Liturgy

Following CofE guidance for gender transition services, bishops weigh the possibility of political transition services

December 13, 2018
Archbishop Cranmer
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The Church of England has issued new guidance for parishes planning gender transition services to help transgender people mark their transition to their new identity. Since there is now no male and female in Christ Jesus (cf Gal 3:28), the…

Why, when church attendance is falling, is cathedral attendance soaring?

October 25, 2018
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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:…

BlessU-2: a robot priest and the parable of technological emptiness

May 31, 2017
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"Bless me, Robot, for I have sinned." "Do you want to receive absolution in a male voice or a female voice?" The penitent presses a button on a touchscreen torso,…

Freemasons at Canterbury Cathedral: the hidden Masonic ritual in the Order of Service

February 13, 2017
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Further to considerations of simony, syncretism and sacred service in the Tercentenary of English Freemasonry to be hosted by Canterbury Cathedral on Saturday 18th February, published below is the Order…

House of Bishops upholds canon law: marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman

January 30, 2017
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After a seemingly interminable period of 'shared conversations' on the nature of marriage and the relational experiences of some LGBT Christians, the House of Bishops of the Church of England…

Church denounces Austria’s ‘far-right’ Norbert Hofer for campaign poster invoking God

October 26, 2016
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Norbert Hofer is the presidential hopeful of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) in the forthcoming election (which is being re-run in December owing to previous electoral irregularities). The Freedom…

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

August 11, 2016
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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…

Cecil the Lion – a lesson in animal theology

July 30, 2015
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A dentist called Walter Palmer has killed a lion called Cecil. Cecil the lion is now dead, and never has the world been so united in grief. Well, perhaps…

BBC 'Kill the Christians' – at last, thank God, but please don't leave it there

April 18, 2015
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As regular readers of His Grace’s blog will be fully aware, the plight of Christians around the world is a subject that is discussed frequently on these pages. I…

Bishop Philip North – catholic continuity and ecclesial unity

February 2, 2015
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On 7th November 2014, it was announced by The Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street: "The Queen has approved the nomination of the Reverend Philip John North to the…

"What ceremony else?" Church of England to reform burial of suicides

January 7, 2015
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"What ceremony else?" cries Laertes in Hamlet, as his dead sister Ophelia is buried to a single tolling bell with a meagre liturgy, as all suspected suicides used to…

How to prevent the extinction of the Church of England

October 24, 2014
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If anyone isn’t aware that the Church of England is slowly walking down the statistical road to oblivion, the publication of the 2015 British Election Study last week should…