Joanna Ruck The Guardian Easter Sunday around the world – in pictures
Nick Spencer The Telegraph Our politicians are more devout than ever – so it’s time we started taking their faith seriously
Melanie McDonagh The Spectator If you want to save the CofE, then get stuck in (and go to church)
a few Easter sermons
Archbishop of Dublin [There is a link to the full text at the end.]
Archbishop of Canterbury
Bishop of Chichester
Bishop of Durham
Bishop of Jarrow
Bishop of Leeds
Bishop of Lincoln
Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham
Thanks for the pictures of Easter Sunday: our beautiful world.
Also, the Bishop of Chichester’s analysis of the painting in his Easter video message. Wonderful.
Nick Spencer offers an interesting analysis in the Telegraph, that raises questions about the way a benign secularism has been allowed to hold sway in British public life for so long, despite the faith convictions of those who lead us. Now that we are facing Brexit and a General Election, will the C of E continue to collude with this? Welby has, allegedly, said that he doesn’t want to ‘upset Theresa May’ as justification for maintaining his astonishing silence about the ethical and theological implications of Brexit. Will we see a similar conspiracy between politics and religion in this forthcoming… Read more »
Nick Spencer remarks in the Daily Telegraph that ‘in the 35 years after the Second World War, the country only really had one personally devout Prime Minister, Harold MacMillan’ [sic.]. Even if this were true, it is curious, given how Macmillan was probably the most cynical and opportunistic of all premiers in that period. However, it is also a somewhat dubious proposition. I have a letter in my possession from Alec Home (son-in-law of Cyril Alington) lamenting the decline of ‘Christian morals, attendance and conduct’ as the single most important fact of his lifetime. Edward Heath would also have been… Read more »
Froghole: re Balfour swapping denomination depending on which side of the Tweed he happened to be. Nothing wrong with that. The Queen does it. So does my husband – originally an Irish Presbyterian.
Flora Alexander: I agree there’s nothing wrong with it (at least because I do it too). On the whole I think that Balfour was a fairly loyal churchman/kirkman, as befitted a Cecil-by-marriage, but he was quite close to Sedgwick & co. at Cambridge (who were not Christians). It is hard to think of him as pious or devout. However, he did not tend to theosophism and psychical research beloved of his brother Gerald (who sat in his cabinet).
Sorry, ‘by marriage’, I mean that his mother was a Cecil; half-Cecil, in other words.
Thank you, David Hunter, for highlighting the real issue here. Having just read, in the Church Times, that the ABC’s office says ‘The Archbishop won’t be commenting on the election’ I am astounded. Is he leading the Church of England, or some private membership organisation that has nothing to say about the way the Christian faith impacts on the ordering of society? I never thought I would be praising a Tory Prime Minister, but Theresa May’s interventions about England’s Christian roots over Easter have highlighted the political naivete that is now a feature of much of the C of E’s… Read more »
Welby should take a leaf out of his predecessor’s book, who spoke out in favour of keeping the 0.7% commitment to foreign aid in the Tory manifesto, one of the most anticipated documents since the Magna Carta. It makes little difference whether Theresa May’s majority is 40, 80 or 120, her bluster about ‘strong’ leadership masks an extremely weak negotiating hand, with most options taken off the table in advance of Brexit discussions. For Macron and Merkel, the consequences of ‘Brexit means Brexit’ mean less favourable terms of trade outside the single market. And Trump has been persuaded by Merkel… Read more »