How to view enforced withdrawal from life
For the first time since 1208, the Church in England has ceased all public worship. Church doors are closed for communion, and the gathering together of the faithful to worship…
Body of Christ
The real presence of Christ in the community of the virtual Church
This morning I want to depart from our Lectionary readings to offer a text which inspired a first-class sermon which I once heard at Rochester Cathedral. A few years ago, Bishop Chad Gandiya visited the Diocese and preached from the…
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…
Following CofE guidance for gender transition services, bishops weigh the possibility of political transition services
The Church of England has issued new guidance for parishes planning gender transition services to help transgender people mark their transition to their new identity. Since there is now no…
Brexit impasse: democracy can be messy – but the alternative is terrifying
'And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee' (1Sam 8:7). It might not end well, but never let…
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…
RIP Billy Graham – evangelical fundamentalist and ecumenical universalist
The Rev'd Dr Billy Graham is dead. The evangelist to the world is now more alive to God then he has ever been, and tributes are pouring forth from the…
One in Christ? Why do liberal Christians abuse conservative Christians?
The Most Rev'd Nicholas Okoh is the Archbishop of Abuja Province and Primate of the Church of Nigeria in the Anglican Communion. A glance at his biography establishes his fraught…
Maundy Thursday: the Church divided and united by the Eucharistic mystery
Bread and wine, broken and poured out. Was ever so much distress, division and human misery caused by a supper? Is it flesh and blood, or isn't it? Jesus in…
The Palm Sunday massacre targeted Pope Tawadros II – why the media silence?
If a suicide bomber had detonated himself in a pew at St Peter's Basilica while the Pope of Rome was presiding over the liturgy, the world's media would be talking…
Don’t bash the Archbishop of Canterbury – pray for him
Funny. Defend Nigel Farage against Justin Welby, you're "racist" or a "bigot"; defend Justin Welby against Nigel Farage, you're a "feminist-humanist-pro-Marxist" (amongst other things). There is no apparent via media…
TGI Monday: Is a church without a disabled person a disabled church?
What is disability? Is there such a thing as a disabled church? What are invisible disabilities? What is inclusion? What is access? How complete are the able-bodied? Many disabled…
Peacemaking needs peacemakers
Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." And that includes Muslim peacemakers, because Jesus didn't say 'Blessed only are the Christian…
Is the Pope Anglican?
The American Spectator isn't at all happy with the "liberal" Pope Francis and his "caricaturing of conservatives". That's Roman Catholic traditionalists, as opposed to the GOP-type conservative. "Under the…
The social gospel is a legitimate child of evangelism
"I am so tired of hearing this social gospel held up as the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. The reason the Church pushes this social gospel is because by…
Welby: "Christians are not saints"; Cranmer: "O yes we are"
"Christians are not saints," tweeted Lambeth Palace, apparently quoting from a sermon by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. "They are sinners calling other sinners to know and love…
Justin Welby's "spiritual magpie" plan to save the Church of England (DV)
There’s a fantastic article this weeks' Spectator entitled 'God’s management consultants: the Church of England turns to bankers for salvation'. It’s the sort of piece that is bound to…
BBC 'Kill the Christians' – at last, thank God, but please don't leave it there
As regular readers of His Grace’s blog will be fully aware, the plight of Christians around the world is a subject that is discussed frequently on these pages. I…
Maundy Thursday: humility, forgiveness, reconciliation
Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his…
Welby: equality as a government aim is "doomed to totalitarianism"
Justin Welby often gets it in the neck from Tories who are quick to spy Marxism under every mitre, but this Archbishop is rather more nuanced than that. In…