Thinking Anglicans

Opinion – 23 March 2022

Jane Shaw ViaMedia.News Gen Z, Authenticity and Religion

Fergus Butler-Gallie The Guardian Work of the devil? I think not. As a priest, I’m all for exotically tasty hot cross buns
“Marmite, mocha and blueberry: they may be commercially motivated, but they’re still a reminder of Easter’s importance”

Meg Munn Chair of the National Safeguarding Panel Safer Recruitment and People Management

36 Comments

Opinion – 19 March 2022

Paul Skirrow Surviving Church Bullying in the Church of England – Personal or Institutional?

Leslie Francis and Andrew Village Church Times Why lockdown drove some away from church
“If the quality of online worship was below par, people voted with their feet, or screens”

Antony MacRow-Wood (Archdeacon of Dorset) Diocese of Salisbury The History of the Stipend

Liam Cartwright ViaMedia.News Boring Ourselves to Death?

91 Comments

Opinion – 16 March 2022

Jane Shaw Prospect Keeping the faith in our parish churches
“Well funded and with a reserve of spectacular buildings, the Church of England has the resources to curb dwindling attendance–so long as it dares to re-imagine”

Laudable Practice To Swim the Tiber is to reject the Anglican Tradition

Tony Dickinson ViaMedia.News War in Ukraine — A View from Italy

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church The 2020 Micah Letter to the Charity Commission: Questioning CofE Safeguarding Procedures

55 Comments

Opinion – 12 March 2022

Helen King The retiring academic Church and the new normal

Jonathan Aitken Turbulent Priest Sermon, 6th March 2022

Ellen Clark-King ViaMedia.News God (he/she/they, him/her/them)

Renie Chow Choy Church Times Why our material legacy matters
“Widening access to heritage spaces is not a ‘woke fad'”

Nell Hardy Surviving Church Spiritual Trauma and Theatre-Based Intervention

Trevor Thurston-Smith The Pensive Pilgrim Is a Change Really as Good as a Rest?

27 Comments

Opinion – 11 March 2022

Andy Stranack Theos Embracing a valuable talent pool: the barriers and gifts of living with a disability

Alexandra Logan Love letter to the Church of England …

Martyn Percy Modern Church Embrace the “Tutufication” of the Church of England Finale

Sheila Matthews Saltwater & Honey The Mothering Sunday Conundrum

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Welcome beware, God of our whole being, essence of creation

25 Comments

Opinion – 9 March 2022

Jayne Ozanne ViaMedia.News Bishops: Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are!

Jayne Manfredi ViaMedia.News Earth Accuses Earth: Responding to Cancel Culture

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love LLF Next Steps Group plans to engage with stakeholder groups

LGBTQ Faith UK Learning from the playground – lessons for Living in Love and Faith

6 Comments

Bishop of Blackburn to retire

The Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Revd Julian Henderson, has announced that he will retire in July, immediately after the Lambeth Conference. There are details on the diocesan website and in an open letter from the bishop to his diocese.

33 Comments

Opinion – 5 March 2022

Inclusive Church launched its booklet Something Worth Sharing on Disability and Church at General Synod last month. Here are the speeches from the launch.
Fiona Macmillan Perfectly and wonderfully made
Emily Richardson Pandemic Learnings
Tim Goode Dignity and Fullness of Life

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Poll shows CofE majority support equal marriage for LGBTQIA+ people

Janet Fife Surviving Church The Outsider. A Great Man of Faith and the Two Women in his Life

Angela Tilby Church Times Bishops’ unanimity is shameful

28 Comments

Dean of Carlisle announces retirement

The Dean of Carlisle, the Very Revd Mark Boyling, has announced that he will retire later this year. Details are on the diocesan website.

18 Comments

Opinion – 2 March 2022

Fergus Butler-Gallie The Guardian Bullying, evictions, contract disputes: no wonder we priests need a trade union
“Church of England clergy can no longer rely on goodwill alone. That’s why, increasingly, we are getting organised”

Will Moore ViaMedia.News Being Bisexual in Church — a Balancing Act

68 Comments

Same Sex Marriage Research 2022

Press Release from the Ozanne Fondation

It starts with

Same Sex Marriage Research 2022

Same sex marriage – a clear majority of Anglicans believe same-sex marriage is right despite the church’s refusal to permit same sex marriage.

Fast changing attitudes within society and the Church of England have led to a broad acceptance of same sex marriage, with well over half (55%) of those identifying as Anglican and living in England believing same sex marriage is ‘right’. What is more, nearly three quarters (72%) of those under 50 believe that it is ‘right’, despite the Church of England’s official stance against same-sex relationships.

The Poll, commissioned by the Ozanne Foundation and conducted over by YouGov, repeated a question asked about people’s attitudes to same-sex marriage in 2013, 2016 and 2020. It shows a constant increase over time in the number of people who self-identify as Anglican believing same-sex marriage is ‘right’ (from 38% in 2013 to 48% in 2020 to 55% in 2022) and a marked decrease in numbers believing it is ‘wrong’ (from 47% in 2013 to just 29% in 2022).

An overwhelming majority of the British public now clearly support same sex marriage, with just a fifth opposed to it. This is a significant change in just 9 years.

and continues with details of the poll results and links to the full results.

The Church Times has this report: YouGov poll: more than half of Anglicans believe same-sex marriage to be ‘right’.

18 Comments

Opinion – 26 February 2022

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love The Ghana “Anti-Gay” Bill hearings continue with a presentation from IDNOWA

Hugh Williamson Church Times Priests on the payroll
“Hugh Williamson meets ministers whose places of secular work are their mission fields”

Josephine Stein Surviving Church Safeguarding: Value for Money?

Valerie Plumb ViaMedia.News Profile: Burn Out, Exclusion and the Church of England

26 Comments

Opinion – 23 February 2022

David Brown Surviving Church Church Culture and the Roots of Bullying

Martyn Percy Modern Church Embrace the “Tutufication” of the Church of England Part 4

Tony Baldry ViaMedia.News Will They Ever Come Back…?

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love LGBTQIA+ Representation on NSG and House of Bishops

David Goodhew The Living Church Is Anglicanism growing or dying? new data

18 Comments

Opinion – 19 February 2022

Three articles by Martyn Percy for Modern Church
Embrace the “Tutufication” of the Church of England Part 3
Coda
Some Critical Comment on “Bishops and Ministry Fit for a New Context”

Rebecca Chapman Church Times Synod is falling victim to process
“Rebecca Chapman expresses her unease at procedural moves and general discontent”

Phil Groves ViaMedia.News MI5, Exclusion & The Church of England

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church The Independent Learning Lessons Case Review – Graham Gregory. Some comments

34 Comments

Bishop of Kensington to lead new Centre for Cultural Witness

News from the Church of England

Bishop of Kensington to lead new Centre for Cultural Witness
16/02/2022

  • Bishop Graham Tomlin to lead work to explore how the Church can explain and share with others its profound and transforming story in public.
  • Project to be based based at the Lambeth Palace site and run in partnership with prominent UK-based theological faculties.
  • Output to include a magazine website, explaining aspects of Christian faith in accessible language and Christian perspectives on culture and contemporary life.
  • It will offer a learning and training programme for senior Christian leaders and emerging communicators, and theological research into the task of Cultural Witness in the contemporary context.

The Bishop of Kensington, Dr Graham Tomlin, will step down in August 2022 to lead the new Centre for Cultural Witness, a project to underpin the Church’s work of being a Christian presence in every community, by exploring how the Church can communicate and share with others its profound and transforming story in its public witness.

(more…)

39 Comments

Dean of Canterbury to retire

News from the Diocese of Canterbury

The Dean of Canterbury, The Very Revd Dr Robert Willis, has announced that he will cease to be Dean at midnight on 16 May 2022, the eve of his 75th birthday…

The Church Times covers this story here.

51 Comments

Opinion – 16 February 2022

Robert Springett ‘Save the Parish’: A response from Bishop Robert

Paul Bayes Thinking in Liverpool Farewell sermon, February 2022

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love NSG declines to define radical new Christian inclusion

Jeremy Marks ViaMedia.News Banning Prayer?

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church How Evil is to be found in our Institutions, including the Churches

3 Comments

Opinion – 12 February 2022

WATCH A Report on the Developments in Women’s Ministry in 2021
Readers may find the tables in the downloadable pdf file easier to read.

Martyn Percy Modern Church Embrace the “Tutufication” of the Church of England Part 2

Giles Fraser UnHerd The Church’s war on the clergy

Ian Paul Psephizo Once again: should clergy be paid more?

Surviving Church A Maze with no Exit. Justice Denied in the Church of England

Eeva John Church Times A more excellent way to handle conflict
“The Church would deal with disagreement better if it were free from fear and full of love, says Eeva John, in a sermon preached in Great St Mary’s, the University Church, Cambridge, on 30 January”

Sorrel Shamel-Wood ViaMedia.News Another Injustice in the Church of England? Surely not!

123 Comments

Opinion – 9 February 2022

David Mitchell The Guardian Having a laugh in church? God forbid
“A cathedral’s plan to host standup comedy has been criticised, but if it keeps places of worship relevant I’m a believer”

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Unfinished Business at Christ Church Oxford

Archbishop Cranmer Christ Church’s magic £millions make the Dean’s safeguarding risk disappear

Andrew Lightbown ViaMedia.News Why I’m ‘Crossing the Severn’…

8 Comments

Bishop of Kingston to retire

News from the Diocese of Southwark

The Bishop of Kingston, The Rt Revd Dr Richard Cheetham, announced today that he will be concluding his term of office on 17 October 2022, the 20th anniversary of his consecration. He is one of the longest-serving stipendiary bishops in the Church of England…

38 Comments