Anglican spinach – a primary challenge for the Church’s mission
There was a subtitle fail in the Zoom service from Guildford Cathedral on Advent Sunday. It caused a bit of amusement on Twitter, but it presents an opportunity to explore…
Good News
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 (print and online), and these massively outweigh any good news…
Bishop of Reading: ‘Evolution is God incarnate; the whole earth is God’s body’
The Rt Rev'd Olivia Graham, Bishop of Reading, has been reading a book. Perhaps she has been reading two or three. Her subject is Creation and Incarnation; her passion is…
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:…
Bishop of Liverpool slams ‘so-called Evangelicals’, and so condemns himself
The term 'Evangelical' as applied to Christians has a long and well-chronicled heritage. In 1525, William Tyndale explained in his Doctrinal Treatises (p8): "Evangelion (that which we call the gospel)…
Bishop Philip North is good news for the poor – what a shame he’s sidelined
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…
Is it time for a Good News Day?
Let's survey the news today: there's a boycott, a ban, another ban, yet another ban, a blunder, a bereavement, a crisis, a dilemma, sex and drugs, suicide, murder, theft, envy,…
Holy Saturday: marginalisation, persecution, martyrdom
Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus…
Pentecost evangelism? What is the gospel in an age of religious relativism?
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have written to every clergyman and woman in England (all 11,300 of them, which is a lot of stamps), urging them to pray…
Pray and fast for climate change? Is the Church creating disciples of Christ or eco-warriors?
The latest session of the General Synod of the Church of England drew to a close in York this week and, absent any debate about women bishops, it failed…
Christians in Parliament demonstrate what doing God really means
On Wednesday evening Christians in Parliament along with Christians in Politics and Christians in Government held their annual service of prayer and worship at the the Emmanuel Centre in…
The Church cannot grow if it will not share the gospel
I stumbled recently across an interesting blog post on the sharing the gospel – or rather the lack of it – by the Rev'd Richard Moy. While visiting five cathedrals over the last…
On this day, 459 years ago, a man was burned at the stake for 'heresy'
On this day, 459 years ago, a man was burned at the stake for 'heresy' – essentially for holding conflicting personal, political and theological loyalties. He bequeathed to us…
Welby: "The best decision anyone can ever make is to be a follower of Jesus Christ"
Back in January, Tim Montgomerie, writing in the Times, vented his frustration with the Archbishop of Canterbury: I remain hopeful that Justin Welby, a "graduate" of HTB and its famous…