Justice

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

February 2, 2017
Archbishop Cranmer
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 Bishops’ report on marriage and same-sex relationships. If anyone were…

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…

While the Church of England becomes a safe place for children, it is hell for those wrongly accused of abuse

August 25, 2016
105 Comments

"To address the whole culture of silence in Church is vital," writes the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in the Church of England Newspaper, "it is a form of…

There's one surefire way of silencing objectors to women bishops – without changing the liturgy

August 11, 2016
144 Comments

There is a serial objector who pops up at the consecration of just about every woman bishop in the Church of England, and he isn't even an Anglican. The…

Turkey purge: is military coup a lesser evil than Erdoğan's Islamism?

July 20, 2016
243 Comments

Following last week's military coup – which is never the answer to anything – President Erdoğan is purging Turkey's civic institutions of every whiff of opposition, dissent, criticism and…

Synod 'No Confidence' motion looms in the secret trial of Bishop George Bell (RIP)

July 6, 2016
21 Comments

The Church of England has (at last) announced an independent review into its handling of its secret Cadaver Synod posthumous trial of the late Bishop George Bell (see here,…

Centenary of the Battle of the Somme: yesterday's youth died so that today's youth might be free

July 1, 2016
462 Comments

They didn't really stand a chance. They were sons, husbands, fathers, friends and boys – some as young as 18 – ordered over the top into the direct line of…

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…

EU Referendum: Sentamu preaches "moral responsibility" and Welby "peace and reconciliation"

June 12, 2016
87 Comments

Don't you just love the Church of England's concept of 'neutrality' in the matter of the EU Referendum? A whole sea of bishops has endorsed the Remain campaign (that…

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,…

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…

The "absurd fiction" of the need for secrecy in the trial of Bishop George Bell

May 19, 2016
95 Comments

The living who are falsely accused of child abuse are slowly destroyed – physically, emotionally and spiritually. "I now have difficulty seeing myself being remotely employed, sociable, and relaxed…

Frederick Forsyth on the EU's "government by deception"

April 17, 2016
69 Comments

Author and former MI6 spy Frederick Forsyth appeared on the BBC's Any Questions panel a few weeks ago, but his comments were buried beneath Boaty McBoatface, tax returns and…

Palm Sunday: the Kingdom of God and a new social order

March 20, 2016
20 Comments

The Kingdom of God was heralded by the Messiah riding a donkey. By reason and provocation, He urged anyone who would fully accept that Kingdom to enter into its…

When did child abuse become the unforgivable sin?

February 9, 2016
310 Comments

The secret trial of Bishop George Bell still tolls. Having been convicted in absentia and post mortem of child abuse, we have since learned that the victim was a…

Vatican says UK is "better in than out" of the EU

January 24, 2016
674 Comments

"The Vatican wants Britain to stay in the European Union, the Pope's foreign secretary has declared." So writes the Telegraph, noting that Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with…