Thinking Anglicans

Opinion – 10 July 2021

Nick Spencer Engelsberg Ideas Humanism matters in the age of AI

Giles Fraser UnHerd The Church is abandoning its flock

Edward Dowler All Things Lawful And Honest Ordained by God

Andrew Lightbown Theore0 Speaking of planning permission: 10,000 reasons to decline

Dave Male, the Church of England’s director of evangelism and discipleship Clergy and parishes at the heart of the Church of England – now and in the future

Church Times Leader comment: ‘Key limiting factors’

Ian Black Church Times ‘Passengers’ have more to offer than we think
“The laity have long contributed to church growth, even if some shirk from the language of ‘discipleship'”

Philip Murray All Things Lawful And Honest Limiting Factors? Or Limited Ecclesiology?

Paul Bayes ViaMedia.News LGBT Stories: Bring on the Ban!

136 Comments

Opinion – 7 July 2021

Updated to add second Martyn Percy article

Jonathan Draper Modern Church Limiting Factors: the ‘Myriad’ initiative and the future of the Church
Martyn Percy Modern Church The Great Leap Forward (Part One) The New Politics of Ecclesionomics for the Church of England
The Great Leap Forward (Part Two) – The Church of England’s Growth Fetish
Ian Paul Psephizo Should everyone be church-planting missionary disciples?
Andrew Lightbown Theore0 Talking of vision; talking of strategy
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Ten thousand new congregations. Will they save the Church of England?
Barnaby Perkins All Things Lawful And Honest It’s the limit.

Anne Dannerolle ViaMedia.News LGBT Stories – Can Conservative Evangelical Churches Ever Change?

47 Comments

Opinion – 3 July 2021

Timothy Goode ViaMedia.News LGBT+ Stories – The Trauma of Abusive “Healing” Ministries

Peter Collier Church Times The Lambeth Working Group has lost its way on CDM reform
“The proposals before the Synod appear to have missed what our independent group was saying”

Silvia Falcetta Openly English marriage law locks out same-sex couples from religious weddings

Archbishop Cranmer ‘Key limiting factors’: the end of stipendiary parish ministry
The Church Times has two news articles on this topic:
Synod to discuss target of 10,000 new lay-led churches in the next ten years
Archbishop of Canterbury endorses urgent plan for church-planting
And Archdruid Eileen has this: “Free From Limiting Factors” – 10,000 new Laboratories

151 Comments

Opinion – 30 June 2021

Jayne Ozanne ViaMedia.News Church Leader – Are You Helping or Harming?

Philip North Church Times The General Synod’s Business Committee has its priorities wrong
“It should be debating how richer dioceses can help poorer ones, not reopening old wounds over the Sheffield débâcle”

Leander Harding The Living Church “Always Dress Like a Priest”

Jonathon Van Maren Mercatornet The turning tide of intellectual atheism
“A growing number of leading serious intellectuals are recognising the need for Christianity’s resurrection but can’t quite bring the faith to life in themselves.”

34 Comments

Opinion – 26 June 2021

Jonathan Clatworthy The point of it all Would you trust a Tory?

Open Table It’s out – and we’re proud! Independent research shows Open Table truly supports well-being

Simon Butler ViaMedia.News LGBT Stories: It’s Time for Action!

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church The John Smyth Case Review commissioned by the Scripture Union

Madeleine Davies Church Times Is the C of E still a class-riddled act?

Kelvin Holdsworth Sev’n Whole Days

Michael King Religion Media Centre Factsheet: Conversion Therapy

10 Comments

Opinion – 23 June 2021

Kelvin Holdsworth The Bishop of St Davids and the Archbishop of Canterbury

Zachary Guiliano The Living Church Why I Wear Black

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Campaigning for radical LGBTIQ+ inclusion
In 2017 fourteen retired bishops voiced concern over the same sex relationships report

Sarah Mullally ViaMedia.News LGBT Stories: “Texts of Terror” – Are We Helping or Harming?

Mark Clavier The Living Church Restoring the Ecology of Faith

Kevin Scully What price reform?

74 Comments

Opinion – 19 June 2021

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Shunning and Cruelty in the Justice System of the Church

David Runcorn ViaMedia.News LLF: Building the Bridge as We Cross It …

81 Comments

Opinion – 16 June 2021

Helen King sharedconversations Rewriting your history: thinking about the Winchester case

Nicholas Henshall ViaMedia.News Making Ourselves ‘Other’

David Goodhew The Living Church Beijing’s Man in the Anglican Communion

Christina Beardsley Unadulterated Love Trans leaders and CA England advise Bishop of London a working group to consider gender identity and transition is unadvisable

Archbishop Cranmer Who wrote the ‘Dirty Dossier’ on the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford?

89 Comments

Opinion – 12 June 2021

Rob Price The Living Church The Distance of the Performer

David Walker ViaMedia.News Banning Conversion Therapy Must “Focus on the Victim Not the Perpetrator”
There are related news items in The Guardian and Church Times.

Archbishop Cranmer Christ Church Cathedral Oxford blocks its own Canon on Twitter
Archdruid Eileen The Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley Ritual for Blocking a Cathedral Canon on Twitter

Kate Gibson Rylands Blog Finding faith in the urban archive

Pip Martin Church Times This traumatised nation needs open churches
“Keeping the doors unlocked shows pandemic-scarred parishioners that they are not alone”

Rosie Harper ViaMedia.News Apology without Change is Manipulation

13 Comments

Opinion – 9 June 2021

Meg Munn Chair of the National Safeguarding Panel Safeguarding and the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM)

Peter Leonard ViaMedia.News Trigger Warning!

3 Comments

Opinion – 5 June 2021

Philip Jones Ecclesiastical Law Celebrating the Lord’s Day: The Ecclesiastical Regulation of Sunday

Laudable Practice Credo in unum Deum: how contemporary Trinity Sunday Proper Prefaces obscure monotheism

Nick Bundock ViaMedia.News “Another Way is Possible….”

43 Comments

Opinion – 29 May 2021

ViaMedia.News Justin’s Story – “I was taught to hate the very ones who loved me”
by Justin, a survivor of conversion therapy who was nearly crushed under the shame but is now a minister in training

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Changing Attitude England ask Archbishops what new radical Christian inclusion means for LGTBIQ+ people

Church Times It’s time to make ‘good’ disagreement ‘loving’
Christopher Landau proposes a more distinctively Christian way to handle conflicts in the Church”

Kehinde Andrews The Guardian Eve Pitts: the Church of England’s first Black female vicar – and one of its fiercest critics
“Despite attempts to drive her out of the church, she has spent decades fighting racism wherever she has encountered it. Now she is pushing the C of E to honour the enslaved people it exploited”

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Does the C of E have Leaders with Authority, Wisdom and Insight to cope with Crises?

Archbishop Cranmer CDM PTSD: the trauma, stress and disorder of the Clergy Discipline Measure

11 Comments

Opinion – 26 May 2021

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Trans leaders ask Next Steps Group chair to ensure trans membership on new working group

Viamedia.News Annie’s Story – “I Did My Best to Conform, But…”
by Annie, a victim of abuse who found succour in the charismatic church – where she was subjected to even more abuse….

Laudable Practice What Anglicanism can learn from the Labour Party

2 Comments

Opinion – 22 May 2021

Tina Beardsley Unadulterated Love Living in Love & Faith (LLF) to reconsider gender identity and transition

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Further developments in the John Smyth Case

ViaMedia.News Peter’s Story – Conditioning Causes Shame & Self-Hatred
by Peter (a pseudonym), a survivor of conversion therapy

1 Comment

Opinion – 19 May 2021

All Things Lawful And Honest A younger church?
The Rev’d Steven Hilton recalls the success of the Church of England’s youth initiatives in the 1990s, and asks whether the Church’s mission and growth might be better secured by employing not more clergy but more youth workers.

ViaMedia.News Kate’s Story
by Kate, a transgender woman from the north of England, who bravely shares her horrific experience of being prayed for in three different evangelical churches.

Manmit Bhambra and Austin Tiffany LSE blogs From the Sanctuary to the Sofa: What COVID-19 has Taught us about Sacred Space

17 Comments

Opinion – 15 May 2021

Abigail Frymann Rouch Church Times Could interim ministry be the answer in tough times for the Church?

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church The Church. Does it really serve Emerging Adults?

Tina Beardsley Unadulterated Love So-called conversion therapy, gender identity, and the dangers of coercion and consultation

ViaMedia.News Yve’s Story – “I Felt Set Up To Fail”
by Yve, who has experienced both the very worst and the very best of the Church of England

11 Comments

Opinion – 12 May 2021

Charlie Bell For whom the Bell tolls Why marriage matters

ViaMedia.News Steven’s Story – “I felt I had no option but to make a formal complaint to the Garda”

Helen King sharedconversations Conversion therapy: faith without fear

7 Comments

Opinion – 8 May 2021

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Victim of abuse failed by London bishops who perversely then pursue the victim’s defender

Charles Foster Surviving Church Growing up and away from the #Fletcherculture

Jaime Sommers ViaMedia.News Jaime’s Story – “They had absolutely no idea what to do with me”
by Jaime Sommers, a bisexual 50 year old woman whose story of abuse by the Church of England will shock many

Jon Stobart Church Times From the genteel to the exotic
“Auction catalogues provide a glimpse into the home lives of rural Georgian clergy”

15 Comments

Opinion – 5 May 2021

Luke Dowding OneBodyOneFaith Service & Self

ViaMedia.News Rachel’s Story – I Don’t Want to Be Part of An Institution that Allows Abuse
by Rachel, a 30 something Christian, hockey player and lesbian whose experience in an HTB plant has seriously damaged her faith.

56 Comments

Opinion – 1 May 2021

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Towards Healthier Power Dynamics in the Church

Andrew Lightbown Theore0 Speaking of culture; speaking of church

ViaMedia.News Revd Adams’ Story – Is It Wrong for Me to Tell the Truth?
by the Reverend Adams, a gay Methodist Minister

57 Comments