Reconciliation

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

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 his or her vices and crimes to a priest in…

Tony Blair and John Major threaten resurgent IRA terrorism if Brexit is fulfilled

March 1, 2018
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"I find it not just disappointing but sickening that people should really be prepared to sacrifice peace in Northern Ireland on the altar of Brexit," said Tony Blair, perhaps mindful…

Archbishop of Canterbury urges Brexit Christmas truce

December 15, 2017
92 Comments

"We go back 103 years, we find at Christmas 1914 there was a ceasefire," the Archbishop of Canterbury reminded us in a BBC interview from Lambeth Palace. "It would be…

How Bishop George Bell became a victim of Church of England ‘spin’ and a narrative of ‘decisive leadership’

November 17, 2017
153 Comments

This is a guest post by The Very Rev’d Professor Martyn Percy, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. _______ Some may begin to wonder how exactly the Church of England’s National…

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Would Muslims have been acquitted for breaking into BAE and trying to disarm Saudi-bound fighter planes?

October 29, 2017
339 Comments

Methodist minister the Rev'd Daniel Woodhouse and Quaker activist Sam Walton have been acquitted after breaking into a BAE Systems factory in Warton, Lancashire, armed with a hammer inscribed 'They…

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

October 15, 2017
207 Comments

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…

Trump’s UN “hate speech” tells the world a few home truths

September 20, 2017
226 Comments

UN Secretary-General António Guterres doesn't like divisive political discourse: he prefers consensual dialogue about climate change; exhortations to build bridges rather than walls; measured denunciations of Israel rather than the…

If only the Trump Twitter feed had more soft words and gentle answers

August 20, 2017
310 Comments

There is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak, observes Qoheleth, the voice of the Book of Ecclesiastes (3:7). Proverbs talks about the wise man using words with…

Donald Trump is no neo-Nazi sympathiser: he’s just not a very good politician

August 17, 2017
175 Comments

This is a guest post by Martin Sewell, a retired solicitor. ______ When the USA elected Donald Trump to be their new President, it was, to a significant degree, because…

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Charlottesville: white supremacists are fundamentally anti-American and anti-Christian

August 13, 2017
392 Comments

Charlottesville has gone downhill a bit since The Waltons: the town where John Boy negotiated his first bank loan, Jim-Bob learned about his dead twin brother, and grandma and grandpa…

The abuse and intimidation of members of the CofE’s General Synod

July 12, 2017
405 Comments

There is a Westminster Hall debate in Parliament today led by Simon Hart MP on the abuse and intimidation of candidates and the public in UK elections. A briefing pack…

Momentum drops commitment to nonviolence: how can CofE clergy be permitted to join this group?

June 29, 2017
181 Comments

"Momentum is wholly committed to working for progressive political change through methods which are inclusive, participatory and nonviolent," the Momentum code of ethics used to state. But not any more.…

You cannot “draw the poison from Brexit” without extracting deception from the human heart

June 25, 2017
282 Comments

'Where there is no vision, the people perish', the Archbishop of Canterbury writes in the Mail on Sunday, reminding is that the Authorised Version still resonates down the ages, and…

Félicitations, President Macron – Vive la Faux Révolution!

May 8, 2017
236 Comments

As the victorious President-elect Emmanuel Macron appeared in front of Le Louvre to address the Fifth Republic, it was conspicuously to the strains of Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' – the…

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…

As Brexit Bill receives Royal Assent, a lone bishop urges retention of free movement

March 14, 2017
285 Comments

By now Her Majesty will have set her seal upon the Brexit Bill: La Reyne le veult. At last we have The European Union (Notice of Withdrawal) Act, for which…

EU withdrawal Bill clears the Commons: will the Bishops vote for Brexit?

February 9, 2017
280 Comments

It is the stuff of which our Island history is made. The House of Commons has voted overwhelmingly to give the Prime Minister leave to invoke Article 50 of the…

Bishop of Burnley: CofE’s agenda is set by academia, moneyed elites, and sections of the secular media

December 3, 2016
272 Comments

The Rt Rev'd Philip North, Bishop of Burnley, decided to celebrate his 50th birthday with a splash in the Church Times, which has become a veritable flash in the Daily…

Martyn Percy: the Church of England is being “reformed by bankers.. theology is ruthlessly excluded.. populism and narcissism are in the ascendancy”

November 11, 2016
207 Comments

Following Martyn Percy's first letter and Adrian Hilton's response, here is Martyn Percy's response to Adrian Hilton's first letter: Dear Adrian, Thanks for your letter, which gave me plenty to…

“Is Justin Welby not showing the world Jesus?”

November 10, 2016
116 Comments

Here follows Adrian Hilton's response to Martyn Percy's first letter: Dear Martyn, Thank you for your letter. I appreciated the account of your conversation with the “senior commentator on religious…