Mission

Hurricane Harvey and the $50m mega-church pastor who wouldn’t shelter flood victims

Texan mega-church pastor Joel Osteen is reputedly worth $50million. That's his personal wealth. He leads a church of some 16,000 (ie a 'mega-church') which gathers in the Lakewood Church, Houston, which is rather large and spacious, not to say positively…

The Musicians’ Church hasn’t banned non-Christian music, but it has sown confusion

August 23, 2017
601 Comments

"Absurd and obscene to see a church in London banning classical groups that want to perform non-religious music", bleated the Humanists on Twitter, knowing full well that the secularist hordes…

The black Christian who converts white supremacists by loving them

August 18, 2017
117 Comments

Whenever white supremacists march to proclaim their Europid purity and superior cranial virtue, they are usually met with an equal and opposite force of scorn and condemnation: protest meets counter-protest;…

Bishop Philip North is good news for the poor – what a shame he’s sidelined

August 4, 2017
331 Comments

It is #GoodNewsFriday – space and time to tell of God's love, miracles, joy, hope and peace – and Bishop Philip North provides today's subject matter. Here are a few…

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

August 2, 2017
360 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…

BlessU-2: a robot priest and the parable of technological emptiness

May 31, 2017
131 Comments

"Bless me, Robot, for I have sinned." "Do you want to receive absolution in a male voice or a female voice?" The penitent presses a button on a touchscreen torso,…

Church in Wales being hounded to appoint Jeffrey John the next Bishop of Llandaff

March 22, 2017
283 Comments

The Church in Wales is the Anglican Church in Wales, and it is disestablished. It's appointments procedure is therefore an entirely internal matter, at some arms' length from the kingdom…

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…

Daniel McArthur leads the UK’s Top 100 most inspirational Christians 2016

December 31, 2016
587 Comments

By popular democratic consensus (which some may term 'populism') Daniel McArthur has been chosen as the most inspirational Christian of 2016. The swell of nominations received for him eclipsed those…

Understanding the Ministry of the Church Today: a lecture in honour of the late Rev’d Canon Dr Ian Tomlinson

November 26, 2016
137 Comments

The Rev'd Canon Dr Ian Tomlinson died peacefully at his home on Monday 31st October. He had asked the Very Rev'd Professor Martyn Percy, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, to…

Bishop of Liverpool slams Trump/Brexit voters who “bow the knee to hate”

November 21, 2016
429 Comments

Amazon have produced a warm, cuddly, interfaith Christmas ad. And it's authentic: there are no actors. A real-life vicar and a real-life imam exchange gifts (knee-pads) to help make praying…

The search for the Top 100 UK Christians – nominations now open for #CranmerList2016

November 17, 2016
98 Comments

It's that time of the year (again.. comes round quickly, doesn't it?) when our minds turn naturally to consideration of year's momentous events, significant people and lists of achievements: best…

Would the appointment of Bishop Martyn Percy offer remedy against Justin Welby’s asserted theological ignorance?

November 14, 2016
20 Comments

Here follows Adrian Hilton's response to Martyn Percy's second letter on 'Renewal & Reform' (R&R) and the ministry and leadership of Justin Welby: Dear Martyn, Thank you for your letter.…

Martyn Percy: the Church of England is being “reformed by bankers.. theology is ruthlessly excluded.. populism and narcissism are in the ascendancy”

November 11, 2016
207 Comments

Following Martyn Percy's first letter and Adrian Hilton's response, here is Martyn Percy's response to Adrian Hilton's first letter: Dear Adrian, Thanks for your letter, which gave me plenty to…

“Is Justin Welby not showing the world Jesus?”

November 10, 2016
116 Comments

Here follows Adrian Hilton's response to Martyn Percy's first letter: Dear Martyn, Thank you for your letter. I appreciated the account of your conversation with the “senior commentator on religious…

Martyn Percy on Justin Welby: “there is a marked absence of salient and resonant ‘God-talk’, or any persuasive public theology”

November 7, 2016
148 Comments

Here follows the first of a six-letter exchange between the Very Rev'd Professor Martyn Percy, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and Dr Adrian Hilton, Editor of this blog, on the…

Church of England funerals plummet 30% in a decade

November 2, 2016
99 Comments

Are people living longer? Are fewer dying? In the decade 2005-2015, the general population increased from 60,210,000 to 64,716,000, so why has the number of Church of England funerals plummeted…

Welby ponders the problem of suffering: “I’m not a good enough theologian”

October 19, 2016
269 Comments

"How can there be a God when there is so much suffering in the world?" probed broadcaster and journalist Jeremy Vine in discussion with Justin Welby in the Diocese of…

Thy Kingdom Come: “prayer must always be the first action of evangelism and witness”

September 14, 2016
142 Comments

When the archbishops of Canterbury and York inaugurated a week of prayer last year under the banner 'Thy Kingdom Come', they could have had no idea that the Holy Spirit…