Grace

CofE brexit prayer together peoples vote

Bemused by Brexit? Come to church for tea and prayer – unless your vicar is a Remainer

At this moment of national crisis and international humiliation (which it is), the Church of England is encouraging people to come to church to be 'Together' for a cup of tea and prayer (not necessarily in that order). This is…

Lowering the voting age to six isn’t a bad idea: it would give the family its rightful electoral status

December 7, 2018
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Prof David Runciman (Cambridge University) is of the view that an ageing population is creating a democratic crisis: the views of those beneath the age of 18 – the current…

Jimmy Carter acts justly, loves mercy, and walks humbly with his God

August 19, 2018
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He was President of the United States when Charlie flirted with Angels, Starsky tore around with Hutch, and Steve Austin cost $6million ($33million in today's bionics). He's mostly remembered for…

John Smyth dies – just as the CPS gives police go-ahead for his extradition and prosecution

August 12, 2018
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John Smyth, who was accused of the sadistic beatings of young men under the guise of Christian discipleship, has died at his home in Cape Town. This brings to an…

Jonathan Aitken with Thatcher Bishop of London

The Rev’d Jonathan Aitken – being ordained is like ‘a new life’

July 1, 2018
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Former Tory Cabinet minister, convicted perjurer and bankrupt the Rt Hon Jonathan Aitken MP is now the Rev'd Jonathan Aitken, deacon at St Matthews, Westminster, and chaplain to the Prison…

Steve Chalke: the wrath of God and the experience of Grace

April 30, 2018
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Steve Chalke tweeted about the wrath of God which is apparently often heaped on his head by 'Church people' (as opposed to Christians?), compared to the grace he experiences directly…

Justin Welby tweets the sermon of the year

April 19, 2018
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Sometimes Twitter is like trying to bound infinite space in a nutshell. You can fiddle with words, abbreviate and cut commas, but still it lacks art, and if not art,…

Reformation 500: Archbishop of Canterbury preaches Eeyore and Tigger

November 1, 2017
273 Comments

The Archbishop of Canterbury's sermon to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in Westminster Abbey positively bounced with Reformation glee: Through the Reformation we learned that we are saved…

Filial Correction: laity who are more Catholic than the Pope

September 27, 2017
408 Comments

The Pope of Rome hath erred. So, of course, hath the Pope of Alexandria, the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, and we mustn't forget the Pope of the Christian Palmarian…

Vicky Beeching, vocation, and the church that exists to serve our selfish ends

September 10, 2016
801 Comments

There was a piece in the Guardian (where else) this week by Vicky Beeching, entitled: 'The first openly gay bishop is a huge step forward – but it’s not enough'.…

Welby: witness gently for Jesus, and wait until you're asked (most of the time)

May 22, 2016
116 Comments

There's always a danger when you pick up a comment piece from a newspaper that you glance at a headline and form an opinion from a crass summary of…

An abused dog howls for the love of God

January 6, 2016
486 Comments

An abused dog is stroked for the first time. The sound is piercing and distressing. It isn't quite a howl of anguish; more a shriek of intense fear. It…

"Our daughter died…" Justin Welby's sermon to Child Bereavement UK

December 18, 2015
161 Comments

Every now and again a sermon is preached which is so simple in expression and yet so rich in its depths of compassion and apprehension of salvation that you…

Dignity in Dying and the callous indignity of their spin

September 13, 2015
181 Comments

How many of us breathed a big sigh of relief when the voting results for the Assisted Dying (No.2) Bill were announced? Those in the know were expecting a…

Elizabeth II becomes our longest-reigning monarch – God Save The Queen!

September 9, 2015
107 Comments

Today, 9th September 2015, sometime around 5.30pm, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II becomes the longest-reigning monarch in British history, beating the record previously set by her great-great grandmother Queen…

Was St Paul wrong about the timing of the Second Coming?

August 20, 2015
203 Comments

If Jesus, being fully and infallibly God, was not wrong about the time of his Second Coming, what about St Paul, being fully and fallibly man? The whole thrust…

Was Jesus wrong about the timing of his Second Coming?

August 19, 2015
154 Comments

The imminence of the long-prophesied kingdom of God and the end of time has occupied Christians and Jews more than any other subject of theological conjecture. Certainly, at the…

Tweeting the truth in love: Justin Welby affirms an unpalatable article of faith

August 11, 2015
280 Comments

We have a blogging, vlogging and tweeting Archbishop of Canterbury. He's on Flickr, too. Justin Welby has fathomed that the medium is the message: the social network is the…

Dylann Roof is forgiven and forgiven and forgiven by victims' families

June 21, 2015
174 Comments

On the evening of 17th June 2015, Dylann Roof attended a Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where, by all accounts, he…

The Church cannot grow if it will not share the gospel

June 5, 2015
113 Comments

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…