Thinking Anglicans

Opinion – 3 April 2024

Laudable Practice The Critic This vision glorious
“Let us allow the glory of Easter to touch our daily lives”

Anglican Communion News Service Primates from across the Anglican Communion share their Easter Messages for 2024

Ruth Harley ViaMedia.News Posing a Problem: Not Equal Yet

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Easter Day 2024 – Freud and Christianity

80 Comments

Opinion – 30 March 2024

Tim Wyatt The Fence In the Shadow of St Paul’s
“Deceit, fraud and suicide in the Church of England”

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Good Friday 2024 – the erosion of spiritual energy in the CofE

70 Comments

Opinion – 27 March 2024

Simon Cross Modern Church Looking for what is Becoming

Fergus Butler-Gallie Church Times Give us a quiche, and other church offerings
“Hospitality should be central to churches’ theology — even the dreaded bring-and-share lunch”

Andrew Graystone Prospect The Marshall Plan
“Hedge fund manager Paul Marshall is on a God-driven mission to transform the religious fabric of the nation-and he has the money to do it”

111 Comments

Opinion – 23 March 2024

Bosco Peters Liturgy Who Distributes Communion?

Anon ViaMedia.News Mini-MBA Talent Pipeline Group, Module Seven: Managing Synods

3 Comments

Survey for initial response to Jay report

Press release from the Church of England

Survey for initial response to Jay report
21/03/2024

A survey has been published today for anyone who wishes to make an initial response to the recommendations made by Professor Jay in her report on the Future of Church Safeguarding. The report from Professor Alexis Jay, former chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, IICSA, makes recommendations for a new independent safeguarding and scrutiny body for the Church of England. Professor Jay was commissioned by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to carry out this work in July 2023 and her report was published in February 2024.

Survey findings will be presented to the Wilkinson/Jay Response Group (see revised Terms of Reference) and will be available on the Church of England website. All survey responses are anonymous and no names or identifying details will be requested or produced. The survey closes on April 18.

Further information on safeguarding in the Church and independence

9 Comments

Opinion – 20 March 2024

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love The Zone of Interest – ways of thinking about God

Jonathan Chaplin ViaMedia.News The Bishops must be Bolder and Braver on Gaza

149 Comments

Opinion – 16 March 2024

Andrew Brown Church Times Press: Telegraph sketches Jekyll-and-Hyde C of E

Madeleine Davies Church Times No churchwardens and vacant PCC posts: an investigation into the church volunteering crisis

[Church Times has lifted its paywall for the whole of March.]

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Living in Love and Faith and Together for the Church of England

Neil Elliot NumbersMatters Dioceses of the ACC – by numbers

79 Comments

Parish Finance Statistics 2022

The Church of England has recently published its Parish Finance Statistics 2022. These provide the latest financial information, including:

  • Income
  • Expenditure
  • Giving

Tables showing parish finances aggregated to diocese level are available as an excel file. Finance statistics for previous years, and other publications of the Research and Statistics Unit can be found on the resources, publications, and data page.

40 Comments

Opinion – 13 March 2024

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Life in all its fullness

Zac Koons The Living Church A Bronze Serpent Processional Cross

152 Comments

Opinion – 6 March 2024

Anon ViaMedia.News The Unbearable Lightness of Being General Synod

David Goodhew The Living Church The Church of England After COVID: Quo Vadis?
also online at Psephizo

Marcus Walker The Critic Dumbing down the priesthood
“Unless the Church reinstates rigorous college-based training for clerics, it will wither away”

136 Comments

February General Synod – electronic voting results

Updated 7 March to add item 13 and 14

The electronic voting results from this month’s General Synod are now available online and are linked below, with links to the order papers containing the relevant texts.

Electronic voting results

Archbishops’ Commission of Families and Households (Order Paper IV)

Safeguarding Independence (Order Paper II)

Living in Love and Faith (Order Paper VI)

24 Comments

Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway announces retirement

News from the The Scottish Episcopal Church

The Right Rev Kevin Pearson has announced today that he will retire as Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway on 31 August this year.

Bishop Kevin became the 15th Bishop of Glasgow & Galloway in July 2020 upon his translation from the Diocese of Argyll and The Isles…

5 Comments

Opinion – 2 March 2024

Alex Frost ViaMedia.News Estates Evangelism: Justice on the Margins

Charlie Bell ViaMedia.News Finding a Way Through: February 2024

Tim Sumpter Church Times How Covid changed one vicar
Church Times has lifted its paywall for the whole of March.

153 Comments

Opinion – 28 February 2024

Jeremy Pemberton From The Quire Inching Forwards?

Helen King sharedconversations Next business, anyone? LLF, Synod, February 2024

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love

140 Comments

Opinion – 24 February 2024

Helen King sharedconversations Questions of fornication

Lisa Oakley University of Chester Response from Professor Lisa Oakley to the ‘Future of Church Safeguarding’ report recommendation 10 the removal of spiritual abuse

175 Comments

General Synod – 23-27 February 2024

This post will be updated as the meeting proceeds.

The Church of England’s General Synod is meeting this weekend. The timetable is here, the agenda is here and the papers are here.

House of Laity meeting

In addition the House of Laity will meet on Sunday evening.

Live video etc

All sessions are streamed live on YouTube and remain available to view afterwards. Links have been provided in advance.

There is an official Twitter account.

Order papers

Business done

Official press releases

Press reports and comment

Church Times

The Guardian

32 Comments

Safeguarding – pre-Synod news and comment

Updated Friday to add a second Church Times article

Gavin Drake Church Abuse

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church The Future of Church Safeguarding – A look at the Jay Report
also online at Modern Church

Ruth Peacock Religion Media Centre Celebration but concern at proposed new CofE independent safeguarding

Francis Martin Church Times Jay calls for root-and-branch reform of church safeguarding

Simon Walsh Church Times Varied responses to Jay report on Church of England safeguarding

1 Comment

General Synod Questions

The Questions (and answers) for this weekend’s meeting of the Church of England’s General Synod were issued today. They can be found online here: Questions Notice Paper February 2024.

Questions will be taken in two groups; on Friday from 5.30pm to 7.00pm, and for about an hour on Saturday morning. There are 225 questions.

Update

There is a correction to the answer to Question 62 in Notice Paper 7.

22 Comments

Opinion – 21 February 2024

Unadulterated Love ‘Valuing all God’s children – including trans people!

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Freeing the Church of England from Mental Slavery

Helen King ViaMedia.News Slouching Towards Synod

3 Comments

Bishop of Leicester writes to General Synod members

The Bishop of Leicester has written to all members of the General Synod this morning, ahead of the LLF debate at Synod this coming weekend. The original is here and I haved copied the body of the letter below the fold.

(more…)

0 Comments