Thinking Anglicans

Opinion – 8 February 2020

Jeremy Pemberton From the Choir Stalls Sexuality and Intimacy: are we thinking straight?

Rosie Harper ViaMedia.News After the Apology – Surely the Centre Cannot Hold?

Helen King and Judith Maltby ViaMedia.News Living in Love & Faith – What the Bishops Need to Learn…

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Love, honesty, openness, courage and integrity please, bishops
Living in Love and Faith – a doomed project

Andrew Lightbown Theore0 Talking of trust, mission, leadership and governance

Helen King sharedconversations Bishops to show us the way

Meg Munn Chair of the National Safeguarding Panel Church of England’s response to IICSA

33 Comments

Opinion – 5 February 2020

Martin Sewell Archbishop Cranmer Candlemas: from the Presentation of Christ to ‘Radical Inclusion’

Andrew Nunn the Dean of Southwark What’s love got to do with it?

Jen Williams Wrestling with Love and Anger as an LGBTQ+ Christian.

Jayne Ozanne gave this lecture Love, Sex and Power to the William Temple Association on Monday.
There is a report of the lecture in The Guardian: C of E sex guidance row: synod member calls out ‘deep’ hypocrisy.

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love How to confront a hypocritical and abusive institution

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church ‘Trials’ in Church and State
Stephen’s article alludes to this article in InsurancePOST: Ecclesiastical faces fresh allegations of unethical treatment as case of ‘suicide watch’ claimant comes to light

4 Comments

Opinion – 1 February 2020

Stephen Lynas bathwellschap Scrambled Eggs

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Safety or Salvation. Competing ideas for understanding Church

Ann Memmott Ann’s Autism Blog Surviving Church of England Announcements

2 Comments

Opinion – 29 January 2020

Michelle Montrose preached this sermon at Liverpool Parish Church on 26 January. Do read it to the end.

Ray Gaston Medium On being pastorally (ir)responsible — and not waiting for bishops

Mandy Ford ViaMedia.News What the Bishops Could Have Said…

Janet Fife Surviving Church Vignette in the Vestry

Andrew Lightbown Theore0 Talking of safety in church

38 Comments

Opinion – 25 January 2020

Archdruid Eileen The Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley The Beaker Folk Issue a Pamphlet About Civil Partnerships

Andrew Wilson NewsThump Church of England challenges Roman Catholicism in bid to be Christianity’s moral mafia

Andrew Lightbown Theore0 Speaking of ministerial training; what did full time training do for anyone?

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Reflections on the life of Bishop Peter Ball
This refers to a Church Times letter by Colin Buchanan; it is the second one here.

Peter Leonard ViaMedia.News Restoring Trust….In Church and State

Paper and String Church The Cliff Face

34 Comments

Opinion – 22 January 2020

Daniel Inman Church Times Don’t allow residential training to collapse
“The market is now saturated: action must be taken to ensure that institutions are not forced to close”

Mandate Now ‘The Church has some form of Mandatory Reporting’ (Peter Hancock – Lead Bishop for Safeguarding) | “Oh no it hasn’t!”

Mark Bennet Surviving Church Have attitudes to sex changed in the Church over the past 30 years?

Surviving Church BBC Interview of Julie Macfarlane. Seeking Justice after Abuse

David Ison ViaMedia.News Abusers of Faith

Meg Munn Chair of the National Safeguarding Panel BBC Documentary

6 Comments

Opinion – 18 January 2020

This article dates from 1996 but may be of interest
Andrew Brown Prospect The unholy mess

Savi Hensman ViaMedia.News Secularism – A Force for Good?

Angharad Woolcott Church Times ‘As a survivor, I believe that by talking out, I may be able to help others’
“A survivor of clergy abuse reflects on the BBC2 documentary Exposed: The Church’s darkest secret, on the serial sex-offender and former bishop Peter Ball”

Richard Harries Church Times What it feels like to believe
“Richard Harries argues in the last in his series that, in a sceptical age, an appeal to personal experience remains paramount”

5 Comments

Opinion – 15 January 2020

The Fence Diary of an Urban Parson
The Reverend J J Cowan goes on a ‘modulated exploratory learning course’.

Mtr Kate St Chrysostom’s Church News and Views Compassion easier than Justice …

Simon Butler ViaMedia.News Living in Love & Faith – The Importance of Speaking the Truth

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church The Church’s Dark Secret – Reflections

36 Comments

Opinion – 11 January 2019

Adrian Chiles The Guardian My atheist family was appalled when I converted to Catholicism – but it’s given me great peace

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Taking stock in 2020. Where is the Church going with Safeguarding?
Private Eye Silence of the Lambeth

Richard Harries Church Times Coming in from the outside
“In the second of a series of articles exploring apologetics in a secular age, Richard Harries considers what it might mean to know God”

David Walker ViaMedia.News All Things Considered….Including ‘Living in Love & Faith’

10 Comments

Opinion – 8 January 2020

David Taylor A Blaze of Light Mixed-Mode or Residential? I’ve Done Both

Richard Harries Church Times Belief in a sceptical society
“In the first of three articles exploring apologetics in a secular age, Richard Harries surveys how life has changed since the 1960s”

Peter Anthony Saint Benet’s Kentish Town Christmas Attendance Statistics

The same title but two very different views of the year ahead
David Baker Christian Today What will happen to the Church of England and Anglicans in 2020?
Jayne Ozanne ViaMedia.News What Will Happen to the Church of England and Anglicans in 2020?

28 Comments

Opinion – 4 January 2020

Rose Hudson-Wilkin The Voice Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin gives New Year message to Voice readers
“The Bishop of Dover says we can live out the meaning of togetherness as we begin 2020”

Rose Hudson-Wilkin Vogue On Becoming Britain’s First Black Female Bishop

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Thinking about conservative Christianity and divisions

Giles Fraser UnHerd What’s the point of civil partnerships?
“Let’s not pretend that cancelling marriage will eradicate the power imbalances of sexual politics”

31 Comments

Jonathan Fletcher latest

In the days immediately following Christmas Day, the Daily Telegraph published several articles by Gabriella Swerling and others about Jonathan Fletcher. They are all behind a paywall, but the Telegraph does allow you to read one a week if you register. Otherwise you are restricted to reading the first couple of paragraphs, but this will give a slight flavour of what they are all about.

Some other papers have reported on the Telegraph’s articles.

Mail Online Church of England vicar, 77, could face criminal probe after alleged abuse victims claim they endured naked ice baths, beatings and massages
Christian Today Criminal inquiry a possibility for vicar accused of spiritual abuse
Church Times Press: Jonathan Fletcher’s victims speak out
Church Times Lessons-learnt review is launched into Jonathan Fletcher
Patheos Victims of sadistic evangelical priest want police to investigate
Premier London vicar Rev Jonathan Fletcher could face criminal inquiry

And there has been comment.

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Peter Ball and Jonathan Fletcher. A toxic legacy?
Reacting to the Jonathan Fletcher story – the Great Silence
Martin Sewell Archbishop Cranmer Jonathan Fletcher presents the Church of England with a crisis of integrity

38 Comments

Opinion – New Year’s Day 2020

Kate Bowler Washington Post We are not divine. But we are loved. That is enough.

Paul Bayes ViaMedia.News A ‘Low & Dishonest’ Decade?
The Guardian reports on this and other New Year messages.

1 Comment

Opinion – 28 December 2019

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Who wants to be an English Bishop?

Simon Jenkins The Guardian To survive, Britain’s churches need to learn from our cathedrals

Diarmaid MacCulloch The Guardian Why Christianity has been struggling with sex ever since the Nativity

91 Comments

Opinion – 24 December 2019

Archdruid Eileen The Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley God Enters the God-Made World

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church The Archbishop-designate and Christian Concern – some thoughts.

The Archbishop of Canterbury‘s 2019 Ecumenical Christmas Letter

Philip Baldwin Gay Times LGBTQ Christians desperately want and need full inclusion

8 Comments

Opinion – 21 December 2019

Some more Christmas Messages posted by the Anglican Communion News Service

Archbishops Richard Clarke and Eamon Martin, The Anglican Church of Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland
Archbishop Paul Kwong, The Anglican Church of Hong Kong
Archbishop Linda Nicholls, The Anglican Church of Canada
Archbishop John Davies, The Church in Wales

Andrew Brown Church Times How smartphones have changed the news

Peter Leonard ViaMedia.News An Everyday Christmas….?

1 Comment

Opinion – 18 December 2019

Some Christmas Messages posted by the Anglican Communion News Service

Archbishop Philip Freier, Primate of Australia
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry [also available here]
Archbishop Datuk Ng Moon Hing, Archbishop of the Province of South East Asia

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Christians pulled in two directions – reconciling opposites.

Archdruid Eileen The Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley Needing a Wee on the First Day of the Week

Jayne Ozanne Viamedia.News A Tale of Two Kitties

3 Comments

Opinion – 14 December 2019

Caroline Starkey & Grace Davie LSE Religion and Global Society Silence and Words: Unexpected Responses to a Gay Bishop

The Fence Diary of an Urban Parson
“True and affecting vignettes from the life and times of the Reverend J J Cowan, from which the reader may discern much of the happy state of the Church of England in our nation’s fair capital”
[first of a series]

Lucy Winkett New Statesman It’s always a risk walking around this time of year with a dog collar on. People might ask you things

Simon Butler ViaMedia.News Wellbeing, Leadership and ‘The Other’

36 Comments

Opinion – 11 December 2019

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Elite Schools and leadership in Church and State

Peterson Feital ViaMedia.News Does the Church have a Problem with Institutional Racism?

Jeremy Morris Church Times The cry for self-government: 100 years of the Enabling Act
“Jeremy Morris marks the centenary of the Enabling Act, which created the General Synod’s precursor, in response to a campaign for the C of E’s “‘liberty'”

10 Comments

Opinion – 7 December 2019

Andrew Lightbown Theore0 Speaking of Renewal and Reform; money, numbers, and growth

Laudable Practice The Advent of High Church populism

Kate Surviving Church Conservative Evangelical Bullying: A case study.

David Walker Via.Media.News Pondering “the Bump” of Posada

Peter Sherlock theproseclerk The New Anglican Century: One Hundred Female Bishops

43 Comments