Justice

Jayne Ozanne was raped by a priest? Which bishop told her not to report the attack?

November 7, 2017
Archbishop Cranmer
384 Comments

Jayne Ozanne (who claimed to have reported this blog to the police last year for 'hate') claims to have been raped by a priest in the 1990s. She says she told a bishop about the assault last year, who advised…

“I need a friendly bishop,” said the child abuse survivor, as the prelate passed by on the other side

October 22, 2017
228 Comments

This is a guest post by Martin Sewell, a retired Child Protection Lawyer. _____ Two years ago, Archbishop John Sentamu gave one of those sermons which you know you will…

Bishops damn church insurers Ecclesiastical Insurance Group (EIG) over ‘horse trading’ with child abuse survivors

October 15, 2017
207 Comments

Ecclesiastical Insurance Group (EIG) is the Church of England's insurance company. It was founded in 1887 to insure the Anglican church (...against acts of God?). Mark Hews, CEO, says: "We…

Child abuse in the Church of England: Justin Welby must either accelerate the change or carry the can

October 8, 2017
373 Comments

This is a guest post by Martin Sewell, a retired Child Protection Lawyer who takes a special interest in Safeguarding as a member of General Synod. _____ When I was…

charlottesville white supremacists nazi salute

Charlottesville: white supremacists are fundamentally anti-American and anti-Christian

August 13, 2017
392 Comments

Charlottesville has gone downhill a bit since The Waltons: the town where John Boy negotiated his first bank loan, Jim-Bob learned about his dead twin brother, and grandma and grandpa…

Safeguarding in the Church of England: when is a victim of child-abuse not a victim?

July 5, 2017
128 Comments

This is a guest post by Martin Sewell, a retired Child Protection Lawyer and a member of General Synod. ______ Yesterday I advanced a more sympathetic perspective on why Lord…

Lord Carey’s forced resignation is an injustice: he, too, was a victim of Peter Ball

July 4, 2017
160 Comments

This is a guest post by Martin Sewell, a retired Child Protection Lawyer and a member of General Synod. He considers here the wiles and manipulations of child-abuser Peter Ball,…

Child abuse in the Church of England: hypocrisy, inconsistency and ongoing cover-up

July 3, 2017
331 Comments

Child abuse is a seriously distressing matter. The violation, confusion, fear, self-loathing, guilt, depression... suicidal thoughts. It can take years and decades to come to terms with the misery and…

Sorry, left-wing clergy, but God supports strong and stable government

May 10, 2017
219 Comments

A gaggle of left-wing clergy is a tad upset that the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have used their General Election 'Pastoral Letter' to exhort Christians to consider the need…

Kevin (Lord) Shinkwin appointed to Equality and Human Rights Commission

April 22, 2017
192 Comments

Every now and again, a perfectly square political peg finds a sharp-cornered square hole. The officer and the office, the doer and the thing done, fit so exactly that the…

Gender justice and LGBT equality: Martyn Percy demands female cardinals and gay imams

April 5, 2017
453 Comments

In another 5,000-word essay, the Very Rev'd Professor Martyn Percy, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, demands "a thorough and wholesale review" of discrimination in the Church of England. And by…

The Church of England should not tear itself apart over homosexuality and same-sex marriage

February 14, 2017
896 Comments

The General Synod of the Church of England is due to 'take note' (or not) of the Bishops' report ‘Marriage and Same Sex Relationships after the Shared Conversations.’ In the…

The first British monarch to celebrate a Sapphire Jubilee – God Save The Queen!

February 6, 2017
260 Comments

65 years ago today, King George VI put his hand into the Hand of God, which was better than light and safer than a known way. And in that very…

Shared conversations: some came to seek truth; others to conquer. Why can’t we just be kind?

February 5, 2017
584 Comments

Commenting on the Bishops' statement Marriage and Same Sex Relationships after the Shared Conversations ("a gamma minus piece of drafting if ever there was one"), Canon Professor Mark Chapman prophesies…

Same-sex marriage: what does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?

February 2, 2017
541 Comments

This is a guest post by the Rev'd Dr Gavin Ashenden, sometime Chaplain to the Queen. ___________________________ ‘Archbishop Cranmer’ has written a balanced and generous analysis of the House of…

Trump and torture: you don’t fight Islamist fire with the embers of Christian virtue

January 26, 2017
460 Comments

President Donald Trump wants to keep his country safe from Islamist terrorists. He'd also like to destroy ISIS and wipe them off the face of the earth. In pursuit of…

Peace on earth and good will to all men – except the sacked bell-ringers of York Minster

December 18, 2016
330 Comments

"The bells! The bells!" cried Quasimodo, the hunchbacked bell-ringer of Notre-Dame de Paris in Victor Hugo's quasi-fictional novel. He might have been sounding a prophetic child-safeguarding warning to the Church…

Inadequate Christian schools named and shamed; inadequate Muslim school.. censored

September 29, 2016
150 Comments

When the Durham Free School and Grindon Hall Christian School were excoriated by Ofsted last year for a raft of educational deficiencies (not least of which was failing to promote…

Corbyn’s mission is Christian socialism – but the country will never vote for it

September 25, 2016
75 Comments

"So enthused by @JeremyCorbyn4PM win today," tweeted the Rev'd Dr Giles Fraser, on hearing of the victorious re-election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party. "The world is…

World Peace Day – what’s the point of that?

September 21, 2016
321 Comments

September 21st is the day the United Nations General Assembly decreed shall be set aside as the International day of Peace, or World Peace Day. "Let us all work together…