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In mentioned some of the bloggers I've met today, I neglected to note my meeting with Dave Walker of fame (not to be confused with David Walker, the blogging bishop of ). In addition to writing and drawing for The Church Times, Dave is the Conference's 'cartoonist in residence' (which, I must assume, is an unofficial title, but I fully expect to be corrected). Dave has a small tent on campus and I found him there today -- drawing, inevitably -- surrounded by a wall of cartoons on canvasses. If the pen is mightier than the sword, Dave Walker proves that the felt-tip pen is mightier still.

Update: I stand corrected. Dave is in fact the official Cartoonist-in-Residence at the Lambeth Conference.

Read any press account of Lambeth 2008 and you will discover that there are 670 bishops attending this conference. But are there? I have heard rumours that there may in fact be 666 bishops in attendance. I don't need to remind you that is the 'number of the beast' according to the New Testament. I have even heard a mumbled conspiracy theory that the Anglican Communion Office is rounding off the number of bishops in attendance in order to disguise a number that could be used by cynics, sceptics, hacks and Gafconites to ridicule the gathering. Plainly, we have absolutely no evidence whatsoever to underwrite any of these rumours.

Meet Bishop Catherine Roskam. Before Lambeth, she was simply the of New York. After Lambeth, she'll be known as the bishop at the centre of the wife-beating controversy. In an article in the Lambeth Witness -- a daily newspaper produced by he Inclusive Church Network -- Bishop Roskam writes about domestic violence in the developing world, then suggests that some of the and regard such violence as culturally acceptable.

The bishop's comments have been described as outrageous by many developing world participants at the Conference. Archbishop John Chew, primate of south-east Asia, challenges the claim: "I don't think it's fair for her to say that. Bishops respect their wives -- how could they condone domestic violence."

I've been bumping into fellow bloggers all over the Canterbury campus. I had lunch today with David Virtue from virtueonline and his colleague Hans Zeiger. Earlier, I had a chat with Simon Sarmiento from. Then in the afternoon, I had a cup of tea with Harold Miller, the of Down and Dromore, and walking back from the university halls where Bishop Harold is lodging, I met David Chillingworth, the Bishop of St Andrews, and had a very wide-ranging conversation about theology, Anglican polity and, inevitably, blogging. Bishop David's blog is called and includes commentary on the conference experience with pictures (such as the one displayed here). The bishop's reflections on the conference reflect some of the frustration I've heard voiced by others about the slow journey to the topic of sexuality and the lack of time to do justice to the issue. He is also critical of the lack of communication between conference organisers and participating bishops. Money quotes:

"I don't think the Indaba process will deliver what we need. We would need to set for hours and hours. We are giving too little time to it and trying to cover too much ground. This Conference has been running for nearly two weeks. I simply cannot understand why it will be Thursday before we reach 'The Bishop and Human Sexuality.' To rush the big issues at the end of a Conference is never wise. I went today to the hearings of the Windsor Continuation Group. Bishops from all over the world were being allowed three minutes each to speak on very complex issues - yellow card after two minutes and red after three. Differences were being aired with grace and dignity. But it was not a graceful or dignified process.

"If there is a channel through which issues like this can be raised with the management of the conference, I have not yet found it. Maybe there are different cultures at work here as regards expectations of how a conference can evolve as it happens."

Each day at Lambeth, there is a press conference held at 1.30 pm. I'm blogging live from today's press conference. The university space that houses the press facility is called "The Missing Link". Needless to say, just about every word, title, name and official description at this conference is being analysed for hidden meanings, and The Missing Link is no different.

The spokesperson of the Anglican Communion, Dr Phillip Aspinall (pictured), who is the Australian primate, is chairing the press conference, and has just described a very significant change of tone at this Lambeth Conference when compared with the last Conference a decade ago. Ten years ago, the atmosphere was at times very heated, with some participants even hissing the contributions of others. This time, there is more respectful listening, and a more reflective tone to all contributions.

We are hearing more, now, about the kind of encounters bishops are making in indaba groups. One bishop is explaining that his indaba group has actually been discussing sexuality since yesterday -- since his group chose to change the schedule to give more time to that topic.

Dr Aspinall has been asked if any bishops have changed their mind as a result of the indaba process. He says he is not aware of anyone changing their mind, though some have added nuance to their views.

Also taking part in the press conference today are Bishop Colin Johnston, from the diocese of Toronto, and Bishop Ian Ernest, from the diocese of Mauritius. Ruth Gledhill has just noted that Henry Orombi, the Archbishop of Uganda, will challenge Rowan Williams's authority in tomorrow's Times, and also challenge the alleged colonialism of the Anglican Communion.

Andrew Carey now asks if this Lambeth Conference will do more than navel-gazing and actually say something about human sexuality. Bishop Johnston answers that he and others have been frustrated by the 'media's concentration' on issues of sexuality. This media focus has apparently made it difficult for the bishops to address the issue head-on. So there you have it: it's all our fault. Again.

Lambeth is proving to be a difficult reporting task for the journalists gathered here. There's a big blue tent at the centre of the action, seating up to a thousand people, where plenary sessions are held. The press are not permitted entry. Yesterday, I asked security if I could take a look inside the tend at the end of a session, and I was told that this would be impossible. The tend is entirely surrounded by temporary security gates, with guards at the main entrances. A mobile CCTV police van is nearby, and uniformed police are patrolling the campus. It is rumoured that security have been given a photograph of Bishop Gene Robinson just in case he tries to enter the tent during a plenary or worship session.

I suggested to some of my press colleagues yesterday that it was easier to get information about what was happening behind the scenes of the Northern Ireland peace negotiations. There were sympathetic sighs all round.

Ruth Gledhill of The Times write this on her blog: "All journalists here have been learning a fair bit about exclusion at this conference. At The Times, myself and a number of senior editorial staff received numerous emails from Results UK, the group behind the main speakers at the HIV/TB self-select group at the conference, asking us to attend. They were desperate for us to report it. But we could not because we were not allowed in. One bishop told me that about eight bishops did manage to find the obscure venue to which the extremely high-powered guest speakers were invited. So I guess these bishops will manage to spread this important message back home in their eight dioceses. It would have been nice to be able to help though to write about some of the good work the conference is going. More than 650 bishops here and a world waiting to hear them... shame they don't want the secular and Church press here to tell that story."

'Indaba' is a Zulu word meaning 'business' or 'matter, and its the name being given to the small group discussions here at the Lambeth Conference. More sceptical bishops have re-baptised the groups 'indaba-daba-doo' groups; one episcopal rake was overheard saying, 'We're having are meetings in-da-ba'.

For an official explanation of the groups, we must turn to Rowan Williams: "We have given these the African name of indaba groups, groups where in traditional African culture, people get together to sort out the problems that affect them all, where everyone has a voice and where there is an attempt to find a common mind or a common story that everyone is able to tell when they go away from it. This is how we approached it. This is what we heard. This is where we arrived as we prayed and thought and talked together."

I've just walked passed a couple of indaba groups meeting al fresco (to enjoy the wonderful weather we've all been enjoying here in the English south-east). A dozen or so bishops meet in a circle for a Bible study, and they talk, pray, and listen to each other. Today, the focus of the discussion will turn -- finally -- to the question of human sexuality. I've spoken to a number of bishops who have felt frustrated with this conference's slow arrival at the topic everyone is talking about in the cafes and bars. But today is the day they get to face the issue of Gene Robinson's episcopal ordination (or it's as close as they will get to facing it at Canterbury). For this reason, some of my colleagues in the media centre have been describing today as 'Gay Thursday'. Gene Robinson took part in a fringe event last night, answering questions about his selection as a bishop and the polity issues around his consecration. There will be a plenary session later today for feed back on some of the issues explored in the indaba groups.

Next Sunday, we will be broadcasting a special edition of Sunday Sequence live from the in Canterbury. I arrived in Canterbury last night and I'm writing this from the media centre in Darwin College, on the campus of the at . (I will avoid making any link between Darwin, creationism and the evolution of Anglicanism in this particular post. Suffice to say, the other colleges on campus are named after TS Eliot, John Maynard Keynes, Ernest Rutherford and Virginia Woolf. Make of that what you will.)

When the taxi driver picked me up from Canterbury East train station, he said, "You're not a bishop, are you?" When I checked into my hotel, just a mitre's throw from the cathedral, the receptionist asked if I was here for the conference. I told her I was; then she asked if I was a bishop. It's not that I look like a bishop, it's just that bishops are everywhere here at the moment. The receptionist, I hasten to add, thought I might have been a particularly young bishop. (Quite.)

670 Anglican bishops from across the world are gathered here for their once-in-a-decade gathering. But more than two hundred bishops are boycotting the conference in protest at the presence of those who participated in the ordination of an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in the United States five years ago. In an effort to calm the traditionalist storm, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, did not invite Gene Robinson to take part in this parliament of bishops, even though the Archbishop has accepted that Gene Robinson is a validly elected and validly consecrated bishop in good standing. When I interviewed him two years ago on television, Bishop Robinson told me he would be coming to Lambeth whether or not he was invited. He has kept his word and is everywhere to be seen in Canterbury, except at the formal Lambeth meetings. He is typically accompanied by a personal bodyguard.

The Conference comes to an end on Sunday, which gives our programme a chance to look back on the events of the past two weeks and ask some focused questions: Can the Anglican Communion survive the de facto schism that has followed Gene Robinson's controversial ordination? How will the emergence of a traditionalist Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans threaten the identity and mission of the Communion in the future? And what will be the impact of Lambeth 2008 on 80 million Anglicans across the world?

Rowan Williams has put together a Conference in listening and praying mode. Cynics might say he is strategically avoiding any significant votes on sexuality issues in an effort to avoid an even bigger split. There is talk of a code or covenant for the Communion, with a ban on future episcopal ordinations of bishops in same-sex relationships, the creation of something approaching an Anglican 'Holy Office' to prosecute theological offenders, and a strengthened role for the office of Archbishop of Canterbury. Some of these ideas are emerging from the Windsor Continuation Group, established by Rowan Williams in order to pursue some of the issues raised by Lord Eames's Windsor Report. We'll soon find out if those ideas become new laws and structures.

I'm off now for a cup of coffee, and fully expect the barrista to call me 'Your Grace' when he hands me my Americano.

(Picture: , but you knew that already, didn't you?)

A says it was deceived into providing space for a lecture given by the well-known 'holocaust denier' . During the lecture, Irving outlined his distinctive views on Adolf Hitler -- that Hitler was not anti-semitic prior to WWII, and that the systematic killing of jews was carried out without his knowledge or consent. The journalist Max Blumenthal recorded the talk, and spoke to the church's pastor, Fr. Angelo Gambatese about how he had been duped into permitting the world's most controversial historian to speak in a basement educational space in his church. Watch Max Blumenthal's video of the event below. You'll also hear Irving speak about his 'friend' Christopher Hitchens, who has written in defense of Irving's right to hold and publish his views.

proposed amendment to the Abortion Act (1967) would make the termination of a pregnancy . Presumably, if the Northern Ireland political parties could agree on a deal for the devolution of criminal justice to Stormont, Westminster would not be able to legislate for an extention of this legislation to Northern Ireland. Some think the threat of an abortion amendment may encourage political leaders here to agree the terms of such a deal sooner than they might otherwise do. Perhaps, for example, a justice minister could be selected, on a cross-community basis, by Assembly members.

In the absence of any deal of that kind paving the way for the devolution of policing and criminal justice to Stormont, the abortion amendment may be debated at Westminster in the Autumn. We'll explore its implications on tomorrow's Sunday Sequence with the Liberal Democrat MP , one of the amendment's co-signatories, and the DUP's , junior minister in the Office of First and Deputy First Minister.

The four largest churches in Northern Ireland oppose the extension of the Abortion Act to this part of the United Kingdom; as do most political parties here. The amendment is supported locally by campaigners for women's reproductive rights and others who argue that the current law in Northern Ireland is, Another voice recently raised in suppose of equal treatment for women across the UK in respect of abortion rights is the Belfast Humanist Group. I include their statement of support for the amendment below the fold.

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Renoir's Les Parapluies (c.1881-6), is now considered one of the world's most important impressionist paintings. It is currently in Dublin, enjoying pride of place on a wall in the Dublin City Gallery .

But in October, Renoir's umbrellas will be folded up and to the London's . Les Parapluies is one of 39 French paintings left to the London gallery in the will of the irish art dealer and collector Sir Hugh Lane.

Controversially, Hugh Lane changed his mind and wrote out a codicil, or amendment, to his will shortly before his death in 1915 in which he bequeathed the 39 paintings to Dublin. Unfortunately for Dublin, he failed to have the codicil witnessed, and subsequently made a fateful journey to New York on the Lusitania. When the Lusitania was sunk by a German u-boat in 1915, Lane's body was never recovered from the seas off the coast of county Cork. Dublin's claim to the remarkable collection of paintings sank with the Lusitania. Or did it? After his death, Lane's aunt, Lady Gregory, led a campaign to defend the moral right of Dublin to own and display the paintings, notwithstanding the legal status of the bequest.

Ninety-three years after Lane's death, is it time for the paintings to be permanently returned to Dublin? Tonight, I'll be examining the case of Hugh Lane's 'missing' paintings in 'The Great Irish Art Controversy' (´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3, 8.25 pm, produced by Marie-Claire Doris).

The leader of Ireland's Catholics says he is in broad agreement with the DUP MP Iris Robinson, who claimed last week that it was the duty of government to 'uphold God's law'. Cardinal Sean Brady told me, on today's Sunday Sequence, that the precise details of the claim would need to be explored and the role of government is always to work for the common good of its people, but he was in general agreement with the MP's claim. He was speaking live from Sydney, Australia, where he has been taking part in World Youth Day celebrations.

Philip Orr has published a new study for the exploring the relationship between the churches and working class communities in Northern Ireland, which has prompted me to reflect a little about the relationship between churches and class more generally. Philip will join me on Sunday morning to talk about his research, in conversation with s, former editor of Marxism Today and now a Guardian columnist, and Dawn Purvis, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party, which is strongly rooted in Protestant working class Belfast. Some issues I am interested in exploring: Is Christianity a middle class phenomenon in Britain and Ireland? How is working class Christianity different to middle class christianity? What are the social forces at play in going to church? How does a born-again religious conversion impact upon the social class behaviour of converts? What about our church denominations -- how are they implicated in terms of class dynamics and identities? What about ethical questions? Does a person's social class shape their response to ethical issues? And what about beyond these shores? Remember Barack Obama's controversially loose language over mid-west religion: "They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

We'll also have live reports from World Youth Day in Sydney, where Pope Benedict has been greeted by tens of thousands of young Catholics and has offered an apology, on behalf of his church, for the crimes committed by some priests in hundreds of child sexual abuse cases across Australia and the rest the world.

Contrary to this online news report, I have to make it clear that I will not be running for the presidency of the United States. Barack Obama and John McCain can rest easily in their beds tonight.

Finlay Holmes, who died earlier this week at the age of 81, following a long illness, was one of the leading authorities on Irish Presbyterianism. He was also a complete gentleman. I last spoke with Finlay a few months ago in the Great Hall at Queen's University, after an event I'd chaired. The discussion event had included references to 1798 and the United Irishmen -- a subject about which Finlay could speak with great passion -- and over coffee he was provoked into a very engaging conversation about politics, theology and the hidden histories of Irish Presbyterianism.

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I've been away for a few days and have returned to find the MP Iris Robinson in the news again. This time, Mrs Robinson phoned into the Stephen Nolan Show to defend a fellow pro-life campaigner, then found herself making comments about the role of the Bible in respect of government. Specifically, she called on 'government to implement God's Law'. This comment soon made the headlines, with some politicians suggesting that Mrs Robinson needs to take a break from phone-in shows for a few months. As someone who sometimes presents phone-in shows, that's not a view I would advance myself.

Let's tease out what Mrs Robinson might mean by her controversial comment. Iris Robinson is a Christian and her faith is not merely a hobby; it shapes her worldview and informs her conscience. She believes that God is interested in every aspect of a person's life and every feature of our society; and she believes the best way to legislate in the best interests of everyone is to implement the law of God. One can read the term 'law of God' in two different ways. Broadly, this phrase might simply mean 'the will of God'. It is, of course, sometimes difficult for Christians to ascertain the will of God on any particular subject, and Christians disagree with each other about God's will in respect of just about every moral and political issue facing us today. They all agree -- as Christians, how could they not? -- that following God's will is vital; but they can't agree on what God's actual will is when it comes to issues. Thus, Christians are divided over the war in iraq, abortion, 42-day detention, gay marriage -- even line-dancing.

Perhaps Mrs Robinson is proposing a narrower definition of 'God's law', meaning that we should simply implement the specific laws laid down in the Old and New Testaments. Some of those laws are clearly sensible, and for that reason they have informed many of the world's functioning legal systems. Many of the Ten Commandments, for example, are upheld, in one way or another, in the legal frameworks of many countries. Who would disagree with a commandment prohibiting murder (i.e., unjustified killing), for example? Nevertheless, other biblical laws and commandments seem, to many, to reflect the values and issues of the ancient world; so much so that they have little or no resonance today. Some Old Testament laws -- about diets and mixing fabrics, for example -- are part of the 'holiness code' which defined tribal identity within the ancient world. The application of laws about sabbath-keeping continue to divide both Christians and Jews, and seem irrelevant to many others. Then there are laws that reflect values that are alien, or reprehensible, to many today -- laws, for example, permitting parents to kill their children if they repeatedly misbehave. It seems clear that the legal codes of the Old Testament represent a work-in-progress: the development, across time, of a systemic response to the issues facing an community in the ancient world. Does Mrs Robinson think we should simply implement all of those laws in our society today?

There are some who argue for the narrow definition of 'God's Law' -- which would mean, for example, re- criminalising adultery and sending the 'guilty partner' to prison (or worse). The movement of '' (the term means, literally, 'God's laws') became quite vocal in the 1980s in the United States. Sometimes called 'Christian Reconstructionism', the movement called for the reinstatement of divine law at the centre of the legislative process (with suitable adjustments for the modern world). This approach to law-making was adopted by many newly-Protestant countries and communes during the Reformation. Is Mrs Robinson a theonomist? I would like to explore some of those questions with her at some point. We will be examining the issues in detail on Sunday morning's programme.

Bradley LaShawn Fowler, a gay man living in Michigan, i because, he says, their published translations of the Bible have caused him 'mental distress'. Mr Fowler is seeking $70m in damages from Zondervan Publishing Co. and Thomas Nelson Publishing. He claims that these companies have deliberately caused gay people to suffer by misinterpretation of the Bible. The key misinterpretation he points to is 1 Corinthians 6:9, where the word 'homosexual' is used in translations published by the companies as part of a list of 'wicked' people who will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.

The New International Version of the Bible (published by Zondervan) renders 1 Cor 6:9 as follows: "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders"

The term 'homosexual' was coined in the late 19th century, so some may ask whether it is an appropriate term to use in rendering the Greek word arsenokoites in this passage. Certainly, when I studied Greek, my professors challenged this translation and suggested that the Greek term relats to male prostitution rather than same-sex relationships in general. (See for some analysis of the relevant Greek terms.)

The New King James Version (published by Thomas Nelson) has an even blunter rendition of the verse: "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites .. ". I suppose the NIV translators added the term 'offenders' after the word 'homosexual' to modify the implied criticism in the text (with a reading that may suggest that not all 'homosexuals' are 'offenders'). But the NKJV offers no such modification. Instead, it gives a footnote on the word translated 'homosexual' referring the reader to the word 'catamite' (i.e., the younger partner in a pederastic relationship). One might ask, if they mean 'catamite', why don't they say 'catamite' in the main translation?

In any case, the parsing of these distinctions is usually left to Greek scholars, who engage in heated academic debate about how best to capture the meaning of the original text. Let's see what a judge in Michigan makes of it all.

A leading Church of Ireland bishop told the Sunday Sequence programme this morning that he may refuse to attend services of Holy Communion at the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops, which begins on Wednesday. The Rt Revd Harold Miller, Bishop of Down and Dromore, and a well-known evanglical leader within Ireland's Anglican church, said he 'had to think long and hard' before deciding to attend this year's Lambeth gathering. Bishop Miller said the Archbishop of Canterbury's decision to invite the consecrators of Bishop Gene Robinson, in 2003, was a mistake. A lot of money, he said, is being spent on the Lambeth Conference in an effort to 'keep the show on the road'.

Bishop Miller also described by the Welsh primate, Archbishop Barry Morgan -- in which the primate stated that he would have no theological objection to consecrating as a bishop a gay priest who was in a faithful same-sex relationship -- as 'unhelpful'.

A moral question raised by a : Should a public official be free to refuse a public service to a member of the public because he or she disagrees with that person's moral or religious choices? Extend the question to individual examples. Would a registrar of marriages have the freedom to refuse to officiate at a civil marriage between a Protestant and a Catholic on the basis that the registrar holds the personal religious view that Protestants and Catholics should not marry each other? Would a registrar have the freedom to refuse to officiate at the marriage of a Christian and a Hindu because he or she opposes interfaith marriage?

Read the triubunal's judgment in full .

The morning after e ... we're still trying to work out what the Church of England's code of practice will mean for those conservative clerics who oppose the ordination of women to the episcopate. There were in York when the General Synod took the historic decision to permit the consecration of female bishops. But shortly afterwards, it became apparent that the vote was only half the battle; hard work is still to be done in developing a code of practice that makes space for traditionalist opponents of women bishops without the 'structural humiliation' (as Rowan Williams put it) of those women who are nominated for consecration. In other words, the code of practice cannot leave women bishops feeling like second class bishops, and it can't force out those who reject their nomination to the house of bishops. That's going to be an interesting document. If the legislative drafters succeed in producing such a code, the UN should enlist them to write peace agreements in conflict zones across the world.

The first draft of the new code is to be tabled in time for the Synod's meeting in February 2009. Here's a . And here's a

A Church of Ireland priest has described Archbishop Alan Harper (pictured), the leader of his church, as a 'false teacher', following a speech by the archbishop which raised the possibility that emerging scientific knowledge may lead the church to change its traditional teaching on homosexuality. The Reverend Canon Clive West, formerly rector of All Saints', Belfast, and a former chairman of the Evangelical Fellowship of Irish Clergy, said today on Sunday Sequence that Archbishop Harper 'is speaking for himself, not for the church'.

In a heated exchange with the Reverend , director of spiritual formation at the Church of Ireland Theological College in Dublin, Canon West challenged his church leader's authority to teach following his comments on homosexuality. Here's an excerpt from our live discussion (listen in full here).

Clive West: He's a bishop -- he's a guardian of the faith. But the question is, is he guarding the faith or is he a false teacher?

William Crawley: What do you think?

Clive West: I think he's a false teacher.

Patrick Comerford: Well I think that's a disgraceful comment from you Clive, I really do ...

Clive West: It's not a disgraceful comment ...

Patrick Comerford: ... coming from a priest in the Church of Ireland.

Clive West: We are asked to search the Scriptures and Paul praised people who searched the Scriptures. And if Archbishop Harper is at variance with Scripture, then I don't follow Archbishop Harper ... I'm not in communion with him.

Patrick Comerford: He's not at variance with Scripture. He's actually asking the questions that need to be asked and asking them in charity. [ . . . ] There's no point in being a member of an episcopal church when you don't appreciate the role of the bishops, including the archbishop, in guiding us through a debate like this and helping us -- and that sort of language is not helpful as we try to approach this with a reasonable and rational and charitable approach. To use that language about the archbishop when we're trying to have a reasonable and a rational approach only actually ups the temperature and ups the scale of debate in a way that is unfair on people who are actually trying to guide the church through this.

Clive West: Well I don't think he's guiding the church. You guide the church when you guide the church back to scripture.

William Crawley: Clive, do you believe there are many clergy who would agree with you that your archbishop, your primate, is a false teacher?

Clive West: I think quite a lot would. It gives me no joy to say that. But I do believe if we search the scripture -- John, for example, in Second and Third John, praises the people for not welcoming certain false teachers into their congregation, and Paul again praised the people at Berea because they searched the scriptures daily to see if his teaching was correct. So we are at liberty to search the scriptures and see if Archbishop Harper's teaching is correct.

William Crawley: What we have here, in this speech, Clive, is a very carefully thought-through argument, drawing on 16th century Anglican theology, and building a case for the use of science and reason in how we view the scriptures and how we interpret the Bible. You would grant that Archbishop Harper is engaging in that kind of mature discussion with sincerity, wouldn't you?

Clive West: I think he is using Hooker ... to support his interpretation of Romans 1. But Hooker was very strong on tradition as well -- the tradition of the church. And you will know that the Bishop of Rochester is not going to Lambeth because some of the teaching that's around today is not in accordance with the teaching that's been around for two thousand years.

We'll be discussing Archbishop Alan Harper's comments about biblical hermeneutics and the theology of Richard Hooker on tomorrow's Sunday Sequence programme. Archbishop Harper has argued that his church will need to revise its traditional teaching about homosexuality if new scientific evidence reveals that homosexuality is a "natural" aspect of a person's identity. The primate does not explain what he means by "natural", but we may assume that he is referring to studies suggesting genetic, hormonal, brain-structural or other physical bases for homosexuality. Many gay campaigners will receive Alan Harper's comments as a progressive move towards the acceptance of same-sex relationships. But not all.

I am not aware of any direct response, as yet, to the archbishop's speech by the human rights campaigner -- who, incidentally, will be visiting Belfast this month to deliver the . But Peter Tatchell challenges both the claim that homosexuality is a 'lifestyle choice' ('[N]o one sits down one day and chooses to be gay (or straight). Sexual orientation is not a choice like choosing which biscuits to buy in a supermarket. We don't have free will concerning the determination of our sexual orientation.'), and the idea that homosexuality is only acceptable if it is shown to be (in some sense) 'natural'. Read his argument in .

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Alan Harper, the Anglican primate of All-Ireland, in the Anglican Communion's theological battle over homosexuality. Archbishop Harper argues that the Apostle Paul's description of homosexual relationships as "unnatural" may be challenged by emerging new scientific evidence, and the church would then need to accept that St Paul got it wrong about homosexuality.

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If Gafcon is, as some have said, a kind of alternative Lambeth Conference, then the figure of is emerging as a king of alternative Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop of Sydney may be a more palatable leader of the new 'Confessing Churches' than the Nigerian primate Peter Akinola. He is clearly a formidable ecclesiastical player, described by one Australian religious commentator as 'a very astute, very intelligent and able man. He is almost worshipped - what he wants he gets'.

The Archbishop is a committed moderniser in some respects -- he prefers to preach in a shirt and tie (or tie-less shirt) rather than a clerical collar, and has one of the most impressive websites of any church figure I am aware of -- but in other respects (mainly theological) he is a conservationist. The author describes him as a key player in the development of a 'new Puritanism' within Anglicanism.

While we're reporting on each new battle in the Anglican Communion's global theological war over homosexuality, it's worth noting a landmark decision taken this past weekend by America's largest Presbyterian denomination. The Presbyterian Church (USA) has voted to overturn an historic ban on the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy. The General Assembly of , meeting in San Jose, California, voted to which excluded non-celibate gay clergy from ordination to the clergy and eldership.

Last month, a PC(USA) minister in California, shortly after gay marriage became legal in that state. But the General Assembly stopped short of altering its definition of marriage, calling it a "covenant between a woman and a man." within the denomination have applauded the General Assembly for its 'prophetic witness' in opening the door 'to the gifts and callings of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer members by removing its institutional barriers to ordination.'

The Presbyterian Church (USA), which now has a membership of some 2.3 million people, was founded in 1706 by , a missionary minister from the north of Ireland, and is a sister church of the .

The words of a very angry Bishop of Durham. Tom Wright is the most distinguished evangelical biblical scholar in the Church of England, a former academic theologian who worked alongside Rowan Williams in Oxford University's theology faculty, and a bestselling author. He says he finds the proposed new structures emerging from the Gafcon conference as ''. Listen to his response to Gafcon, .

, the Welsh culture minister (and former clergyman) who announced the wrong winner of the Wales Book of the Year Award -- to the great embarrassment of the novelist Tom Bullough -- is to return to the awards circuit this weekend. On Saturday night, he will announce the winners of the British One Act Play Awards in Swansea. Oh dear. The words of the Bard come to mind:

O, I have passed a miserable night,
So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams,
That, as I am a Christian faithful man,
I would not spend another such a night,
Though 't were to buy a world of happy days.

[Richard III, Act 1, Scene 4]

The journalist Christopher Hitchens -- and famed supporter of the war in Iraq -- has subjected himself to an experience of "", which has been . Although there is consensus amongst the international human rights community that waterboarding is a form of torture, some leading American politicians and lawyers have argued that this technique falls short of full-blown torture. Christopher Hitchens's first-person experience of the "softening-up" technique that has been used by the CIA in interrogations has left him in no doubt. He concludes his report: 'I apply the Abraham Lincoln test for moral casuistry: "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong." Well, then, if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.'

This must stand as one of the most embarrassing moments in the history of awards ceremonies -- anywhere. Last night, the Welsh Culture Minister, , somehow managed to announce the wrong winner of the before correctly naming Dannie Abse's The Presence as the actual winner. The novelist Tom Bullough, initially named as the winner for his book , suffered an unimaginably excruciating experience which he has described in his blog as "". Not that he has anything to feel embarrassed about: by all accounts he has written a superb novel. In fact, I am going out tomorrow to buy a copy of The Claude Glass.

Watch, if you dare, the entire sorry episode and (from a different angle) . The Welsh culture minister, in a painful effort to maintain the dignity of the moment, looks like he's reading one of Steve Coogan's scripts for "I'm Alan Partridge". It's all too awful.