Reconciliation

John Smyth tortured Christian boys at Iwerne – where’s the CofE inquiry?

August 6, 2018
Martin Sewell
0 Comments

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) hearings into the crimes and cover-up relating to Peter Ball have rightly shocked many in the Church of England, yet what may not be widely appreciated is that there is an even…

The People’s Vote strategy is to goad Brexiteers with being frit

July 27, 2018
0 Comments

"The right hon. Gentleman is afraid of an election, is he?" goaded Margaret Thatcher. "Afraid? Frightened? Frit?" she persisted, with perfectly alliterative thrashings of her serrated tongue. "Could not take…

nick baines bishop eu speech british hopelessness

Bishop Nick Baines derides Brexit British hopelessness

July 25, 2018
0 Comments

There's a lot of anxiety about. The torch which once lit our path is being extinguished. Our institutions and communities are beset with moral problems, dilemmas and quandaries. Our politics…

Men rip off Muslim girl’s hijab and cut cross into her skin

July 8, 2018
0 Comments

This is just what Jesus would do, isn't it? "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword so…

Jonathan Aitken with Thatcher Bishop of London

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

July 1, 2018
0 Comments

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…

Iftar in the Cathedral is exactly what the Queen (and Jesus) would want

June 11, 2018
0 Comments

If it had been called 'Tea & Chapatis' no-one would have batted an eyelid. But the meal had an upper-case Islamic name – Iftar – and it involved Arabic food:…

Why can’t Justin Welby distinguish the Council of Europe from the European Union?

June 6, 2018
0 Comments

Apparently the Archbishop of Canterbury has said the EU is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Actually, he said it's the greatest thing since way before sliced bread: "The EU…

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

May 30, 2018
0 Comments

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…

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

March 1, 2018
0 Comments

"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…

acquitted sam walton rev daniel woodhouse

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…

charlottesville white supremacists nazi salute

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…