The Equality Bill 2008-2009, which will extend both to England and Wales, and to Scotland, covers age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. It also requires public authorities to do more to tackle the effects of socio-economic disadvantage. The Bill has received a hostile response among some religious groups, while the response of the large churches (including the Church of England) has been to welcome its principal aims while contesting aspects of its detail - particularly in terms of lobbying for opt-outs and provisions which would allow continued discrimination on grounds of sexuality and gender by faith bodies on grounds of 'upholding beliefs'. In this paper, Savitri Hensman assesses the issues and suggests that the churches need to move forward positively, on theological and practical grounds, in affirming comprehensive equalities in the public sphere. She also tackles the harm that discrimination and inequality causes, not least to the most vulnerable and those suffering prejudice.

The global media are largely interpreting the current fissures within the worldwide Anglican Communion as a struggle between ‘traditionalists’ and ‘revisionists’, ‘conservatives’ and ‘liberals’, ‘evangelicals’ and modernists’. In this thoughtful paper, Savitri Hensman shows that these are unhelpful caricatures, and that what is at stake is something far larger than an argument within one denomination. It is about the nature of Christianity in a fast-changing contemporary world, the dangers of simplistic readings of the Bible, the historic threat of authoritarianism, the challenge of human rights, and the tension between the establishment instincts of many Christians institutions and its radical, transformative roots in the life-changing story and flesh of Jesus. This reading of the situation within Anglicanism and in a broader context will assist commentators, researchers, journalists, concerned observers of many stances, and all who are interested in how the relationship between religion and society is changing after Christendom. The paper complements the author’s contributions to the new book Fear or Freedom? Why a warring church must change, edited by Simon Barrow (Shoving Leopard / Ekklesia, 2008) – available in the UK from Metanoia Book Service, and elsewhere via Amazon.

The full document is available as a *.PDF (Adobe Acrobat) file here:

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/files/newanglicanism.pdf

As part of the 'listening process' in the Anglican Communion over the extensive disagreements about human sexuality, Ekklesia associate Savitri Hensman has prepared a paper on Learning, Listening, Scripture and Sexuality which seeks both to take the conversation forward and to affirm the role of lesbian and gay Christians as active and baptised members in the church, in accordance with a faithful and interpretatively sensitive reading of its the texts and tradition.

In the global intra-Anglican 'wars' about sexuality, biblical interpretation, authority and church polity, The Episcopal Church (TEC) in the USA has been singled out from other Anglican provinces and subjected to harsh criticism and threats of expulsion. Why is this? What are the underlying issues about the use of Scripture and other questions which explain why TEC is such a bone of contention? Can Christians learn to handle differences in more creative ways which honour the life-giving Gospel message they are supposed to exemplify?

You can read a new report and analysis from Ekklesia associate Savitri Hensman in *.PDF form here

A nine point summary is given below.

Due for publication in March 2007, following the Church of England's General Synod and the Anglican Primates' meeting in Tanzania, this report - produced in partnership with Inclusive Church - will look at claims being made by groupings within the institution about who they represent and which sections of the church are growing. It will look at how 'the numers game' is played, to what effect, and will suggest alternative trajectories beyond the current 'stand off' in global Anglicanism. [With Simon Barrow]