Blogging and the voice of the Church
Someone recently tweeted that this blog should close down because people mistake it for a legitimate voice of the Church, and so it conveys a spiritual falsehood by sustaining a…
Religious authority
Jonathan Fletcher presents the Church of England with a crisis of integrity
On Boxing Day the nation was entertained on a bi-partisan basis by the tragi-comic story of Jolyon Maugham QC and his vulpine intruder. It will take some of us a few more Christmas drinks to erase completely the image of…
Clergy sexual abuse: why can’t the Church cleanse its own temple?
"The gross evil of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy would have gone unexposed had it not been for three principal agencies, all secular." That's the damning opening sentence of…
Theologian John Milbank advocates violence to stop Brexit
The founder of Radical Orthodoxy has imparted his most radically unorthodox revelation yet. Professor John Milbank of Nottingham University is of the view that Brexit must be stopped "by almost…
Church of England guidance used against Christian in court
There's something ever so slightly disquieting about this, but not for the reasons permeating the websites and chat-threads of Evangelical Christendom. Dr David Mackereth, who said in a Department of…
There is no such thing as ‘spiritual abuse’
Another abuse scandal has broken out in the the Church of England, and it is once again facing the responsibility as to how best to respond. Most sexual abuse is…
What bishop would tell a vicar: ‘You’re no longer welcome in the Church of England’?
It made the pages of the Daily Mail, so it's serious: 'Vicar resigns after being 'silenced' over a Church of England school's plan to keep an eight-year-old pupil's sex change…
Pope Francis: God willed the Reformation and the Church of England
Pope Francis went to Abu Dhabi this week to meet the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, which is good and pleasant. No doubt the Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church…
Why, when church attendance is falling, is cathedral attendance soaring?
An email was delivered to Cranmer's Tower at 11.15am on Tuesday of this week. It was headed: 'Record numbers attend cathedrals at Christmas', followed by a very red, upper-case warning:…
Death penalty: Pope Francis hasn’t changed the teaching; he just ‘developed doctrine’
One of the more curious aspects of Roman Catholic apologetics is its inability to answer certain specific questions to which it should have ready answers: 1. What is the content…
CofE: ‘Come and confess your sins, but we might have to report you to the police’
It their guidelines for Safeguarding Children and Young Adults from Harm, the Diocese of Canterbury has apparently abolished the Seal of the Confessional. No longer may the penitent sinner confess…
In Holy Week we should hold our Archbishops’ feet to the fire
Many years ago during the course of a philosophical discussion, an old writer friend of mine offered me one of the most simple yet incisive observations on the human condition.…
Anglican clergy to undergo psychological profiling to weed out prophets
Graham Tilby, National Safeguarding Adviser for the Church of England, gave evidence yesterday to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). When asked about how the Church of England…
The Church of England is a compromised and compromising church – thank God!
As we await the appointment of the next Bishop of London, some are limbering up for the next round of culture wars within the Church of England. In a 'warning'…
Reformation 500: we are all Protestants now
‘Reformation’ is an awkward word; so, of course, is ‘Protestant’. Both terms convey a sense of theological unity or ecclesial uniformity wrapped in a righteous evangelical zeal, when, in fact,…
The two opposed expressions of Anglicanism
There is a letter published in today's Telegraph signed by 23 conservative (/traditionalists/orthodox) Anglicans concerning the tensions in the Church over England (and wider Anglicanism) over same-sex marriage and other…
Child abuse in the Church of England: hypocrisy, inconsistency and ongoing cover-up
Child abuse is a seriously distressing matter. The violation, confusion, fear, self-loathing, guilt, depression... suicidal thoughts. It can take years and decades to come to terms with the misery and…
Welby says Islamism is everything to do with Islam, and Muslim leaders must take responsibility
The Archbishop of Canterbury has boldly gone where other other religious leaders fear to tread, and politicians daren't hardly ever go. Cutting straight across the liturgical denials of those who…
Justin Welby is not a heretic, he’s a very faithful Anglican
In the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Westminster there is a list of Archbishops of Canterbury which chronicles the centuries of communion between the popes of Rome and the chief pastors…
Peace on earth and good will to all men – except the sacked bell-ringers of York Minster
"The bells! The bells!" cried Quasimodo, the hunchbacked bell-ringer of Notre-Dame de Paris in Victor Hugo's quasi-fictional novel. He might have been sounding a prophetic child-safeguarding warning to the Church…