Silent Night, Holy Land
As our minds turn once again to the baby that was born in Bethlehem two millennia ago, amidst social unrest, foreign occupation, political turmoil and religious zealotry, we might reflect…
Christmas
The Church cannot indefinitely sidestep its self-inflicted Covid damage
There was an excellent letter to the Church Times just before Christmas from the Archdeacon of Hastings, the Rev'd Dr Edward Dowler. It was subtitled 'Deeper questions that Covid measures raise', and merits a far wider reading, not least because…
Bramble Welby introduces her human on a BBC Newscast
Bramble Welby upstaged her human on a BBC Newcast this week. "Lie down. Can you lie down. That's a good girl," said the Archbishop of Canterbury. "Nope," thought Bramble. "Not…
Believe in a Marks & Spencer Christmas jumper
Many consumers of social media will have noticed a growing number of women clergy posting photographs of themselves wearing a plain black Marks & Spencer Christmas jumper bearing the simple…
The Downing Street party and the spirit of the law
Perhaps a gathering of a dozen or so people with cheese and wine doesn't constitute a party. Perhaps a gathering of a couple of dozen people at a place of…
Church of England releases its first ever Christmas single
The Church of England is making a foray into the pop charts, releasing its first ever Christmas single, a new version of that glorious carol 'In the Bleak Midwinter'. It…
Durham Cathedral demands Covid passports for Christmas worship
Durham Cathedral is dividing its flock into sheep and goats for Christmas. The Dean is setting the Covid-vaccinated sheep on his right hand, but the goats who lack an NHS…
It’ll be lonely this Christmas
"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…
Vicar: ‘If you don’t worship in the CofE (or only come at Christmas), don’t complain about what we do’
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 pledges to defend and help persecuted Christians
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…
Waiting expectantly for the wrong messiah
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
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?
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…
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
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”
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 urges knife attack on Archbishop of Canterbury
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?
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
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
"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…