Church decline

Bishop Liverpool Paul Bayes Brexit Dad's Army

Bishop of Liverpool depicts UK-EU Brexit negotiations as ‘Dad’s Army’

December 13, 2020
Archbishop Cranmer
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The Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev'd Paul Bayes, has been honing his episcopal vocation to be a "focus of unity", to which end he tweeted that the presently fraught and complex UK-EU Brexit negotiations are like something out of…

civil wedding beach hut law society consultation weddings

Law Commission ‘consultation’ on weddings is just another secularist push

September 7, 2020
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This isn't a government consultation, though it has the authoritative whiff of one, and many people will doubtless mistakenly believe it to be one, but it is definitely not one:…

synod bishops social political diversity

General Synod: social and political diversity among Bishops

July 10, 2020
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Quite a few interesting questions have been tabled for the imminent virtual General Synod of the Church of England, ranging from Bishops' Twitter usage (Qs 69-70) to Safeguarding abusage (Qs…

‘Church locked for coronavirus’ – but it was last year, too

April 1, 2020
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This is the ninth contribution to His Grace’s emergency team ministry during the coronavirus pestilence. It comes from Mike Stallard, who has been in education all his life, and is…

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:…

Curate’s egg or Archbishop’s omelette? Welby tells TUC: gig economy is “reincarnation of an ancient evil”

September 13, 2018
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Justin Welby delivered a speech to the TUC, which went down well in one quarter, and not so well in five eighths, most of whom were irked that he delivered…

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CofE General Synod couldn’t find time to discuss evangelism… “Oh, what’s the bloody point?”

July 11, 2018
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Kenneth Williams of ‘Carry On’ fame was not, alas and alack, a member of the Church of England’s General Synod. And yet his are the words for which I find…

How Bishop George Bell became a victim of Church of England ‘spin’ and a narrative of ‘decisive leadership’

November 17, 2017
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This is a guest post by The Very Rev’d Professor Martyn Percy, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. _______ Some may begin to wonder how exactly the Church of England’s National…

Welby is right: the UK economy is “broken”, but England’s church is limping

September 6, 2017
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It was an unfortunate coincidence that on the day the British Social Attitudes survey was released which announced that more than half (53%) of the British public now describe themselves…

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

August 4, 2017
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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…

Michael Gove sugar-coats Jesus and preaches fake good news

April 18, 2017
249 Comments

This is a guest post by the Rev’d Dr Gavin Ashenden, former Chaplain to the Queen, who is presently in the (complicated) process of leaving the Church of England. ___________________________…

Buried Archbishops “found by accident”? The CofE’s forgetfulness is galling

April 17, 2017
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"It beggars belief that no-one thought what a terrible, terrible image of decline it is to deconsecrate the ABC's home church," tweeted the Rev'd Marcus Walker, slightly irritated by the…

Church of England funerals plummet 30% in a decade

November 2, 2016
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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…

The great canon doctor Martyn Percy implicates Justin Welby in "secular sorcery"

August 17, 2016
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"Everything you need to know about the Bible can be summed up by the great canon doctor Martyn Percy: 'The Bible did not arrive by fax from heaven.'," writes…

Forget the Holy Spirit: the key to Church revival is Pokemon Go

August 2, 2016
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According to the Daily Mail (please don't stop reading at that), something called Pokemon Go (or Pokémon GO for the accentually pedantic and orthographically precise) is set to bring…

Church of England continues its decline – but is revival stirring?

January 12, 2016
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The Church of England has published its attendance stats ('Statistics for Mission') for 2014. Don't yawn. Yes, the interesting Anglican stuff is leavening this week in a Canterbury crypt,…

The Church of England is not dying – it is regenerating

October 16, 2015
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It’s been well publicised this week that there are one or two Church of England congregations that aren’t exactly bursting at the seams. If you go to a Church…

Chartres' Lambeth Lecture: the Church must be "vision-led and not problem-led"

October 5, 2015
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While the Archbishop of Canterbury pored over the Blogosphere on his iPad (to which he is apparently rather attached), the Bishop of London psyched himself up for the latest…

As 40% of adults think Jesus is a myth, has Religious Education failed?

September 25, 2015
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Richard Dawkins and the other prophets of atheism love to tell us that in the fabricated battle between religious belief and rationalism, there can be only one winner, and…

Justin Welby's "spiritual magpie" plan to save the Church of England (DV)

July 17, 2015
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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…