Pastoral care

Care in a covid climate: in defence of Justin Welby

"The Archbishop of Canterbury has been secretly volunteering as a chaplain at St Thomas’s Hospital during the coronavirus lockdown, the Telegraph has learned." The Telegraph learned this when the rest of the world learned it; or at least when readers…

PM Boris Johnson Archbishop Justin Welby

PM to Archbishop: ‘Prepare for your pulpits’ (which you never needed to vacate)

May 11, 2020
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The Prime Minister's speech to the nation (of England) has set out a path toward normality following the period of enforced isolation and social distancing deemed necessary by the coronavirus.…

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…

Whisky Priests Galore

April 5, 2020
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I have a sense that many clerics today find themselves no less confused and variously out of sorts than their widely dispersed flocks. Some report being frazzled with too much…

CofE insurers Ecclesiastical attempt to impede pastoral care

July 26, 2019
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It has been known for some time that Ecclesiastical Insurance (EIG), the favoured insurance company of the Church of England, has a tendency toward callousness, obstruction and indifference in their…

Child sexual abuse: the Blackburn Pastoral Letter is game-changer for the Church of England

June 21, 2019
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When St Paul began writing his letters I doubt he expected them to become as copied, shared, dissected and analysed as they are today. He wrote to help and support…

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What bishop would tell a vicar: ‘You’re no longer welcome in the Church of England’?

June 6, 2019
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It made the pages of the Daily Mail, so it's serious: 'Vicar resigns after being 'silenced' over a Church of England school's plan to keep an eight-year-old pupil's sex change…

Emotional abuse in the Church: Bishops need psychological help

March 8, 2019
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There is a Jewish proverb that a good name is worth more than precious stones. In this reflective and penitential season of Lent, members of the Church of England House…

Church in Wonderland: the Clergy Discipline Measure shoves victims down a rabbit hole

December 4, 2018
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On 22nd November 2017 the Rt Rev'd Peter Burrows, Bishop of Doncaster, was having lunch in a cafe when his chaplain began a discussion about the case of Fr Matt…

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National Secular Society equates Anglicans with Islamists baying for blood

November 12, 2018
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While the Church of England was preparing to lead the nation in a corporate commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day 1918, the National Secular Society issued a tweet.…

Iwerne David Conner Dean Windsor John Smyth

Iwerne: what did David Conner (now Dean of Windsor) and others know about John Smyth’s regime of abuse?

November 6, 2018
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Many years ago, I worked as a duty solicitor, undertaking day and night visits to the local police stations. There were not many on the rota and it was a…

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Church of Scotland Moderator blames excessive safeguarding for the rise in suicide and self-harm among young people

September 12, 2018
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This is a very brave intervention by the Moderator of the Church of Scotland. In an era where the safeguarding of children and young people has never been more pervasive,…

John Smyth dies – just as the CPS gives police go-ahead for his extradition and prosecution

August 12, 2018
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John Smyth, who was accused of the sadistic beatings of young men under the guise of Christian discipleship, has died at his home in Cape Town. This brings to an…

Jonathan Aitken with Thatcher Bishop of London

The Rev’d Jonathan Aitken – being ordained is like ‘a new life’

July 1, 2018
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Former Tory Cabinet minister, convicted perjurer and bankrupt the Rt Hon Jonathan Aitken MP is now the Rev'd Jonathan Aitken, deacon at St Matthews, Westminster, and chaplain to the Prison…

Diocese of Bath and Wells to sell its 12th-century Grade I listed Old Deanery – in favour of ‘modern’, ‘welcoming’ and ‘spacious’ purpose-built offices

June 26, 2018
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The Old Deanery in Wells sits on the north side of Cathedral Green. It dates back to the 12th century, and comes with its own gatehouse and venerable boundary walls.…

CofE: ‘Come and confess your sins, but we might have to report you to the police’

May 30, 2018
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It their guidelines for Safeguarding Children and Young Adults from Harm, the Diocese of Canterbury has apparently abolished the Seal of the Confessional. No longer may the penitent sinner confess…

What if Alfie Evans had been named Ahmed Edris, and the flight were to Mecca, not Rome?

April 26, 2018
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An awful lot has been written about the tragic case of Alfie Evans; so much, in fact, that there is absolutely no desire at all to add to the mountain…

Anglican clergy to undergo psychological profiling to weed out prophets

March 20, 2018
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Graham Tilby, National Safeguarding Adviser for the Church of England, gave evidence yesterday to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). When asked about how the Church of England…

If the Pope can honour a pro-abortion activist, why not bless Durex?

January 15, 2018
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It is being widely reported that Pope Francis has bestowed the title of Commander in the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great upon pro-abortion activist Lilianne Ploumen, sometime…

Bishops damn church insurers Ecclesiastical Insurance Group (EIG) over ‘horse trading’ with child abuse survivors

October 15, 2017
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Ecclesiastical Insurance Group (EIG) is the Church of England's insurance company. It was founded in 1887 to insure the Anglican church (...against acts of God?). Mark Hews, CEO, says: "We…