Prayer

The richness and exuberance of the Online Church

May 17, 2020
Martin Sewell
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We are just beginning to see changes in the severity of the coronavirus lockdown. Even as the rules are being gradually loosened, which will be welcomed by many of us, I hope we will not rush to abandon some of…

A nation unites to pray for Boris Johnson (well, almost)

April 7, 2020
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been stricken with coronavirus and now lies in intensive care in St Thomas' Hospital, London. He is manifestly quite frail and on oxygen support. Ostensibly,…

Coronavirus pestilence: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’

March 17, 2020
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This week on 21st March the Archbishop Cranmer blog shall be 14 years old. It seemed like a good moment to call it a day: to everything there is a…

Welby brings peace and reconciliation to South Sudan

February 25, 2020
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South Sudan is a far of country of which we know little, and if we are honest, care less. Its story does occasionally appear on the the BBC News website,…

Praying for this week of Brexit

January 27, 2020
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Each day that passes this week shall be the last of that day we shall be in the European Union. The last weekend is already gone: the coming Sunday shall…

Prayer as harassment: the curious case of Christian Hacking

November 13, 2019
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When does prayer become harassment? That's the essential question at the heart of the recent arrest of a Christian called Christian Hacking, who was praying in a public space outside…

We need to make more space for silence

July 14, 2019
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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…

Government slaps secularists: “England has an established Church”

April 12, 2019
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Amidst all the equality clamour and the siren voices of secularism, you can perhaps be forgiven for occasionally forgetting that England still has an Established Church, that its status is…

CofE brexit prayer together peoples vote

Bemused by Brexit? Come to church for tea and prayer – unless your vicar is a Remainer

March 25, 2019
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At this moment of national crisis and international humiliation (which it is), the Church of England is encouraging people to come to church to be 'Together' for a cup of…

Church of England’s Brexit prayers – what exactly do they mean?

March 5, 2019
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A few months ago the Archbishop of York issued a Brexit prayer, or, rather, 'A Prayer for Parliament in Time of Brexit Trouble'. It was a fairly benign effort which…

Project apocalypse: Welby calls the nation to prayer over Brexit

February 27, 2019
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In his 'State of the Nation' address to the General Synod of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury is calling the nation to prayer because "social divisions feel…

Speaker Bercow Parliament Brexit Constitution

Speaker Bercow: the most powerful commoner in the land

January 29, 2019
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The Speaker of the House of Commons is also known as the First Commoner of the Land, elected by MPs to chair their proceedings without prejudice or partiality, and to…

Parliamentary prayers chaplain house of commons prayer

Parliamentary prayers give strength and instil humility: they impose nothing and exclude no one

January 21, 2019
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"If MPs don’t want to attend prayers, they wait outside for five minutes until they are over", tweeted Nadine Dorries MP, in response to those who are agitating anew for…

jonathan aitken times credo pray for parliament

Rev’d Jonathan Aitken calls the nation to pray for Parliament

December 9, 2018
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From The Times' 'Credo' column yesterday, by the Rev'd Jonathan Aitken, reproduced here with permission: After a seismic week of political and constitutional upheavals at Westminster, might this be a…

Anti-prayer ‘safe zones’ around abortion clinics are a threat to civil liberties

April 11, 2018
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Women who want an abortion will no longer be harassed by zealous pro-life protestors outside the Marie Stopes clinic in Ealing. No longer will they be bludgeoned with choruses of…

Las Vegas shooting: Anglican Primates complain about having to pray together

October 4, 2017
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As news of the appalling Las Vegas shooting reached the cloisters of Canterbury Cathedral, where gathered the eminent Primates of the Worldwide Anglican Communion (well, most of them) to continue…

Church of England priest calls for the overthrow of Theresa May

June 20, 2017
308 Comments

Fr Christopher Woods is the parish priest of St Anne's Hoxton. He is a Labour Party supporter, which is laudable, and also a member of Momentum, which isn't so, but…

Despair at the Church of England’s General Election prayer

April 20, 2017
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Who writes these things? Honestly, since when was it a sin to despair? Don't the brokenhearted, poor and homeless despair? What about the starving and dying? Or the persecuted or…

Julia Hartley-Brewer: it’s “bloody stupid beliefs” like prayer which help create acts of terrorism

March 23, 2017
447 Comments

Even as Tobias Ellwood MP was trying to get the blood to flow once again through PC Keith Palmer's heart, tweets of blame and judgment were flying about like a…

Same-sex marriage: what does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?

February 2, 2017
541 Comments

This is a guest post by the Rev'd Dr Gavin Ashenden, sometime Chaplain to the Queen. ___________________________ ‘Archbishop Cranmer’ has written a balanced and generous analysis of the House of…