Israel Folau – a fool for Christ’s sake
Israel Folau plays rugby in Australia. He plays at quite a high level, actually, being paid around $1.6m per season. He is, however, considered to be worth every cent, not…
Repentance
Is a diocesan bishop about to break ranks over historic child abuse in the Church of England?
The past few weeks have seen a huge escalation in the accumulation of evidence and opinion on the tragic story of the Church’s safeguarding failures. I write in the context of the Church of England, but the Roman Catholic Church…
Notre Dame de Paris – the soul of France consumed by unholy smoke
The air is full of mourning and crying. The hearts of Christians are bereft; another tribulation of Christendom defiles God's acre on the Seine. They sang ancient Elysian hymns as…
Emotional abuse in the Church: Bishops need psychological help
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 of England’s Brexit prayers – what exactly do they mean?
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
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…
Complicit in evil? Church of England has shares in Amazon and uses zero-hours contracts
Imagine the prophet Amos in 650 BC travelling through the southern kingdom up to Bethel in the Samaritan north to sell his figs. It's a long journey, but that's where…
There will be sex offenders in heaven (and they may be greater in the kingdom than you)
You really don't want to commit a sex crime in the United States. Unlike other crimes, a sex crime creates certain civil liabilities for the offender that can quite literally…
John Smyth dies – just as the CPS gives police go-ahead for his extradition and prosecution
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…
When did Transgenderism supplant Anglican orthodoxy as a qualification for Holy Orders?
If you believe that women may not be priests; that Holy Orders are a male preserve; that a woman may not represent Christ at the altar; that 'woman priest' is…
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…
Recognising ‘spiritual abuse’ is a dangerous hostage to fortune
An Abingdon vicar has been banned from ministry for two years after being found guilty of the spiritual abuse of a 15/16-year-old boy. The Bishop's Disciplinary Tribunal for the Diocese…
RIP Billy Graham – evangelical fundamentalist and ecumenical universalist
The Rev'd Dr Billy Graham is dead. The evangelist to the world is now more alive to God then he has ever been, and tributes are pouring forth from the…
Marx over Pareto: why do so many Anglican bishops adopt a socialist economic and political outlook?
In the same spirit as Prof Nigel Biggar, the Oxford ethicist who has provoked hysterical opposition by claiming that the British Empire was a morally mixed phenomenon and was the…
Bishop of Liverpool slams ‘so-called Evangelicals’, and so condemns himself
The term 'Evangelical' as applied to Christians has a long and well-chronicled heritage. In 1525, William Tyndale explained in his Doctrinal Treatises (p8): "Evangelion (that which we call the gospel)…
The General Synod of the Church of England puts same-sex relations over youth evangelism
There is perhaps nothing more challenging in mission than the proclamation of the gospel to those who have never heard it, in a foreign land, in an unfamiliar culture, in…
Murderous Mugabe has fallen – now prosecute him for crimes against humanity
WARNING: DO NOT SCROLL DOWN IF YOU MAY BE OFFENDED BY OR ARE SENSITIVE TO PICTURES OF EXTREME HUMAN SUFFERING Robert Mugabe has finally gone. A tyrannical rule of 37…
Welby: Alastair Campbell is probably not going to heaven
"Media seem to be going for gay sex and Queen funeral angles in my @BritishGQ interview with @JustinWelby," tweet-gripes Tony Blair's former spinmeister Alastair Campbell, " - loads more in…
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…
Archbishops call on Queen to repent of being Supreme Governor of the Church of England
In this 500th anniversary year of an obscure monk called Martin Luther banging his 95 Theses onto the door of Castle Church in Wittenburg, the event which history marks as…