Enforced Sabbatical: Rest and Be Thankful
This is the 17th contribution to His Grace’s emergency team ministry during the coronavirus pestilence. The author wishes to be known that he is a feckless waster saved by grace.…
Meditation
Sabbatical problematical: give the Archbishop a break, for God’s sake
"Unlike the archbishop, Jesus could not retire to cultivate his personal spirituality because he was perpetually besieged by desperate people", writes Karen Armstrong in the Guardian's 'Comment is Free', objecting rather sourly to Justin Welby's decision to take a three-month…
The Legislature has become the Executive, and there is no mechanism to call them to account
Now that the Yellowhammer document has been placed in the public domain, one understands why there might reasonably have been a reluctance to do so by any responsible government at…
We need to make more space for silence
High School student Jack Higgins has a severe form of autism which makes him hypersensitive to noise. His graduation rite of passage was looking to be an impossible occasion, with…
The Lamentation: a reflection for Good Friday
The Lamentation is one of the limited number of subjects permitted to an icon writer within the Orthodox tradition. It renders the observer present at one of the low points…
Theresa May did not instruct the CofE to allow gay marriage
'Prime Minister: The Church should "reflect" on allowing gay couples to marry', declares the Telegraph; 'Theresa May Suggests Churches Should Consider Conducting Same-Sex Marriages', says Huffpost UK; 'May: Church should…
Canon Andrew White: “My brain is so badly damaged that I am finished”
The Rev'd Canon Andrew White, widely known as the 'Vicar of Baghdad', has long suffered with multiple sclerosis. His ministry vocation involves a lot of travel and even more speaking,…
Political spin and media din: the importance of silence
There's an awful lot of noise around at the moment. Perhaps there was always a din in the Agora and a racket in the Forum, but they were concerned…
The Prayer Shawls of Auschwitz
This is a guest post by Brother Ivo. ____________ Those who have visited Auschwitz are likely to find their thoughts straying back there on this day of Holocaust remembrance. A…
Peacemaking needs peacemakers
Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." And that includes Muslim peacemakers, because Jesus didn't say 'Blessed only are the Christian…
We will remember them, won't we?
We will remember them. We intone it ritually every year. We even make a chronological covenant: 'At the going down of the sun and in the morning..' There have…
Was St Paul wrong about the timing of the Second Coming?
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?
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…
"God told me to.."
Have you ever had a Christian say to you: "God told me to..", followed by a directive or (more usually) a subtly coercive exhortation to do something (usually) for…
The Community of St Anselm – satisfaction and spirituality
A few months ago the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby announced a new initiative at Lambeth Palace: the establishment of the Community of St Anselm, the objective of which…