Thinking Anglicans

Opinion – 23 March 2019

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Towards understanding why people are drawn into extreme religious groups

Lucy Knight The Guardian Being a gay Christian can be hurtful and gruelling. But I refuse to lose faith

Giles Fraser UnHerd Why is punishment so popular?
“Collective vindictiveness often dresses itself up in the language of morality”

Andrew Lightbown Theore0 Speaking of sexual irony

16 Comments

Opinion – 16 March 2019

Jesse Zink Church Times The ACC: A spurned Instrument of Communion
“As Primates assume more authority, the Anglican Consultative Council is being marginalised”

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church How abuse survivors are betrayed
and Too important to care about child sexual abuse? Problems for Church and State

Richard Moy A Reasonable Enthusiast The Myth of Episcopal Oversight in the UK Church

ViaMedia.News is continuing its series of Daily Reflections for Lent 2019; details are here. An example is this one by Alex Clare-Young.

William Cook The Spectator Taking the God option: why I send my children to C of E schools
“No, it’s not because they get better results, but because they teach peace, hope and compassion”

5 Comments

Opinion – 13 March 2019

Women and the Church Transparency or Opacity – declarations, websites and jargon

Jude Smith Christian Today Women priests 25 years on: How are we flourishing?

Miranda Threlfall-Holmes ‘Women’ priests?

Women and the Church 25th Jubilee!

Sarah Mullally Contemplation in the shadow of a carpark  “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.”

Jeremy Pemberton Openly The Church of England must break its toxic colonial legacy

17 Comments

Opinion – 9 March 2019

Martin Sewell Archbishop Cranmer Emotional abuse in the Church: Bishops need psychological help

Justin Welby Church Times Good news — without coercion
“How should Christians evangelise people of other religions?”

Pat Ashworth Church Times The future of Christian ministry is collaborative
“Are we seeing the end of the individual vocation?”

David Ison Church Times The looking-glass world of the judgemental
“It is wrong to use St Paul’s teachings to deny LGBT people the sacrament of communion”
[also available at Via.Media.News]

12 Comments

Opinion – 6 March 2019 – Ash Wednesday

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Honesty and Truthfulness in the Church
and What do I believe? Paradigm thoughts of a feral Christian

Michael Sadgrove Woolgathering in North East England The Ordination of Women as Priests – 25 Years On

Rosie Harper ViaMedia.News Why do Good People do Bad Things?

Meg Warner ViaMedia.News Elephants, Penguins, Procreation & Japanese Knotweed (Part 2)

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Impression Management. How Organisations control truth

Ian Paul Psephizo What are the issues in ministerial training?

ViaMedia.News is launching a series of Daily Reflections for Lent 2019, which are written by 40 LGBTI+ Christians from around the UK. There will be a daily posting, except on Sundays, with the first one today (Ash Wednesday). Full details are here.

0 Comments

Opinion – 2 March 2019

Peter Leonard ViaMedia.News The Lambeth Conference & Those 6 Evils…

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church The DARVO phenomenon. How abusers blame and silence the abused

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Archbishop Justin invites all gay bishops to Lambeth 2020 – but refuses to invite their spouses

Ed Thornton Church Times What causes people to lose their faith?
“A combination of ingredients, preparation, and environment can lead to a crisis of faith”

Lynne Cullens Church Times A middle-class culture dominates the Church
“Barriers that hinder working-class people from responding to their call should be removed”

Opinion articles relating specifically to last week’s meeting of General Synod are in my article below.

19 Comments

Opinion – 27 February 2019

Theo Hobson The Spectator How agnostics can help save the Church of England

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Overcoming conflict. Mediation and reconciliation examined.

Opinion articles relating specifically to last week’s meeting of General Synod are in my article below.

0 Comments

Opinion – 23 February 2019

Martin Sewell Archbishop Cranmer ‘General Synod has no confidence in the Church of England’s capacity to regulate its own safeguarding culture’

Sara Gillingham Church Times My intersex story
“Sara Gillingham is fed up with being treated as ‘disordered'”
John Appleby Church Times Created by god male and female?
“Exposure to different experiences has led John Appleby to rethink binary gender models”

Jayne Ozanne ViaMedia.News Can It be Right That…?

4 Comments

Opinion – 20 February 2019

Lynne Cullens Some notes on class, relevance and the Church

Giles Goddard ViaMedia.News Lessons My Mother Taught Me…Like When Best to Say Nothing At All

Kelvin Holdsworth What’s in Kelvin’s Head How would you teach me to pray?

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Volunteers and Church Life

Jonathan Draper Afterthoughts Evangelism and the Five Marks of Mission

1 Comment

Pre-Synod News and Opinion

The Church of England’s General Synod meets in London this week from Wednesday to Saturday.

Stephen Lynas bathwellschap Ch – ch – ch – ch – ch – changes
Stephen’s usual excellent introduction to this week’s business

Andrew Lightbown Theore0 Hey ho, hey ho & it’s off to synod we go

Steven Croft Bishop of Oxford Rethinking Evangelism
an (unauthorised) background paper for the General Synod.

David Pocklington Law & Religion UK Measuring the Footprint, Delivering the ambition?
“The continued debate on the London/Truro Diocesan Synod Motion”

Church Times leader Mission creeps

There are  links to the Synod agenda and papers here.

23 Comments

Opinion – 16 February 2019

Quodcumque – Serious Christianity Guest Post: Consecrated celibacy – a personal journey

Sara Gillingham ViaMedia.News Dear Church – A Valentine Lesson in Love
“Sara Gillingham … raises awareness of issues faced by people born with intersex traits.”

Andrew Gray Church Times A joined-up approach to tackling homelessness
“A task force would enable better working between the Church and other agencies”

Church Times ‘Jesus holding my hand has been the most powerful force in my life’
“Two gay priests of different generations talk about the challenges that they have faced in their ministry”

12 Comments

Opinion – 13 February 2019

Kimberly Knowle-Zeller The Episcopal Café Noticing Every Day

David Walker ViaMedia.News A Special Place in Hell….and the Road to Heaven

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Revisiting Institutional Narcissism

2 Comments

Opinion – 9 February 2019

Andrew Lightbown Theore0 Talking of inclusivity, offence and rejection

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Why do Christians seem preoccupied by sex?

Ted Harrison Church Times Beware the use of banal and meaningless slogans
“Think carefully before creating one, … and make sure to avoid these common pitfalls”

Marcus Walker Catholic Herald Why Anglo-Catholicism appeals to millennials

Meg Warner ViaMedia.News Elephants, Penguins, Procreation & Japanese Knotweed

17 Comments

Opinion – 6 February 2019

Andrew John, the Bishop of Bangor, Bishop Andy’s new Episcopal Letter
“I have come to believe that the Church should now fully include without distinction those who commit to permanent loving unions with a person of the same sex. I further believe that the best way to do this is for the Church to marry these people as we do with men and women.”

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Releasing the feral essence of God to flow in our beings

Ryan P Bonfiglio The Christian Century It’s time to rethink our assumptions about where theological education happens
“Until 1565, the local church was also the seminary.”

Marcus Green ViaMedia.News Living in Love & Faith – The Challenge of Getting Heard

23 Comments

Opinion – 2 February 2019

Tina Beardsley ViaMedia.News A Trans Priest’s Response to the “Harmful” Open Letter

Andrew Lightbown Theore0 Talking of baptismal rites. It’s time for the bishops to stand firm.

Ann Reddecliffe LGBTQFaithUK Why the bishops are right.

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love On leaving in Love and Faith

Madeleine Davies interviews Paul Bayes for Church Times An interview with the Bishop of Liverpool
“Bishops are allowed to have opinions, Paul Bayes tells Madeleine Davies”

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church The John Smyth affair two years on. Has anything changed?

3 Comments

Opinion – 30 January 2019

Savi Hensman Ekklesia Welcoming transgender Christians and valuing discipleship: letter to Bishops misses the point

Rosie Harper ViaMedia.News Transphobic Letters, Mansplaining & Male Violence.

Katie Gaddini and Linda Woodhead The Conversation Brexit shines light on Church of England rift between leadership and Anglican majority

8 Comments

Opinion – 26 January 2019

Updated Saturday afternoon to add last two items

Laudable Practice The myopia of not propagating Anglicanism

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Deference and Obedience – Christian Virtues?

 Unadulterated Love On Being a Feral Priest

Andrew Forshew-Cain ViaMedia.News The First Signs of Spring?

Hattie Williams interviews Meg Munn, the independent chair of the National Safeguarding Panel, for Church Times No one ‘should ever stop being vigilant’ of risks

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church The Meg Munn CT interview – signs of hope for the future

0 Comments

Opinion – 23 January 2019

Peter Leonard ViaMedia.News The Power of Grass Roots Rebellion

Richard Peers Quodcumque – Serious Christianity The Truth About Changing the Church

Andrew Brown The Guardian Justin Welby’s speaking in tongues makes sense to his evangelical tribe

Andrew Lightbown Theore0 Speaking in praise of the elderly and the young.

Jeremy Morris ViaMedia.News IICSA – Holding the Past to Account?

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Help required for Safeguarding incident
[If you have any advice or help for Stephen please post it on his blog and not here.]

22 Comments

Opinion – 19 January 2019

Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Being who I am

Malcolm Doney and Martin Wroe Church Times Is Christian language to blame for falling church attendance?

Terence Handley MacMath interviews Natalie Collins, gender-justice specialist for Church Times
‘Christianity should be at the forefront of gender justice, but it isn’t’

Kelvin Holdsworth What’s in Kelvin’s Head How shall we pray for our elected representatives?

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Survivors of Sexual Abuse in Churches – further reflections

38 Comments

Opinion – 16 January 2019

Jonathan Clatworthy Château Clâteau Can evangelicals evangelise?

Richard Peers Quodcumque – Serious Christianity Candlemas: for schools and homes
The Bible in a Year?: Evangelicals, lectionaries and apps

Stephen Parsons Surviving Church ‘Concerned Anglicans’ in Oxford- who are they speaking for?
and Concerned Anglicans in Oxford. Are they all Anglican?

Trevor Thurston-Smith The Pensive Pilgrim Saving the Best Wine Until Last

Laudable Practice Giving Thanks for Elizabeth I

15 Comments