from power in Zimbabwe. Writing in The Observer Newspaper, Dr. John Sentamu compared the situation in Zimbabwe to that he faced as a dissident in Uganda under Idi Amin. Read the full story here

‘Don’t leave it all to the BBC’, churches argue    
Leaving the BBC as the sole provider of public service media could lower media standards and provide less meaningful news, information and other content, the Church of England and the Catholic Conference of Bishops in England and Wales warned today in their joint response to Ofcom’s Second Consultation on Public Service Broadcasting. Speaking about their submission, The Rt Revd Nicholas Baines, the Anglican Bishop of Croydon and the Rt Revd John Arnold, the Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, are quick to point out that they are not attacking the BBC, but simply supporting an increasingly well understood factor of broadcasting in Britain today. Full story here

Sign up for support

The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Andy Burnham, has announced today that English Heritage, the Government's lead adviser on the historic environment, is making available £1.5 million to part-fund 30 Support Officers to help congregations of all faiths manage and maintain their historic places of worship. It is up to each diocese or group to draw up its own job description, depending on the particular needs of their historic buildings. No two Support Officer jobs will be exactly the same. Some will focus on essential repairs, others on opening churches for tourism, community projects and cultural events. Full details here

Lambeth Palace Library opens virtual doors
A new-look website has been launched this month to help Lambeth Palace Library share even more of its 1,000 years of history. The outstanding collections of Lambeth Palace Library, the historic library and record office of the Archbishops of Canterbury and the principal repository of the history of the Church of England, are now more accessible with the launch of the Library's newly redesigned website which can be found at: www.lambethpalacelibrary.org Approximately 20,000 visitors per month currently visit the website, and Library staff hope the revamp will see this number increase. The Library is housed within the grounds of Lambeth Palace and is open to the public, full details can be found on the website or read more background here.

New Chief Finance Officer for National Church Institutions
Ian Theodoreson has been appointed as Chief Finance Officer for the National Church Institutions of the Church of England, including the Archbishops’ Council, the Church Commissioners for England and the Church of England Pensions Board. More details here

New Chair announced for Board of Education and National Society
The Rt Revd John Saxbee, Bishop of Lincoln, has accepted the invitation of the Archbishops of Canterbury, York and Wales to chair the Church of England Board of Education and the National Society Council. He has been in the post since December 1 and succeeds the Rt Revd Dr Kenneth Stevenson, Bishop of Portsmouth, as the Bishop with lead responsibility for the Church of England’s policy on education. Bishop John will also take the lead on speaking on educational issues in the House of Lords, which he joined earlier this year. Full story here

Back to Church Sunday 2008 welcomes back 37,000
Back to Church Sunday is celebrating another rise in the numbers drawn back to church by the event this year. Figures based on returns from dioceses suggest that more than 37,000 people took up the invitation to try church again on Sunday 28th September 2008 – with more than 31,000 of them ‘coming back’ to an Anglican church.  A celebration event was held at Lambeth Palace to mark the occasion. Read the full storyhere

Elections to the Church Commissioners
In the recent round of nominations in elections to the Church Commissioners, four members of the House of Bishops and two Deans were duly nominated. For the full list of names click here
Who are the Church Commissioners?

DVD to help churches make a difference for children

To mark the 30th anniversary of the UN Year of the Child in 2009, and to help support the Churches' Year of a Child 2009, a DVD of resources to celebrate and inspire the work done with children in churches has been produced in a unique collaborative venture headed by Children Matter! and the Consultative Group on Ministry among Children (CGMC). The Will YOU make A difference? Campaign seeks to invite all churches to assess their work with children throughout 2009. Visit here  to find out more about Will YOU make A difference? and get your copy of a DVD of resources to inspire and equip you to do just that.

More news from the Archbishop of Canterbury 

• The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, Commissioner Betty Matear of the Salvation Army and Bishop Nathan Hovhanissian of the Armenian Church, have released a statement in response to the humanitarian catastrophe in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Details here
• Dr Williams expresses shock and outrage at atrocities in Mumbai. Details here
• Dr Rowan Williams, has expressed his sadness on being informed of the death of Patriarch Aleksii II of Moscow. Full details here

More news from the Archbishop of York

• Archbishop of York marks 60^th anniversary declaration of human rights

            Read the full story here

• Why the CofE should remain, by law, established. Dr Sentamu writes in the Times. Full details here
• Dr Sentamu defends role of the Church. Details here