The first British monarch to celebrate a Sapphire Jubilee – God Save The Queen!
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…
Justice
The Church of England should not tear itself apart over homosexuality and same-sex marriage
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 pink corner are the LGBT 'progressives', sundry retired bishops and…
Shared conversations: some came to seek truth; others to conquer. Why can’t we just be kind?
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?
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
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
"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
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
"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 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
"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
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?
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)
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
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
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"
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
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)
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
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"
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…