Euthanasia: New Zealand Catholic Bishops make priests complicit
Euthanasia (/Assisted Dying/Assisted Suicide) is now legal in New Zealand. If you want to die there today, there is now someone to help you along your way with all the…
Sacraments
Damned by a pronoun: priest invalidates baptism of hundreds by changing one word
The rite of baptism in the Roman Catholic Church is clear: the priest must say, "I baptise you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." But a priest in Phoenix, Arizona has…
‘Key limiting factors’: the end of stipendiary parish ministry
Priests are expensive. Church buildings are expensive. Theological formation is expensive. So the Church of England has set out its 'Vision and Strategy' for cost-cutting: 10,000 new lay-led churches over…
Nicola Sturgeon broke the law in banning Christians from church
Thank God for Christian Concern, the Christian Legal Centre, and the intrepid Andrea Minichiello Williams. No-one else seemed to care about the SNP's ban on church worship – at least…
Harry and Meghan were indeed married before their wedding ‘spectacle’
"Three days before our wedding, we got married," Meghan told Oprah, as she fed the hens and chickens. "No one knows that but we called the Archbishop and we just…
Communal worship banned in England
From 5th November, it will be illegal to gather for communal worship in England. The Government has decreed that church buildings may open for private prayer, but not for praying…
Wales lockdown isn’t only absurd; it denies freedom of religion
Tomorrow is your birthday. You've received a card from your Mum every single year of your life, without fail, even when you were abroad, and even when she was very…
Archbishops go on consecration strike – they will make no more bishops
Something peculiar happened in the Church of England last week. We are, of course, very used to peculiar things happening in the Church of England, but this was so peculiar…
The Supper at Emmaus
Today’s Gospel reading gives me the opportunity to share with you one of my favourite paintings, that of The Supper at Emmaus, by the Italian Renaissance genius Caravaggio. It hangs…
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…
Filial Correction: laity who are more Catholic than the Pope
The Pope of Rome hath erred. So, of course, hath the Pope of Alexandria, the Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, and we mustn't forget the Pope of the Christian Palmarian…
If a bigot can’t be PM, why should one be allowed to become an MP?
Jacob Rees-Mogg walks into a TV studio. Grand Inquisitor Piers Torquemorgan has wheeled out his rack; his beatific assistant Susanna Reid has greased up the Judas cradle. Heresy is not…
Justine vs Justin: the ‘not yet’ and ‘never’ of same-sex marriage in the Church of England
In an interview for Sky News last week on same-sex marriage and the Church, Justine Greening (the Education Secretary who also happens to hold the Equalities portfolio) told Sophy Ridge:…
Is cohabitation still a sin, or is it an embryonic marriage with proof of love?
There are many who will guffaw at this very question: how absurdly old fashioned, not to say narrow-minded and bigoted of Christians to shame/alienate/offend lovely couples whose commitment to one…
Is the Pope Anglican?
The American Spectator isn't at all happy with the "liberal" Pope Francis and his "caricaturing of conservatives". That's Roman Catholic traditionalists, as opposed to the GOP-type conservative. "Under the…
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.…
Elizabeth II becomes our longest-reigning monarch – God Save The Queen!
Today, 9th September 2015, sometime around 5.30pm, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II becomes the longest-reigning monarch in British history, beating the record previously set by her great-great grandmother Queen…
The blessing of the Nativity of the European Parliament
The Crib has been solemnly blessed in the European Parliament - that Brussels temple dedicated to the cause of ever closer secularity now has a discordant Nativity scene located…