Customs and traditions

Royal Assent: Crown neutrality on Brexit is unsustainable

The last time Royal Assent was withheld from a parliamentary bill was in the wake of the union of England and Scotland in 1707/8, when Queen Anne declined to support the Scottish Militia Bill. And she did so on the…

Rowan Williams was denounced for saying Sharia Law in UK was inevitable, so why isn’t Justin Welby being commended for saying it’s not?

February 26, 2018
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Back in 2008, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams delivered a cerebral lecture about society and pluralism to a huddle of lawyers gathered in London. It might have remained fairly…

Speaker Bercow’s Trump ban is political, but his wig abolition is a greater contempt

February 7, 2017
344 Comments

You don't have to be fan of Donald Trump not to feel a certain disquiet at the summary proclamation of Speaker Bercow that the President of the United States will…

Vicars warned not to wear dog collars in public for fear of Islamist attack

August 31, 2016
353 Comments

Vicars don't need to say, "Hello, I'm the vicar." Their dog collars make voiceless introduction: they are an emblem of office; an indication of vocation and service. They are…

Vote Leave: take control. Believe in Britain, or bow down to Brussels

June 23, 2016
286 Comments

The debates are done: the hour is come. EU Referendum Day 2016 is here. Like the Church of England, this blog is impeccably neutral on the matter: it is…

Salt & Light: the gospel, the EU, and the misappropriation of God's word

June 7, 2016
136 Comments

Steve Thomas is the International Team Leader of Salt & Light - "an international family of churches together on mission". Their core commitments are impeccably orthodox and undeniably evangelical,…

Cameron's EU deal: we were lied to in 1975; we won't be deceived again

February 3, 2016
283 Comments

David Cameron's EU deal is no deal at all. It amounts to minor tinkering, presentational puff, and achieves little in terms of the subsidiarity-sovereignty objectives which the Conservative Party…

Mosque without minaret? Baroness Warsi spectacularly misses the point

December 17, 2015
327 Comments

What's the main problem with Islam? The mosque and minaret, or the Wahhabi-Salafist apprehension of Mohammed? Professor Sayeeda Warsi (of St Mary’s University, Twickenham) explains: “What I would like…

Woolf Institute: Butler-Slush and the demand for more multifaith mish-mash

December 8, 2015
127 Comments

So, the Woolf Institute, whose declared mission is concerned with "combining theology with the social sciences and the humanities", in pursuit of "interfaith" "social solidarity" and "common purpose", convenes…

Fr Raniero Cantalamessa – Preacher to the Papal Household – to speak at Synod Eucharist

November 1, 2015
425 Comments

As the Queen and Supreme Governor of the Church of England inaugurates the tenth General Synod on 24th November, it has been announced that the ceremony will be preceded…