The richness and exuberance of the Online Church
We are just beginning to see changes in the severity of the coronavirus lockdown. Even as the rules are being gradually loosened, which will be welcomed by many of us,…
Worship
Queen Victoria statue defaced: #VictoriaMustFall
The mob has now risen against a Queen Victoria statue in Leeds, which is perfectly reasonable considering she once ruled the Empire under whose aegis all those slave-traders flourished and made their fortunes. If statues of Edward Colston and Robert…
Rev’d Marcus Walker returns to his pulpit: “Here I stand!”
"We are back!" exclaims the Facebook page of Saint Bartholomew the Great, London's oldest extant church, founded in 1123 as an Augustinian Priory and which, they say, "has been in…
‘Lord, how would you have me spend this time?’
The third contribution to His Grace’s emergency team ministry during the coronavirus pestilence comes from Nick Barrett, a former teacher of Classics, Philosophy and Sociology, now working in the legal…
How to view enforced withdrawal from life
For the first time since 1208, the Church in England has ceased all public worship. Church doors are closed for communion, and the gathering together of the faithful to worship…
CofE to be carbon-neutral by 2030 – but at what cost?
No-one disputes the Christian imperative to care for the environment: the stewardship of creation is a matter of generational justice and moral responsibility. In the vast web of nature and…
Ely Cathedral holds a special service to bless and celebrate animals
Did any cathedral or parish church hold a service to celebrate animals before the Vicar of Dibley did so on 15th December 1994? The Rev'd Geraldine Granger was visited by…
We need to make more space for silence
High School student Jack Higgins has a severe form of autism which makes him hypersensitive to noise. His graduation rite of passage was looking to be an impossible occasion, with…
Sir Brian Souter barred as sponsor of Turner Prize for being a morally orthodox Christian
Sir Brian Souter is a Christian. He also happens to be a wealthy Scottish businessman, philanthropist, and supporter of the SNP, but he is a Christian first and foremost: his…
Children’s Society Christingle song fails to mention God, Jesus – or anything particularly Christian at all
You are probably familiar with Christingle and may well know about all the Christian symbolism which it represents. It’s generally pretty widely recognised that the candle inserted into the Christingle…
Why, when church attendance is falling, is cathedral attendance soaring?
An email was delivered to Cranmer's Tower at 11.15am on Tuesday of this week. It was headed: 'Record numbers attend cathedrals at Christmas', followed by a very red, upper-case warning:…
Lambeth Awards: why is the CofE patting itself on the back over Safeguarding?
The Lambeth Awards were bestowed last week at Lambeth Palace. The Anglican Oscars non-academic honours for exemplary service and inspirational ministry were instituted in 2016 as part of Justin Welby's…
Anglican Communion News Service smears GAFCON and manipulates Archbishop of Canterbury
You'd think, wouldn't you, that you could trust the news reports which emanate from the official Office of the Worldwide Anglican Communion. You'd hope, wouldn't you, that the Anglican Communion…
Hurricane Harvey and the $50m mega-church pastor who wouldn’t shelter flood victims
Texan mega-church pastor Joel Osteen is reputedly worth $50million. That's his personal wealth. He leads a church of some 16,000 (ie a 'mega-church') which gathers in the Lakewood Church, Houston,…
The Musicians’ Church hasn’t banned non-Christian music, but it has sown confusion
"Absurd and obscene to see a church in London banning classical groups that want to perform non-religious music", bleated the Humanists on Twitter, knowing full well that the secularist hordes…
CofE General Sex Synod 2017: not one question about the Persecuted Church
Over the past few months Christians in the village of Jalalabad in Ghazipur District, India, where temperatures frequently soar to 40°C, have had their water supply cut to force them…
Elevation of the Blessed Asparagus: a Church of England pantomime
Did the Dean of Worcester Cathedral not pause to think for just one second how utterly, utterly absurd this would look? Really, words fail (though some must necessarily follow). A…
Qur’an in the Eucharist? The Provost of Glasgow Cathedral subverts Christian revelation
This is a guest post by the Rev’d Dr Gavin Ashenden, Chaplain to the Queen. __________________________ I have just returned from Paris where I was invited to be part of…
Is our worship really “diminished” by the lack of Christian unity?
"I was dismayed, but not surprised, to hear so many calls for 'unity' after Jeremy Corbyn’s re-election," writes political historian Dr Robert Crowcroft of Edinburgh University. He expounds: ..."unity" is…
Political spin and media din: the importance of silence
There's an awful lot of noise around at the moment. Perhaps there was always a din in the Agora and a racket in the Forum, but they were concerned…