The Church of Englishness
Upon reading Archbishop Stephen Cotterell’s remarks on English identity in the Telegraph, I was reminded of the time I was reading the Law Society Gazette whilst waiting for a court…
Parish
A ‘Church for England’, but whose understanding of Englishness?
Much has been written about the Archbishop of York's article in the Telegraph, in which he set out his vision for England woven with his preferred themes of Englishness, calling for the Church of England to be a church for…
Does it matter if Church of England parishes wither on the vine?
At the inaugural meeting of 'Save the Parish' this week at Great St Bartholomew's in Smithfield, London, the Rev'd Marcus Walker was animated and agitated. Time is short, he told…
Radical progressive activism and the Church of England
Civitas have published a new report: Rotting from the Head: Radical progressive activism and the Church of England. 'Radical progressive activism' is a slippery concept, not least because not all…
General Synod elections: can ‘Save the Parish’ save the Church of England?
"There are about to be General Synod elections. So, stand. Stand and write in your manifesto that you are standing to ‘Save the parish’," writes the Rev'd Marcus Walker, Rector…
‘Key limiting factors’: the end of stipendiary parish ministry
Priests are expensive. Church buildings are expensive. Theological formation is expensive. So the Church of England has set out its 'Vision and Strategy' for cost-cutting: 10,000 new lay-led churches over…
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…
Vicar: ‘If you don’t worship in the CofE (or only come at Christmas), don’t complain about what we do’
The Rev'd Miranda Threlfall-Holmes had a premonition that her tweet would be unpopular, but still she shared her ecclesiology with the world: "People are only allowed to complain about the…
Covid-centralising Archbishop excoriates Government – for Covid centralising
The Archbishop of Canterbury has excoriated the Government's 'Rule of Six', the latest anti-Covid-19 policy which restricts almost the whole of society to gatherings of no more than six. Writing…
Canon Simon Butler responds to Archbishop Cranmer & Fr Marcus Walker
This is a guest post from Canon Simon Butler, vicar of St Mary's, Battersea. ____________ I’m grateful for being given a right of reply to the article about an exchange…
Is Mark Rylands the humblest bishop in the Church of England?
The Rt Rev'd Mark Rylands is presently Bishop of Shrewsbury. He is well-known to readers of this blog for being a thoughtful and intelligent advocate for UK secession from the…
The Church of England's investment in social media is a major embarrassment
Quite often when I attend a variety of events and conferences, I’ll end up in conversation with total strangers from all sorts of backgrounds talking about this blog. It’s…
The Church of England is not dying – it is regenerating
It’s been well publicised this week that there are one or two Church of England congregations that aren’t exactly bursting at the seams. If you go to a Church…
Chartres' Lambeth Lecture: the Church must be "vision-led and not problem-led"
While the Archbishop of Canterbury pored over the Blogosphere on his iPad (to which he is apparently rather attached), the Bishop of London psyched himself up for the latest…
Compassionate Conservatism and Social Justice – bedfellows or bugbears?
Talk to most Labour supporters about 'compassionate conservatism', and they'll scoff at the very notion, as though the evil Tories had stolen the robe of Christ and were masquerading…
The last chance to save our rural churches
There was a popular modern worship song that did the rounds a few years ago entitled 'God of this City'. The chorus went: For greater things have yet to…
Discerning the future of the Church is not an intellectual exercise
When I was at university studying Architecture, we were given the hypothetical brief of designing a new chapel for the campus. Having looked forward to it initially, it actually became…