Latimer Director of Research, Gerald Bray, has made a number of visits to speak to people training for the ministry around Latin America. He has made us aware of the lack of good written material available to such people.

Some of Gerald's own work has recently been published in Portuguese and Spanish (‘Teu e o Reino’: Yours is the Kingdom – in Portuguese, ISBN 978-85-88315-86-0 (Shedd publications) and ‘La Doctrina de Dios’: The Doctrine of God – in Spanish, ISBN 978-8492-836-43-7 CEEB/Andamio (Biblioteca Jose M Martinee) www.publicacionesandamio.com

The Latimer Trust has also embarked on a translating some of our publications into Spanish, and we hope these may be available before the end of the year.

Latimer Trustee, Donald Allister, has been announced as the new Bishop of Peterborough

Donald Allister has been a Trustee of the Latimer Trust since its inception in 2000, and was involved in its predecessor, Latimer House in Oxford. He wrote Latimer Study 11 on Sickness & Healing in the Church.

The following is the press release issued by the Diocese of Peterborough on Thursday 5th November 2009.

New Bishop of Peterborough announced

The next Bishop of Peterborough is to be the Ven. Donald Allister, currently Archdeacon of Chester. He succeeds the Rt Revd Ian Cundy, who died in May. He expects to take up his new post in the early spring of 2010 and comes with the express hope that he can help to build people’s confidence in their faith, and to unite all Christians around their love for Jesus Christ.

Donald Allister (57) has wide experience of the Church of England. He was a choirboy and server in central and anglo-catholic parishes before ordination, and has served in evangelical parishes in both the north-west and the south-east, where he saw considerable numerical and structural growth.

He is the Bishop of Chester’s adviser on healthcare chaplaincy, chair of Chester’s Houses and Glebe Committee, vice/acting chair of the Board of Education and DAC, and a member of General Synod and of the Council for Christian Unity.

Archdeacon Donald says he was neither seeking nor expecting such an appointment. His first task, he says, will be to get around the diocese and to reflect with clergy and church members on how we may move forward together.

“I look forward to hearing from clergy and lay leaders what’s going on in their areas and the needs and opportunities of the Church,” he says. “I am strongly committed to the pastoral care of the clergy, and to sharing that with my colleagues on the senior staff and with rural deans. I have had a particular role in looking after rural clergy and dealing with rural issues, as well as having had personal experience of working in urban areas.”

Supporting the ordination of women (having once opposed the practice), he remains deeply concerned for the proper provision of those who object to women priests and bishops, believing strongly in maintaining the unity of the Church of England.

“I want to be a bishop for the whole diocese and for everyone in it,” he says. “I do sometimes disagree with fellow Christians but all my instincts are to disagree in love and to remain or become united.”

The Dean of Peterborough Cathedral, the Very Revd Charles Taylor, said “I very much look forward to welcoming, installing and working closely with Donald Allister. He has a great loyalty and love for the Church in all its diversity, a breadth of pastoral and administrative experience, a heart for mission and a care for the community. His track record reveals a man who, while firm and confident in his faith, has not clung to fixed positions but shown himself willing to travel with others. He will, I am sure, be a bishop for the whole diocese, for people of faith and people of none.”

The Bishop of Brixworth, the Rt Revd Frank White, who has been acting diocesan bishop since the illness and death of Bishop Ian, also welcomed the news. “I am honoured to welcome Archdeacon Donald as he becomes our bishop,” he said. “As the leader of the diocese he will bring fresh ideas and new energy helping us all live more hopefully in a world which needs God’s healing love. He will draw on his wide experience as an archdeacon, an excellent foundation for the more public role of the Bishop. As his colleagues in the diocese we look forward to welcoming him and his family to the area.”

Donald Allister is married to Janice, a GP, and they have three grown up children. A full biography of him detailing his experience and his views is now available on the diocesan web site: www.peterborough-diocese.org.uk/people/donaldalister.htm

Archdeacon Donald is in the diocese today (Thursday) and tomorrow, meeting a number of people. The dates of his consecration as a bishop (which will take place in London) and his installation in Peterborough are yet to be decided.

Audio interview with Gerald Bray

At the beginning of December, Gerald was interviewed by Todd Wilken on www.issuesetc.org, and among the issues discussed was the Pope's invitation to Anglican clergy. You can listen to the podcast here (10.6MB)

You can read the introduction to his recent book, The Faith We Confess: An Exposition of the 39 Articles.

***The process closed at the end of February for 2010 grants***

The Latimer Trust has grants of up to £2000 available to those wishing to engage in research. For full details, see Grants page.

Following the successful integration with the Reform Conference the past couple of years, the 2010 St Antholin lecture is planned for 19th October, when David Holloway will be the speaker.

The 2009 St Antholin Lecture also took place at High Leigh Conference Centre, Hoddesden, when Andrew Atherstone's subject was "Evangelical Mission and Anglican Church Order: Charles Simeon Reconsidered"

Printed copies of the lecture are available via our web site; price £2.00

"Stimulating and well researched" - characteristic of Andrew Atherston's writing, in Evangelical Mission and Anglican Church Order - Charles Simeon Reconsidered, as reviewed in Evangelicals Now - February 2010

To read more about this book or purchase on-line, go to SA2009: Evangelical Mission and Anglican Church Order - Charles Simeon Reconsidered by Andrew Atherstone

"Timely" - that is the word used of Andrew Atherston's Latimer Study, An Anglican Evangelical Identity Crisis, as reviewed in Evangelicals Now - August 2009

To read more about this book or purchase on-line, go to LS70: An Anglican Evangelical Identity Crisis by Andrew Atherstone

'The Anglican Church is divided, but not fatally' - The Telegraph - 19 June 2008

'Anglican Schism declared over homosexuality' - The Telegraph - 19 June 2008

'Hardline Archbishops declare Anglican split' - The Telegraph - 18 June 2008

To read more about this book, go to "The Heart of Faith" Edited by Vinay Samuel, Chris Sugden and Sarah Finch

"A must-have book" - that is the description of the Latimer publication, God, Gays and the Church, as reviewed in British Church Newspaper - April 2008

To read more about this book or purchase on-line, go to "God, Gays & the Church" Edited by Lisa Nolland, Chris Sugden and Sarah Finch

"Intellectual workout" - that is the description of Ben Cooper's Latimer Study, Must God Punish Sin?, as reviewed in Evangelicals Now - January 2007

To read more about this book or purchase on-line, go to LS62: "Must God Punish Sin?" by Ben Cooper

Revd. Dr. Gerald Bray is Director of Research for the Latimer Trust, with a specific brief of mentoring theologians, writing, and taking on speaking engagements, to encourage Christians to stand up for Biblical truth in church, work, and theology.

He has featured in the press recently:

At the beginning of December 2009, Gerald was interviewed by Todd Wilken on www.issuesetc.org, and among the issues discussed was the Pope's invitation to Anglican clergy. You can listen to the podcast here (10.6MB)

- see The Irish News article of October 12th 2006

and Day Star Magazine article October 2006

Dr Bray has an impressive track record which fits him well for these tasks. He came to us from Beeson Divinity School, Samford University, Alabama, where he taught church history and historical theology from 1993-2006. Prior to this, he served as lecturer in theology and philosophy at Oak Hill College in London and was visiting fellow at General Theological Seminary in New York. A prolific author, Bray has published numerous scholarly articles in addition to several books and commentaries.

He is an ordained minister in the Church of England, and is based in his Cambridge home.

He has long been an active member of the Trust’s Theological Work Group which steers the publications programme.

Being Faithful - the Shape of Historical Anglicanism Today by the GAFCON Theological Resource Group.

This is a commentary on the Jerusalem Declaration, and includes the full text of the Theological work papers prepared for the GAFCON conference formerly published as 'The Way, the Truth and the Life'.

Church Order and Gospel Priorities: lessons from Charles Simeon by Andrew Atherstone.

This study puts Simeon’s attitude to church order under renewed scrutiny. It argues that his approach to Anglican regulations was far more subversive than has previously been assumed. It shows how he challenged the Anglican status quo by his involvement in irregular preaching, illegal meetings, voluntary associations and the quasi-episcopal deployment of clergy. It concludes that Simeon’s attitude to order was one of expediency and present needs. By his actions he demonstrated that gospel ministry always takes priority over the rules of the church.

LS70 An Anglican Evangelical Identity Crisis - The Churchman - Anvil Affair of 1981-1984 by Andrew Atherstone.

The Churchman – Anvil affair of 1981-84 is a cause célèbre in the recent history of the Anglican evangelical movement.

For more than a century, Churchman (founded in 1879) had been the leading scholarly journal amongst evangelicals in the Church of England. Then the journal’s owners, Church Society, sacked the editorial board and replaced them with a new team. In response, the sacked board and their friends went on to pioneer a new rival journal, Anvil (launched in 1984). These traumatic and polarizing events were of great significance for the development of the Anglican evangelical movement in the decades after the Keele Congress, yet they remain shrouded in myth.

Using previously unstudied archival material and newspaper correspondence, this booklet explores the historical background to the dispute for the first time. It sheds light on the theological and ecclesial issues at stake, which continue to dominate Anglican evangelical discourse today.

Andrew Atherstone is tutor in history and doctrine, and Latimer research fellow, at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. His main area of research is Anglican evangelical identity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

His publications include Oxford’s Protestant Spy: The Controversial Career of Charles Golightly (Paternoster, 2007), The Martyrs of Mary Tudor (Day One, second edition 2007), and Oxford: City of Saints, Scholars and Dreaming Spires (Day One, 2008). He is also editor of The Heart of Faith: Following Christ in the Church of England (Lutterworth, 2008) and Such A Great Salvation: The Collected Essays of Alan Stibbs (Mentor, 2008).