Parish

Archbishops’ Racial Justice Commission has just one Conservative member

October 11, 2021
Archbishop Cranmer
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The Archbishops' Racial Justice Commission was announced last week. It is a 12-member board, chaired by former Labour MP Paul Boateng, now Lord Boateng, and its members include just one Conservative: the social entrepreneur Lord Wei. The other members are:…

Welby: there is no need to ‘save the parish’; there is no threat to it

September 28, 2021
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The Archbishop of Canterbury recently made a very subtle intervention in the process of elections to the General Synod. Indeed, so subtle was it that absolutely nobody noticed. Just as…

A ‘Church for England’, but whose understanding of Englishness?

August 12, 2021
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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…

The Church of Englishness

August 9, 2021
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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…

Does it matter if Church of England parishes wither on the vine?

August 6, 2021
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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

July 26, 2021
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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…

hedgerley church save the parish general synod elections

General Synod elections: can ‘Save the Parish’ save the Church of England?

July 13, 2021
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"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

July 3, 2021
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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

November 26, 2020
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"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’

September 24, 2020
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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…

welby covid rule of six centralising centralisation

Covid-centralising Archbishop excoriates Government – for Covid centralising

September 16, 2020
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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

April 22, 2020
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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?

March 19, 2018
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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

December 7, 2015
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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

October 16, 2015
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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"

October 5, 2015
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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?

September 15, 2015
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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

February 12, 2015
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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

October 12, 2014
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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…