Archbishop Opposes Assisted Suicide: The Archbishop of Canterbury has spoken against assisted suicide ahead of Parliament’s debate on Sept. 11. Writing in The Observer, Archbishop Justin Welby said that allowing assisted suicide “would cross a fundamental legal and ethical Rubicon. This respect for the lives of others goes to the heart of both our criminal and human rights laws.” He joined 25 Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh leaders in writing to Parliament members to urge rejection of the bill.
Second Woman Diocesan: A woman who retired in November 2012 has been named as Bishop of Newcastle. The Ven. Christine Hardman, 64, is the second woman to become a diocesan bishop in the Church of England. She will be fast-tracked to membership in the House of Lords alongside the Rt. Rev. Rachel Treweek, Bishop of Gloucester. Highly experienced, she gave long service as a General Synod member and is considered “a safe pair of hands.”
New Primate for South East Asia: The Anglican Province of South East Asia has a new primate. Province leaders elected the Rt. Rev. Datuk Ng Moon Hing, Bishop of West Malaysia, on Sept. 2. He will be the fifth archbishop to serve the province, and his term runs to 2020. Moon Hing is highly regarded for his pioneering mission work in village communities in remote parts of Malaya. He succeeds the Most Rev. Bolly Lapok.
Secretary General Commissioned: The Most Rev. Josiah Atkins Idowu-Fearon was commissioned as Secretary General of the Anglican Communion Office on Sept. 4. Idowu-Fearon is the fifth person and the first African to hold the office. After the commissioning, he attended his first meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council’s standing committee. The four-day meeting covered a wide agenda, including a report that Peru wishes to become an Anglican province in its own right. A search process has failed to date to find a director of communications to succeed Jan Butter. The standing committee received a report from the Lambeth Conference Company, which administers the decennial conference, but without any hint whether there are plans for such a conference in this decade.
