Adrian Chiles BBC What I learnt from 46 consecutive days in church
Mark Woods Christian Today 10 bad preaching habits which must be stopped
Ruth Gledhill Christian Today The wonderful world of the Christian Resources Exhibition
Stephen Heard Archbishop Cranmer The way the Church does politics is largely ineffective
David Pocklington Law & Religion UK Politics and the CofE
Church Times Leader: A reality check
Rachel Dixon The Guardian Holy nights: camping in a church
Archdruid Eileen Holy, Holy, Holy
The pieces by Stephen Heard and David Pockington on the place of the Church in public life have reminded me that a rather striking, if dispiriting, survey of French religious practice (or, rather, French irreligion) appeared in Le Monde earlier this month: http://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2015/05/07/une-grande-majorite-de-francais-ne-se-reclament-d-aucune-religion_4629612_4355770.html, which may be of some interest to readers of this blog. Such is the fate of Christianity within ‘the eldest daughter of the Church’. It might give some pause for thought to those Christians who consider that something approaching laïcité be adopted in the UK. Of course, the steady demographic decline of Catholicism in France has been… Read more »
Thanks, J Drever, read it with interest and some melancholy. Agree with your pessimism. Which is why I wish Christians would spend less time attacking one another. That means doing deals with people you think/know to be in some respects wrong, so liberals after securing basic objectives should then back off, and conservatives should tolerate liberal practices, so long as they themselves aren’t forced to practise them. But it’s hard to persuade people of this.
Archdruid Eileen’s sermon brings to mind these words by John Henry Newman: “To attempt to be guided by love alone, would be like attempting to walk in a straight line by steadily gazing at some star. It is too high – we must take nearer objects to steady our course…Love must be wrought out by fear and trembling. It is the offspring of self abasement and self discipline…”
The major, and minor, prophets remind us of this.
It would be good to see in the Opinion column of articles Stephen Platten’s excellent piece in Saturday’s Times about the Church’s current move away from Gospel values and succumbing to Market values. Although The Jupiter places what I believe is called a “firewall” on using what is printed therein and TA would probably have to pay a fee in order to put the article on this blog. Nevertheless, the former Bishop of Wakefield’s article deserves to be read by a wider audience.
Re “Camping in Church”: “We woke to jewel-like light filtering through the stained-glass windows and the morning calls of birds in the tree-shaded churchyard. It was the first time in years that I’d been in a church on a Sunday morning. Le Sigh. Color me highly ambivalent about this phenomenon. Would I? You bet! [And potentially, not have a moment’s hesitation about “getting up to whatever my conscience allows” ;-)] At the same time, it means that I would LOCK the church? Including to “a man wandered in with his dog to look around”? THAT, my conscience would prick at.… Read more »
At least the Church Times is on the ball. Thank God for its latest editorial on S.S. Blessings.
We have to accept what Stephen Heard says about how ineffective loud complaints about Government policy can be, but he shouldn’t be allowed to get away with saying “Archbishop Rowan complained about’radical, long-term policies for which no-one voted’”. Archbishop Rowan acted as guest editor for an issue of the Spectator in which he wrote an editorial which explained why he had given quite so much space to Government ministers to set out the thinking behind their policies some of which were radical in directions not explored in any election campaign. It was parts oft he press who took the quotation… Read more »
I think that was the New Statesman rather than the Spectator.
Having viewed Archdruid Eileen’s article, I am now left to wonder, what is her spiritual provenance? Is she an Anglican priest, by any chance? And where does the title of Archdruid come from?
Ron, if you are willing to spend an hour or two exploring the blog ‘The Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley’ you will get a better idea of what Archdruid Eileen is all about. I suspect the title ‘Archdruid’ comes from the same place as the title ‘The Church Mouse’!