Thinking Anglicans

Opinion – 24 September 2016

Richard Coles Daily Mail Holy cassocks! From 80s pop sensation to church vicar, Richard Coles recounts his more surprising moments as an irreverent rocking reverend

Bosco Peters My Submission on Same-Sex Couples

Andrew Goddard Fulcrum What does “full inclusion” mean?

Revd Nick Bundock shares his church’s journey to being an Inclusive Church, born out of tragic circumstances: Diocese of Manchester Inclusive Church.

Ian Paul asks Do we need more vicars? with reference to these reports on vocations.

19 Comments

Opinion – 17 September 2016

Lawrence Moore Windermere Centre What Does Your Church Coffee Say About Your Hospitality?

Colin Coward A dream of the future
and Time for open conversation leading to good disagreement about the fundamentals

Kelvin Holdsworth 9 Pointers towards how LGBT Inclusion will be won in the Church of England

Theo Hobson The Spectator Why CofE schools must resist becoming more religious

Guy Elsmore Modern Church The future Church [Can liberals embrace the Growth Agenda? Part 3 of 3]
Parts 1 and 2 are here and here respectively.

Andrew Lightbown Goodwill: R&R’s most important asset?

Richard Beck Experimental Theology Memento Mori

14 Comments

Opinion – 10 September 2016

Andrew Brown The Guardian David Jenkins: the bishop who didn’t believe in the Bible

Archdruid Eileen How to Shorten a Church Meeting

David Walker, Bishop of Manchester, ViaMedia.News Welcoming Signs

Justin Welby Church Times Prayer changes everything

Colin Coward Living in the closet – fifteen reasons why it’s not an okay place for gay bishops

Claire Jones Dear… the next LGBT St Anselmer

11 Comments

Opinion – 3 September 2016

Andrew Lightbown Aidan: the patron saint of R&R?

Simon Butler ViaMedia.News “See How These Christians Love One Another…”

Angus Ritchie Church Times Church growth is mainly about attitude: Many different approaches are winning new disciples: you don’t have to be Evangelical.

To mark the end of the silly season I offer you these two blogs from Ian Gomersall of St Chrysostom’s Church, Manchester.
On the names of Bishops
Unusual names of the Anglo Catholic clergy

12 Comments

Opinion – 27 August 2016

Updated to include the correct Philip Jones article

Sam Hailes meets the young people who have spent the past year shunning materialistic culture by living a monastic life at Lambeth Palace Premier Christianity A Year in God’s Time: Why these young people have been living a monastic life

Archbishop Cranmer While the Church of England becomes a safe place for children, it is hell for those wrongly accused of abuse

Christopher Howse The Telegraph Sacred Mysteries: The brightly burning hearse of Abbot Islip

Philip Jones Ecclesiastical Law Cathedral Governance: A Constitutional Monstrosity

Doug Chaplin Of tongues and translations

2 Comments

Opinion – 20 August 2016

India Sturgis The Telegraph ‘The bishop made clear to me that there would be consequences.’ Meet Clive Larsen, the reverend who left the church to marry his gay lover

A profile of Rogers Govender, Dean of Manchester, Asian Express ‘The only way forward is together’: Church of England’s first BME Dean reflects on a decade of work

Philip Christopher Baldwin Gay Times Shared Conversations – A different attitude to LGBT worshipers

53 Comments

Opinion – 13 August 2016

Bosco Peters John Cleese – Church of JC Capitalist

Frank Cranmer Law & Religion UK The Church of England and legislative reform orders

Colin Coward My Faith

Peter Hitchens Mail Online Send Not to ask for Whom the Bell Tolls. It Tolls for Thee. Thoughts on a Injustice “Wait for it – a new disclosure on the Bell case”

Philip Jones Ecclesiastical Law Baptism: Sin, Sacrament, Sacrilege and Salvation

5 Comments

Opinion – 6 August 2016

Andrew Lightbown In praise of Woodhead & Brown

Bishop David Gillett Positive about Scripture: Positive about Equal Marriage

Hattie Williams Church Times Spare Mrs May all these imaginary childhoods

57 Comments

Opinion – 30 July 2016

Jeremy Pemberton Embodying Love and Hope – The Chaplain’s Calling

David Pocklington Law & Religion UK Acclamation, assent and disruption: Further thoughts on objectors to women bishops and how the Church might respond

Giles Fraser The Guardian Father Jacques Hamel died as a priest, doing what priests do
Christopher Howse The Telegraph Sacred Mysteries: Christian martyrdom is not an act of aggression

Miranda Threlfall-Holmes Difference in Christian Thought 2: Order and Chaos

5 Comments

Opinion – 23 July 2016

Nazia Parveen The Guardian ‘This is what I’m meant to be doing’: the vicar welcoming Muslims to church

Graham Kings Mission Theology in the Anglican Communion Sarah the Mother of Mission: An Exposition on Genesis 18 and the painting by Silvia Dimitrova

David Pocklington Law & Religion UK Objectors to female bishops
Archdruid Eileen Objection to the Consecration of Female Bishops: A Liturgy

Rachel Obordo and Guardian readers The Guardian ‘I’ve learnt to be compassionate and diplomatic’: what it’s like to be a vicar’s kid
Sam Kinchin-Smith London Review of Books Vicars’ Children

Miranda Threlfall-Holmes Sex in the Anglican Communion 1
Sex in the Anglican Communion 2

2 Comments

Opinion – 16 July 2016

Andrew Brown The Guardian If the Conservative party’s doing God again, what sort of God is it?

Giles Fraser The Guardian The agony and ecstasy of Saint Theresa, the vicar’s daughter

Loretta Minghella, CEO of Christian Aid gave the Inclusive Church lecture for 2016 at Liverpool Cathedral this week: Does Poverty have a Woman’s Face?. [48 minute video]
Update: the text of the lecture is also available as a PDF download.

Language about or addressed to God should be derived from human experience, not just from men’s experience, argues Prof Adrian Thatcher, a trustee of Modern Church, in a new booklet Gender-Inclusive Language and Worship. The 36-page booklet can be downloaded or purchased in hard copy from the Modern Church website.

11 Comments

Opinion – 9 July 2016

Simon Oliver writes on Priestly ministry and the Church of England in response to this article by Ian Paul that we linked to here.

Claire Jones looks back at her “year in God’s time”: No longer a nun: the conclusion.

Sam Wells A Future that’s Bigger than the Past: Renewal & Reform in the Church of England [also available a pdf file]
Madeleine Davies writes about Dr Wells’ paper for Church Times: Renewal and Reform is subjected to theological scrutiny.

Edward Wickham The Guardian Girls on song: how the male-dominated English church choir is changing

Archdruid Eileen God Created the Earth

Miranda Threlfall-Holmes Difference, Diversity, Deviance and Hierarchy

1 Comment

Opinion – 2 July 2016

Archdeacon Archdruid Eileen Church-Seeking: Some Advice

Andy Walton Christian Today Time for a revolution: Why women should be leading at least half our big churches

10 Comments

Opinion – 25 June 2016

Andrew Brown The Guardian Church of England aims to agree to disagree over homosexuality

Two of this year’s ordinands reflect on their vocations.
Lucy Savage ‘I remember having an overwhelming feeling that this was going to be me one day’
Chris Sayburn ‘Through it all, I know the call that God has placed upon my life’

Ian Paul asks Are clergy and laity fundamentally different?

5 Comments

Opinion – 18 June 2016

David Ison ViaMedia ‘Do You See This Woman?’

Kelvin Holdsworth Scottish Episcopalians Do It Together

Beth Routledge Into The Light Of Morning

Mike Eastwood, Director of Renewal and Reform at the Church of England A hopeful future

Simon Watkinson The Guardian It’s not every young person’s dream, but I plan to be a vicar

48 Comments

Opinion – 11 June 2016

Canon Simon Butler, Prolocutor of Canterbury, looks ahead to the shared conversation at next month’s General Synod — Having a Difficult Conversation.

Thinking Afresh About Welfare — A discussion paper by the Revd Canon Dr Malcolm Brown, Director of the Mission and Public Affairs Division of Archbishops’ Council, and endorsed by the House of Bishops
Church Times has a series of extracts from the paper, ‘Uprooting people severs support networks’, and Paul Handley writes Welfare paper for Bishops identifies ‘enemy Isolation’.

Jeremy Pemberton explains why he will not be taking a wedding service today — Wedding days.

Alex Walker talks to George Westhaver, the Principal of Pusey House, about students, fellowship and faith — Unheard Oxford: The Rev’d Dr George Westhaver.

12 Comments

Opinion – 4 June 2016

Mike Stuchbery The Bartholomew Declaration — a manifesto on why more churches need to open as places of education.

Bosco Peters Giving Holy Communion to Infants

Theo Hobson The Spectator Church attendance isn’t everything. It’s authenticity that counts

Paul Bayes The Diocese of Liverpool and the Anglican Communion

Philip Jones Ecclesiastical Law What did the Ornaments Rubric Mean?

5 Comments

Opinion – 28 May 2016

Stuart Haynes Built by the people for the people

Lindsey Fitzharris The Guardian The enduring fascination of relics, from Becket’s elbow to Elvis’s Graceland

Giles Fraser The Guardian The world is getting more religious, because the poor go for God

Editorial in The Guardian The Guardian view on disappearing Christianity: suppose it’s gone for ever?

Diarmaid MacCulloch The Conversation It’s Remain not Leave that captures the independent spirit of the Reformation

Judy Woodruff interviews Presiding Bishop Michael Curry for PBS Six months in, new Episcopal church leader reflects on church challenges

34 Comments

Opinion – 21 May 2016

Andrew Lightbown Why I am worried about the C of E’S 8.2% return

Kelvin Holdsworth We worship a non-binary God. Don’t we?

Giles Fraser The Guardian Giving your body for dissection overcomes an ancient taboo

Deepening Connections: The Diocese of Virginia and the Diocese of Liverpool — a personal reflection by The Rt Rev Susan E Goff, Bishop Suffragan of Virginia

Helen King Behind closed doors

31 Comments

Opinion – 14 May 2016

Guy Elsmore Modern Church Can liberals embrace the Growth Agenda? Part 2 of 3.
This week it was announced that Guy is to become Archdeacon of Buckingham.

As a follow-up to one of last week’s threads, Andrew Lightbown has written ‘In Christ,’ absolutely; but….

Jayne Ozanne wrote “Perfect Love Casts Out Fear”.

Fr Jonathan has written On the Eucharist: Yes, Anglicans Believe in the Real Presence.

Chimene Suleyman has written Sadiq Khan may not represent a win for all Muslims, nor should he.

John Reader has written The EU Debate: A Primer in Political Theology.

12 Comments