Welfare

Legal Aid is in crisis: can the Church of England help ensure justice?

December 18, 2018
Martin Sewell
0 Comments

The Brexit drama is sucking the oxygen of publicity away from many other newsworthy stories, and one of the more regrettable casualties is the parlous state of our Legal Aid structure which has declined to an alarming degree. The system…

Curate’s egg or Archbishop’s omelette? Welby tells TUC: gig economy is “reincarnation of an ancient evil”

September 13, 2018
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Justin Welby delivered a speech to the TUC, which went down well in one quarter, and not so well in five eighths, most of whom were irked that he delivered…

Church of England welcomes Chancellor’s Autumn Statement – just don’t mention the national debt

November 24, 2016
120 Comments

The Bishop of Birmingham, the Rt Rev'd David Urquhart, has issued a response to the Chancellor's Autumn Statement on behalf of the Church of England. It is notable for: I…

Church of England campaigns for the living wage, but insists its clergy must claim tax credits

November 24, 2015
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This is a guest post by Harold Pinker (pseudonym) – a Tory-inclined clergyman in the Church of England who fears that his ministry would be impaired (ie his prospects for…

Tax credit cuts: Bishops regret "short-term impact", but not the PM's sophistry

October 26, 2015
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Tax credits are not given to shirkers, but to strivers. They are paid to the lowest-earning families in society to help them feed their children. There is a 'working…

Murmur in Manchester Cathedral: Corbyn counters Conservative Party Conference

October 6, 2015
262 Comments

The Bishop of Manchester is neither a member nor a supporter of the Labour Party. We know this because he tweeted it. He lauds the Guardian for its superior…

Corbyn courts the churches, but Labour loathes Christianity

September 17, 2015
33 Comments

Can you imagine what it must be like to be a Labour MP at the moment? It’s like the scruffy kid at school who doesn’t make friends easily and…

Where is the Conservative Party's sense of intergenerational justice?

July 10, 2015
25 Comments

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not…

Osborne's Sunday trading proposals put markets above family and community

July 8, 2015
146 Comments

Back in 2012 when it was announced that Sunday trading laws would be relaxed during the London Olympics, voices from the Church of England along with various others raised…

Evangelical Alliance spins its own research to attack Government over poverty

June 2, 2015
101 Comments

The recent report from the Evangelical Alliance on attitudes to poverty has caused something of a storm in a teacup. The press release accompanying the launch stated: Evangelicals have…

An open letter from a disabled Christian to Conservative voters

May 17, 2015
648 Comments

This is a guest post by Tanya Marlow - a disabled Christian and founder of Compassionate Britain, and author of Coming Back to God When You Feel Empty. She was formerly a lecturer…

How could a Christian vote for visionless, regressive incompetence?

May 12, 2015
282 Comments

It has always been the case on social media that left-wing Christians make a louder noise than those to the right, usually along the lines of: 'How could a Christian vote…

We must fight harder for vulnerable, abused and neglected children

May 10, 2015
288 Comments

This is a guest post by Dr Krish Kandiah – President of the London School of Theology and founding director of Home for Good, a new fostering and adoption charity.…

Competence over chaos: Britain votes for a new moral vision

May 8, 2015
377 Comments

The choice was between "competence or chaos", as David Cameron kept on saying. All the predictions talked about a knife-edge vote, and all the personalities sank into morass of…

The Epistle of St Nigel: Ukip’s crass ‘Christian Manifesto’

April 29, 2015
368 Comments

Ukip have issued a 'Christian Manifesto'. They haven't issued a Muslim one, or a Hindu one, or a Sikh one, or a Buddhist one. Nor have they issued a…

The only Church mentioned by 'Judæo-Christian' Ukip is prefixed with Winston

April 16, 2015
328 Comments

For those who favour the secession of the United Kingdom from the European Union - and there are many millions who do, cutting right across the mainstream of political…

#PastoralLetter (4): sowing old seeds cannot produce "new politics"

March 28, 2015
191 Comments

Having responded to the Preface of the Pastoral Letter from the House of Bishops “to the people and parishes of the Church of England for the General Election 2015″;…

Why do bishops flaunt their Socialism but shroud their Conservatism?

February 19, 2015
121 Comments

When the Archbishop of York was giving media interviews recently to promote his book On Rock or Sand?, he made clear that "the theology of where I am coming…

Left-wing political bias in the Church is preferable to dumbness

February 3, 2015
116 Comments

One of the perks of my writing on Christianity, politics and society is that each year I am invited to the Archbishop of Canterbury's annual reception at Lambeth Palace…

The Times takes another swipe at the Archbishop of Canterbury

January 23, 2015
403 Comments

Reasoned criticism of the Church of England is always welcome: as a human institution it boasts of no perfection; as a provisional branch of the Catholic Church it makes…