Church of England

Welby presents Queen with Canterbury Cross – ‘a heartfelt symbol of love, loyalty and affection’

This week the Archbishop of Canterbury presented Her Majesty The Queen with a special Canterbury Cross, cast in silver and embellished with platinum, in recognition and gratitude for her "unstinting support of the Church throughout her reign", and to mark…

Independent Safeguarding Board ISB Church of England Maggie Atkinson Martyn Percy

The CofE ‘Independent Safeguarding Board’? A Review

June 21, 2022
0 Comments

Following a complaint brought Professor Martyn Percy to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Independent Safeguarding Board (ISB) published Terms of Reference (ToR) for a ‘review’ to commence on…

platinum jubilee pageant mall diversity multicultural defender of the faith

BBC says it’s ‘unfortunate’ the Queen is Defender of the Faith

June 6, 2022
0 Comments

As the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of Her Majesty the Queen entered their final day, the BBC gave us a running commentary on the Platinum Pageant as it crawled along the…

Martyn Percy valedictory service Exeter College Oxford chapel

Martyn Percy leaves the Church of England

May 15, 2022
0 Comments

In the glorious Chapel of Exeter College, Oxford, on the Feast Day of St. Matthias the Apostle on Saturday 14th May, the Very Rev'd Professor Martyn Percy preached his final…

Martyn Percy Bishop of Oxford forces of darkness

Bishop of Oxford “colluded with the forces of darkness”, and is considered by some to be a safeguarding risk

May 8, 2022
0 Comments

Liberated from the purgatorial shackles of Christ Church, Oxford, Martyn Percy is now free to speak, and he has done so. Andrew Billen in The Times Magazine recounts the tortuous…

What’s wrong with appointing a Bishop for Brexit?

February 7, 2022
0 Comments

There's a move afoot to create a Cabinet of Bishops to shadow government departments, with the Archbishop of Canterbury presiding like a Prime Minister Spiritual, and those around him holding…

General Synod Church of England prophets John Wesley St Paul

Is the Church of England about to ban prophets from Synod?

January 24, 2022
0 Comments

Anyone observing parliamentary debates over the last few weeks will know that the awkward question can be many things. It can be fair or unfair, accurate or misconceived, mischievous or…

Guildford Cathedral ‘reviews’ statues by sinner sculptor Eric Gill

January 19, 2022
0 Comments

You have to pity poor Hiram of Tyre, an artistic metalsmith whom King Solomon chose to work on his Temple, because 'he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning…

Lusa Nsenga-Ngo Bishop of Willesden Church of England Bishops

Why are schoolchildren selecting Church of England bishops?

November 29, 2021
0 Comments

Caroline Boddington is barely out the door, and bishops are now being appointed by... schoolchildren called Temisan, Keziah, Honey and Sophia. With the retirement of the Rt Rev'd Pete Broadbent…

Matthew Parris just wants to be loved, accepted, and buried in the CofE

November 23, 2021
0 Comments

Matthew Parris has written a strange a piece in the Times about the Church of England: 'Anglicanism was never really about God', he decrees, with a kind of semi-detached secular-papal…

Queen reminds General Synod of its essential mission

November 17, 2021
0 Comments

The 11th General Synod of the Church of England was opened yesterday, and the Supreme Governor was absent for the first time since Synod was created more than 50 years…

church of england fantasist william bulloch

No, the Church of England did not give £40,000 ‘gifts’ to a fantasist

November 10, 2021
0 Comments

In the Mail on Sunday last week there was an 'exposé' of a decision by the Church of England Interim Survivor Support Scheme whose panel had decided to compensate a…

General Synod elections: the ‘liberal drift’ is not a foregone conclusion

October 20, 2021
0 Comments

The Rev'd Peter Ould has been psephological over at Psephizo, and his analysis of the recent Synod elections merits some consideration in respect of the 'liberal drift' of the Church…

Welby: there is no need to ‘save the parish’; there is no threat to it

September 28, 2021
0 Comments

The Archbishop of Canterbury recently made a very subtle intervention in the process of elections to the General Synod. Indeed, so subtle was it that absolutely nobody noticed. Just as…

Lord Lexden: “My faith in the Church’s institutional integrity has been completely broken”

September 18, 2021
0 Comments

Lord Lexden has resigned as a member of the Ecclesiastical Committee (the Church of England in Parliament), over the Clergy Discipline Measure and "the harm it is capable of inflicting…

Church of England conclave nominations committee

Anglican Conclave to ‘sift’ all candidates for vacancies to see if they are ‘appropriate’

September 15, 2021
0 Comments

There is no doubt that the governance structure of the Church of England is labyrinthine, convoluted, inefficient and opaque. It's what comes of half a millennium of Catholic and Reformed…

Sarah Mullally Bishop of London the buck stops here

Fr Alan Griffin (RIP): the buck stops with Bishop Sarah Mullally

August 27, 2021
0 Comments

Upon taking office as 33rd President of the United States, Harry S. Truman famously placed a sign on his desk to remind himself of the awesome responsibility which the Office…

Fr Alan Griffin diocese of london safeguarding suicide

Safeguarding suicide: ‘there is a crisis of trust within the Diocese of London’

August 26, 2021
0 Comments

Following the comments and demands made by the Coroner in the wake of the suicide of Fr Alan Griffin, the Diocese of London and Lambeth Palace have accepted responsibility for…

A ‘Church for England’, but whose understanding of Englishness?

August 12, 2021
0 Comments

Much has been written about the Archbishop of York's article in the Telegraph, in which he set out his vision for England woven with his preferred themes of Englishness, calling…

The Church of Englishness

August 9, 2021
0 Comments

Upon reading Archbishop Stephen Cotterell’s remarks on English identity in the Telegraph, I was reminded of the time I was reading the Law Society Gazette whilst waiting for a court…