For whom the Bell tolls

 The lust for human domination, power and land has not been far from the headlines in recent weeks. It has been eighteen days since those first bombs fell out of the sky in Ukraine, bringing to an end a peace which – with some exceptions – had fallen across Europe since the cold war and given us all a false sense of security. Today, Russian forces continue to advance on Kyiv, and meanwhile the West looks on in horror, yet also in impotence. The fear of the aggressor keeps us away from the battlefield – not wanting to trigger what could be the conflagration of all conflagrations. Yet as we watch on, civilians are killed in their beds, and maternity hospitals are bombed. There is nothing, of course, that shows quite how shielded and Eurocentric we are as a society, than the way we have responded to this war on our doorstep. For so many, war is a historical entity – war is something that happened, to other people, in a different age. Yet for so many people in the world today, war is s...

  On 11 th   February 1858, in a small, fairly uninteresting country town in the south-west of France, a young girl gathering firewood was met by a vision of a tiny maiden, in white robe and blue sash. Over weeks and months, this apparition appeared again and again to her, and is now known as the apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes. Now a slightly terrifying ecclesiastical Disney world, Lourdes is nonetheless striking for being a place where those that society has forgotten – the sick, the disabled, those so often hidden away by the modern world – are placed at the fore. Anyone who has been there cannot fail to be moved by the processions before the international mass – led, right at the front, not by the dignitaries of this world, or the high and mighty – not led, even in the heart of France, by a gathering of mayors – led, instead, in a great winding line, by those that Lourdes has, ever since those apparitions, sought to place at the centre – the sick and the disabled. It is ...

For the Church of England ecclesiology and structure nerds, yesterday’s last minute Friday afternoon announcement of a consultation on the Canterbury CNC is quite significant. The proposal comes from a 2015 Diocesan Synod motion from Canterbury that asked for a reduction in the number of seats that they are allocated on the appointments committee for the Archbishop of Canterbury. The consultation does not provide any of the context of this decision.  Yet also within this proposal is the suggestion that there are four more voting members of the CNC, all of whom should come from the Anglican Communion – in the consultation, the communion is separated into grand world regions, and one would come from each of these (Annex A). In brief, the current composition is:   6 General Synod members  6 Canterbury members  Two English bishops  One person appointed by the PM  One member of the Primates meeting of the Anglican Communion (who is elected by the Joint Sta...

  Premier initially offered to publish this article, but since have informed me that website issues have made this impossible. --- I’m a gay guy who loves what the Bible teaches about sex and marriage.   So began an article on  Premier a couple of weeks ago. And whilst the author and I come from rather different theological stables, I’m also proud to say exactly the same. I’m gay, I love what the Bible teaches about sex and marriage – and I profoundly disagree that biblical teaching is anti-gay.   Of course, that’s probably where Mr Bunt and I diverge. The thing is, the idea that there is one single ‘biblical view’ about anything at all, let alone sex and marriage, is fundamentally disingenuous and is ultimately an attempt to limit the superfluous and generous nature of God. That’s not the same as saying ‘anything goes’ – a cheap, but ultimately fallacious, jibe at ‘liberal’ theologies that seek to bring all into the flock of Christ. As a student of theology...

The imagery that we heard in our Gospel today must be among the most familiar  used in scripture.   It is very tempting, particularly for those of us who most commonly meet lamb on a plate rather than in the fields, to imagine today’s reading as one of agricultural harmony, a kind of pretty, and pretty twee, image of beautiful sheep ambling after a smiling shepherd, leaning on his crook, looking off into the sunset. Think Hovis advert meets the Archers. Pastoral bliss.   Yet a nyone who has ever worked on a farm will, of course,  remind us  that sheep are anything but the fluffy bundles of joy so often pictured in saccharine farmyard scenes. Sheep are hard work – they go the wrong way, they show little to no initiative, they occasionally give you a decent nip on the hand when you’re trying to get them in order.  Sheep constantly need new pasture to feed on, and to be taken care of when the wolf comes or they get trapped down a ditch. In fact, there was a Yo...

But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. The Church of England’s Evangelical [sic] Council has actually outdone itself.   It’s hard to imagine a more hackneyed, unimpressive, self-indulgent act of dissembling on the topic of Living in Love and Faith. This is meant to be an opportunity for members of the Church of England to listen to each other – yet it appears that the CEEC, including members of the bishops’ steering group for LLF itself, have decided that a bare-faced political assault is in order instead.   It’s hard to overstate how tired the arguments made in this shiny yet vacuous presentation are. However, it’...

Some friendly advice for churches on coronavirus Since this blog was published, the advice has changed. The content has been mostly taken down so as not to provide a confusing account. The following section remains, however, relevant: ·       It is absolutely possible that there will be 100,000 deaths from this virus. What do we practically need to do for this? ·       We may have to suspend services or close churches. What are our priorities? o    This includes ordinations coming up in June – the peak may well be between June and August o    This also includes the Lambeth Conference, which absolutely *must* be cancelled, surely ·       This may go on until September at least – what is our strategy at a national and local level? ·       Our churches need to be hospitable but safe: o    How do we keep in touch with our elderly members? ...