St Paul

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Charlottesville: white supremacists are fundamentally anti-American and anti-Christian

Charlottesville has gone downhill a bit since The Waltons: the town where John Boy negotiated his first bank loan, Jim-Bob learned about his dead twin brother, and grandma and grandpa once got stranded in a snowstorm, has become a place…

Prison chaplains may no longer convict offenders of sin: preaching must be ‘sensitive’

August 2, 2017
358 Comments

Remember the case of the Rev'd Barry Trayhorn, the 'tent-maker' (gardener) volunteer prison chaplain at HMP Littlehey in Cambridgeshire? Being an ordained minister in the Pentecostal Church, he quoted Scripture…

‘Dear Patrick…’ Words of comfort for clergy who feel forsaken by mutual flourishing

May 5, 2017
163 Comments

Returning to the Church of England's gender wars and sexuality skirmishes (which never really went away), the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, who advocates righteous discrimination against traditionalists who discriminate…

Good Friday: the death of the Messiah

April 14, 2017
330 Comments

'Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ' (Acts 2:36). 'Jesus died the death…

Discrimination and discernment: an exercise in relativist supremacy

March 13, 2017
313 Comments

This is a guest post by the Rev’d Dr Gavin Ashenden, former Chaplain to the Queen. ___________________________ In the great amphitheatre of Twitter a gladiatorial combat recently took place between…

Is cohabitation still a sin, or is it an embryonic marriage with proof of love?

February 20, 2017
364 Comments

There are many who will guffaw at this very question: how absurdly old fashioned, not to say narrow-minded and bigoted of Christians to shame/alienate/offend lovely couples whose commitment to one…

The Church of England should not tear itself apart over homosexuality and same-sex marriage

February 14, 2017
896 Comments

The General Synod of the Church of England is due to 'take note' (or not) of the Bishops' report ‘Marriage and Same Sex Relationships after the Shared Conversations.’ In the…

Shared conversations: some came to seek truth; others to conquer. Why can’t we just be kind?

February 5, 2017
584 Comments

Commenting on the Bishops' statement Marriage and Same Sex Relationships after the Shared Conversations ("a gamma minus piece of drafting if ever there was one"), Canon Professor Mark Chapman prophesies…

Ashers Bakery ‘gay cake’ appeal judgment: 11% of Evangelical Christians haven’t got a clue about religious liberty

October 24, 2016
660 Comments

It was very tempting to go with the affirmatory '89% of Evangelical Christians support freedom of religion', which would have been the wholesome, encouraging, Christian thing to do, right? But…

Same-sex marriage/blessing confronts Church of England with "a structural flaw of fatal proportions"

August 30, 2016
192 Comments

We have reached Chapter 5 in the great Anglican sexuality saga: 'Church of England parishes consider first step to break away over sexuality'. It isn't clear what the dénouement…

Brexit, the Bible and democracy: the judgment of God is the voice of the people

June 27, 2016
198 Comments

As the dust settles... Perhaps that's a premature denouement. As the winds of Brexit crack their cheeks throughout Europe, and the refiner's fire purges the political parties – if…

Giles Fraser backs Brexit – and the liberal elite sneer at him for it

May 11, 2016
364 Comments

The Rev'd Dr Giles Fraser is one of the very few Church of England clergy who has publicly declared that he wants the UK to leave the EU. It…

TGI Monday: Near-death experiences and the mystery of the mind

March 14, 2016
209 Comments

Are near-death experiences just the mind "losing the plot" and "going a bit weird"? What is consciousness? How do we explain the thousands of out-of-body testimonials throughout all ages…

Does God still raise up prophets?

January 31, 2016
334 Comments

Prophecy is the most frequently-mentioned charism in the whole Pauline corpus: the role of the prophets is preeminent (eg 1Thess 5:20; 1Cor 11:4f; Rom 12:6; Eph 2:20; 1Tim 1:18).…

Church of England continues its decline – but is revival stirring?

January 12, 2016
155 Comments

The Church of England has published its attendance stats ('Statistics for Mission') for 2014. Don't yawn. Yes, the interesting Anglican stuff is leavening this week in a Canterbury crypt,…

Pope's preacher lauds the "great theological and spiritual enrichment" of the Reformation

November 26, 2015
0 Comments

When Fr Raniero Cantalamessa, Preacher to the Papal Household, was invited to speak in Westminster Abbey at the inauguration of the 10th General Synod of the Church of England,…

Rev'd Barry Trayhorn "forced to resign" as prison worker – for quoting the Bible in chapel

November 2, 2015
462 Comments

HMP Littlehey is a 'Category C' men's prison ("Those who cannot be trusted in open conditions but who are unlikely to try to escape") and Young Offender Institute near…

Divorce and remarriage: Catholic crisis, chaos, conspiracy, or just contextual theology?

October 25, 2015
0 Comments

The fallout from the XIV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church (aka 'Synod on the Family') has been considerable. Whatever the reported…

The Church of England is not dying – it is regenerating

October 16, 2015
0 Comments

It’s been well publicised this week that there are one or two Church of England congregations that aren’t exactly bursting at the seams. If you go to a Church…

Chartres' Lambeth Lecture: the Church must be "vision-led and not problem-led"

October 5, 2015
0 Comments

While the Archbishop of Canterbury pored over the Blogosphere on his iPad (to which he is apparently rather attached), the Bishop of London psyched himself up for the latest…