Christmas

It’ll be lonely this Christmas

December 23, 2020
Archbishop Cranmer
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"Even if we can't be together as normal, no-one needs to feel lonely this Christmas", tweeted Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden. "We're giving £7.5m to charities, arts organisations, libraries and local radio stations to help them reach people at particular risk…

Vicar: ‘If you don’t worship in the CofE (or only come at Christmas), don’t complain about what we do’

September 24, 2020
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The Rev'd Miranda Threlfall-Holmes had a premonition that her tweet would be unpopular, but still she shared her ecclesiology with the world: "People are only allowed to complain about the…

Boris Johnson Christmas persecuted christians

Boris Johnson pledges to defend and help persecuted Christians

December 24, 2019
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The Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged in his first Christmas greeting to defend and help persecuted Christians around the world: "Today of all days, I want us to remember…

wrong messiah boris johnson jeremy corbyn

Waiting expectantly for the wrong messiah

December 9, 2019
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We must never again have a general election during Advent: everyone is waiting expectantly for the wrong messiah. By the end of this week either Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn…

Archbishops intervene in General Election challenging Labour Antisemitism

November 20, 2019
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The first General Election debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn was a fractious, unedifying and deeply unpleasant affair. It wasn't so much a political debate as a terse slanging…

Ding-Dong Merrily Online: what can the bust-up over Greggs vegan sausage roll tell us about the Nativity?

January 3, 2019
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In Gilbert and Sullivan's (probably mercifully) under-performed final collaboration The Grand Duke, a group of political degenerates try and bring down the government of a second-rate European power by means…

Follow that star tonight, Bethlehem, Bethlehem…

December 24, 2018
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Thousands upon thousands of people will go to church tonight, and that'll be it for another year. They'll hear about Mary and a donkey, a star and three kings, shepherds…

‘Light in the Darkness’ – Rev’d Jonathan Aitken preaches Christmas sermon to the Foreign Office

December 20, 2018
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Here is the sermon preached by the Rev'd Jonathan Aitken at the Foreign Office Carol Service, Grand Locarno Room, King Charles St, Westminster, on Tuesday 18th December 2018: It is a…

Jeffrey Archer: “I’m what I call an agnostic moving towards believer”

December 19, 2018
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Jesus Christ is "the best known person on earth", says Jeffrey Archer in a recent interview on Premier Christian Radio. "If the name Jesus Christ has survived for 2,000 plus…

Spectator Archbishop Justin Welby mugged

Spectator urges knife attack on Archbishop of Canterbury

December 17, 2018
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Peace on earth and good will toward men? Not from the Spectator toward Justin Welby there isn't. The magazine has just published its Christmas edition which includes a Santa's wish-list…

Why, when church attendance is falling, is cathedral attendance soaring?

October 25, 2018
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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:…

And so the Christ Child comes, as we look for his appearing

December 24, 2017
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The birth of the Christ Child, the Son of God, was heralded by the Angel of the Lord, accompanied by the Shekinah, the Glory of God, followed by a multitude…

Archbishop of Canterbury urges Brexit Christmas truce

December 15, 2017
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"We go back 103 years, we find at Christmas 1914 there was a ceasefire," the Archbishop of Canterbury reminded us in a BBC interview from Lambeth Palace. "It would be…

The establishment of the Church of England and the Christian Monarchy flourish together or fall together

December 28, 2016
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This is a guest post by the Rev’d Dr Gavin Ashenden, Chaplain to the Queen. __________________________ One of the many reasons I like twitter is for the jokes. “Why should…

Nigel Farage slams Jesus for his “negative” Christmas message

December 26, 2016
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Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage has slammed Jesus for his "negative" Christmas message. The Son of God said the world is full of wolves in sheep's clothing, not to mention…

For unto us a child is born

December 24, 2016
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Christmas has become an annual sabbath; almost the only time of the year now when families come together, friends are remembered, and the ghosts of Christmases past are recalled, some…

You will hear of wars, assassinations and terrorist atrocities… Joy to the world

December 20, 2016
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Christmas carnage in Berlin as Islamic State manage to get someone to plough a 27-ton HGV into a market, killing 12 and injuring 50. Weeping and wailing; mulled wine all…

Peace on earth and good will to all men – except the sacked bell-ringers of York Minster

December 18, 2016
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"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…

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

November 21, 2016
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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…

On the Feast of Stephen

December 26, 2015
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The funeral of St Stephen, by Filippo Lippi (1460). St Stephen – 'a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost' (Acts 6:5) – was chosen to be a…