Stop arresting street preachers, and laugh at them instead
Another street preacher has been arrested for proclaiming the gospel in a public place. This time it was in Uxbridge, in front of the Underground station. We've been here before…
Preaching
Good food, good music, traditional liturgy and sound preaching: a recipe for church growth
Attendance at the monthly Choral Evensong at St Paul's Without the Walls in Canterbury had fallen to just one, while the choir numbered a respectable 18. And when this lone congregant was down on the rota to read the scriptures…
That wedding sermon: Bishop Michael Curry’s critics would have carped at St Paul
St Paul in Athens (Acts 17:16-34 NIV): Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are…
Bishop Michael Curry brought with him the Spirit of Pentecost
The reaction to the Royal Wedding address/sermon delivered by Bishop Michael Curry has resulted in post-match analysis akin to that of 'Match of the Day'. Dull it wasn’t – everyone…
Don’t slam the Royal Wedding sermon: Bishop Michael Curry reached two billion souls with the love of Christ
Bishop Michael Curry's wedding address – or the US preacher's Royal Wedding sermon (as he and it shall henceforth be known) in the marriage service of Prince Harry to Meghan…
Justin Welby tweets the sermon of the year
Sometimes Twitter is like trying to bound infinite space in a nutshell. You can fiddle with words, abbreviate and cut commas, but still it lacks art, and if not art,…
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…
Prison chaplains may no longer convict offenders of sin: preaching must be ‘sensitive’
Remember the case of the Rev'd Barry Trayhorn, the 'tent-maker' (gardener) volunteer prison chaplain at HMP Littlehey in Cambridgeshire? Being an ordained minister in the Pentecostal Church, he quoted Scripture…
Does God still raise up prophets?
Prophecy is the most frequently-mentioned charism in the whole Pauline corpus: the role of the prophets is preeminent (eg 1Thess 5:20; 1Cor 11:4f; Rom 12:6; Eph 2:20; 1Tim 1:18).…
Rev'd Barry Trayhorn "forced to resign" as prison worker – for quoting the Bible in chapel
HMP Littlehey is a 'Category C' men's prison ("Those who cannot be trusted in open conditions but who are unlikely to try to escape") and Young Offender Institute near…
Bishop of Chelmsford repudiates episcopal "talent pool"
It was a glorious sermon, with an audacious, if not subversive (which some may call prophetic) intervention on the Church of England's emerging "talent pool" approach to recognising bishops.…
Cameron can no more "destroy the Caliphate" than he can abolish the New Jerusalem
David Cameron's long-awaited speech on Islamic extremism (aka Islamism) was sort of worth waiting for. As he expounded his 'One Nation' vision to defeat the "poison" of extremism, he…
Pastor James McConnell charged for "satanic Islam" broadcast
Pastor James McConnell delivered a sermon at the Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle in Belfast on 18th May 2014, in which he denounced Islam with all the zeal of the prophet…
Easter Eve: dead, buried, bereft
..he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah..(1Pt 3:19). ..For for this…
Welby: "The best decision anyone can ever make is to be a follower of Jesus Christ"
Back in January, Tim Montgomerie, writing in the Times, vented his frustration with the Archbishop of Canterbury: I remain hopeful that Justin Welby, a "graduate" of HTB and its famous…
Christians are called to be 'non-violent extremists'
We have been here before. In fact, the illiberal proposal raises its portentous head with such frequency that it feels almost teleologically predetermined. From Labour's assault on "hate speech"…
Ian Paisley – the Last Great Protestant – is dead
The Rt Hon the Rev'd Dr Ian Paisley, the Lord Bannside, has died and passed into Glory. Whatever you may have thought about him - however he may have inspired…