Bishop of Oxford instructs lawyers to censor Archbishop Cranmer
The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev'd Steven Croft, has instructed lawyers to demand that a post on this site be taken down. Never in its 16-year history has the…
Church of England
Martyn Percy leaves the Church of England
In the glorious Chapel of Exeter College, Oxford, on the Feast Day of St. Matthias the Apostle on Saturday 14th May, the Very Rev'd Professor Martyn Percy preached his final sermon as a priest in the Church of England. The…
Bishop of Oxford “colluded with the forces of darkness”, and is considered by some to be a safeguarding risk
Liberated from the purgatorial shackles of Christ Church, Oxford, Martyn Percy is now free to speak, and he has done so. Andrew Billen in The Times Magazine recounts the tortuous…
How many millions of asylum seekers should the UK welcome?
Building on his Easter sermon which condemned (rather robustly) Priti Patel's plan to send Channel migrants to Rwanda, the Archbishop of Canterbury has written a comment piece for the Telegraph…
How does facilitating people-traffickers reflect the nature of God?
The Home Secretary's announcement that the thousands of asylum seekers (or economic migrants) crossing the Channel in an endless stream of dinghies (246,190 last year) are to be sent to…
Church of England contributes just 0.5% to the UK’s spiritual and religious narrative
It's a crude headline-grabbing statistic, derived from a distinctly unscientific list of apparently random figures, but by no means without a degree of truth and reliability to it. There is…
Praying for Putin’s downfall, doom and destruction
There was a prayer for Ukraine in church on Sunday: "Lord, we pray for peace in Ukraine, and that Putin would see sense." That was it. There was no mention…
John Bercow had ‘unholy row’ with the Church over Speaker’s Chaplain
Former Speaker John Bercow has been found to be a "serial bully" and a "serial liar". This is the judgment of an Independent Expert Panel appointed to investigate his behaviour…
Christ Church’s magic £millions make the Dean’s safeguarding risk disappear
It is widely reported that the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, the Very Rev'd Professor Martyn Percy, has agreed a mediated settlement with the Governing Body of the College, and…
What’s wrong with appointing a Bishop for Brexit?
There's a move afoot to create a Cabinet of Bishops to shadow government departments, with the Archbishop of Canterbury presiding like a Prime Minister Spiritual, and those around him holding…
Our Platinum Queen — the happiness of the United Kingdom
When we think or speak of the Elizabethan era, our minds turn naturally to the 16th century; to the golden age of peace and prosperity, of art and culture, of…
Negative media about the Church outweighs the good news
A Christian PR agency has been weighing the media, and found it wanting. They have discovered that, on average, the Church attracts 150 pieces of negative media coverage every month…
Good food, good music, traditional liturgy and sound preaching: a recipe for church growth
Attendance at the monthly Choral Evensong at St Paul's Without the Walls in Canterbury had fallen to just one, while the choir numbered a respectable 18. And when this lone…
Is the Church of England about to ban prophets from Synod?
Anyone observing parliamentary debates over the last few weeks will know that the awkward question can be many things. It can be fair or unfair, accurate or misconceived, mischievous or…
Guildford Cathedral ‘reviews’ statues by sinner sculptor Eric Gill
You have to pity poor Hiram of Tyre, an artistic metalsmith whom King Solomon chose to work on his Temple, because 'he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning…
The Prime Minister partied while clergy lamented
"Could the Minister advise those of us on these benches," ventured Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds, "how we should respond to clergy who took an enormous personal toll in having…
Tutufication is not the solution to division and oppression
Canon Mark Oakley wrote to the Times over the weekend with a plea for the Church of England to adopt Tutufication: It is an interesting thesis, not least because quite…
Rev’d Will Pearson-Gee: “I am not going to close our services”
As 2021 draws to a close, with Covid mutations multiplying, millions isolating, thousands dying, gas prices soaring, inflation pressing, poverty increasing, Putin and Xi agitating, and the Church of England…
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…
Martyn Percy is ‘mad and unfit to govern’ Christ Church, Oxford
Let us consider a scenario in which the governing body of an academic institution takes an intense dislike to their teetotal principal and head, and their only mechanism for getting…