Thinking Anglicans

Opinion – 7 May 2016

Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons Religion News Service Fifty proven ways to revive mainline churches [and six common pitfalls to avoid]

Kelvin Holdsworth The Seven Actual Marks of Mission

Theo Hobson The Spectator The BBC should commission a Christian version of Woman’s Hour

Ian Paul Should we ‘Hate the sin and love the sinner’?
[in response to the article by Simon Butler linked to here last week]

David Ison ViaMedia Right or True – Discerning the Difference

57 Comments

Opinion – 30 April 2016

Bosco Peters Eastern Orthodox Easter

James Jones BBC Radio 4 Thought for the Day

Andrew Lightbown ‘Fear not’ for the C of E

Stephen Cottrell ACC 16 – A full time report: Hope triumphs

Simon Butler “Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin”?

The Telegraph Photographer visits abandoned places of worship, in pictures — photographs by Matthias Haker

Elaine Graham presented this paper to the Modern Church Council in March: Modern Church Between a rock and a hard place: Negotiating religious voices in public places — with links to the full 7000 word paper and a two-page summary and reading list.

Kelvin Holdsworth Six things I have learned about anti-semitism and the church

20 Comments

Opinion – 23 April 2016

Michael Ainsworth Law & Religion UK Thoughts on railways, clergy, religion and the law

Jim Grover The Guardian How my camera helped me re-focus on my faith

Darrell Hannah Church Times Robust approach to fossil fuels required

8 Comments

Opinion – 16 April 2016

Bosco Peters The End of Confirmation?

Giles Fraser The Guardian We cannot fix people’s grief, only sit with them, in their darkness

Jemima Thackray Church Times Poor sent empty away

Kelvin Holdsworth Apologies have consequences too

17 Comments

Opinion – 9 April 2016

Mark Clavier The Living Church Memory inscribed in stone

Jayne Ozanne ViaMedia Shared Confidences – Why “It’s Good to Talk”

Matthew Cooper Apollo Drastic reform is the only way to save England’s churches

37 Comments

Opinion – Easter Saturday: 2 April 2016

Sam Keyes The Living Church Food of life, food of death

Giles Fraser The Guardian The resurrection isn’t an argument. It’s the Christian word for defiance

Some Easter sermons

Archbishop of Canterbury
Bishop of Liverpool

Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church

Archbishop of Armagh
Archbishop of Armagh (dawn service)
Archbishop of Dublin

Bishop of Waikato

Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem

And some from Holy Week

Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church

Archbishop of Armagh

20 Comments

Opinion – Holy Saturday: 26 March 2016

Guy Elsmore Modern Church Can liberals embrace the Growth Agenda? Part 1 of 3

Andrew Lightbown Disability & Easter – thoughts prompted by a Govt. Minister

Daniel Bond Politics Home Justin Welby: “The EU debate is not all about us. It’s about our vision for the world.”

Ysenda Maxtone Graham The Spectator The price of a cathedral – and how deans pay it

Linda Woodhead and Lucy Winkett Prospect The Duel: Should the Church of England be disestablished?

Clerk of Oxford ‘This doubtful day of feast or fast’: Good Friday and the Annunciation

The Salisbury diocesan website reports Bishop Sceptical on Fixed Easter with reference to the Bishop of Salisbury’s Chrism Mass Sermon, Maundy Thursday 2016.

The Anglican Communion News Service has compiled a number of Easter Messages from Anglican primates.

Phil Groves Anglican Communion News Service How do you stop terrorism?

Fiona Gibson Ship of Fools Judging by numbers

114 Comments

Opinion – 19 March 2016

Simon Butler ViaMedia Why R & R is Good for the Health of the Church

Laurie Goodstein interviews Presiding Bishop Michael Curry for the New York Times: Episcopal Church’s First Black Leader, a Gay Marriage Backer, Focuses on Race.

Church Times Interview: Rowan Williams, theologian, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge

6 Comments

Opinion – 12 March 2016

The Church of England marked International Women’s Day 2016 with Women Inspiring Women — video stories from seven of its women bishops.

Andrew Lightbown Church leadership; just a few thoughts as I approach incumbency

Kelvin Holdsworth The Three Great Festivals of Distress

3 Comments

Opinion – 5 March 2016

Wyn Beynon Join Up The Dots: Reflections on General Synod February 2016

David Walker, Bishop of Manchester Rediscovering “Good Disagreement”

Photographer Jim Grover shadowed south London priest Kit Gunasekera for a year: Tending the flock: a year in the life of a London priest – in pictures.

Andrew Lightbown What on earth were the Primates up to, and why we should be worried.
[with reference to this Church Times news item]

32 Comments

Opinion – 27 February 2016

Bosco Peters Communion Means Communion

Andrew Lightbown Church leadership & strategy: some final thoughts
[This follows on from two earlier articles linked here.]

Nick Spencer Church Times Merkel’s strong, unshowy faith

Ian Paul Are evangelicals taking over the Church?

This is one I overlooked earlier.
Tom Ferguson The Crusty Old Dean The NFLization of the Anglican Communion: Primates Go Roger Goodell

46 Comments

Opinion – 20 February 2016

Martin Freeman Plymouth Herald The serpent, the dove and the Bishop of Truro

Angus Ritchie ABC Religion & Ethics Scripture and Sexuality, Once Again: A Response to Ian Paul

Spitalfields Life The Broderers Of St Paul’s Cathedral

Jana Riess Religion News Service No, St. Francis didn’t say that. (Or Thomas Merton. Or Buddha. Or C.S. Lewis.) Where do we get these fake religion memes?

23 Comments

Opinion – 13 February 2016

Archdruid Eileen Government to Introduce League Tables For Churches

The Archbishop of Canterbury gave this Church of Ireland Theological Lecture on Monday: ‘The Generational Struggle’.

Nick Baines Under an African sky (Tanzania visit)

Church Times is publishing a seven-week series on Theology Now during Lent. This week there are articles on God. Most are behind the paywall, but here are two that are not.
John Inge, Bishop of Worcester In my heart and in my head
Andrew Davison Believing: a respectable approach

Antonia Honeywell The Telegraph I was driven out of my beloved church by homophobia

Mark Hart Living Out the Trinity in the Church of England

Ross Kane The Christian Century Should Episcopalians repent?

13 Comments

Opinion – 6 February 2016

Robert Cotton reflects on his five years as a member of the Archbishops’ Council.

Church Times leader Don’t rest yet

The Bishop of St Albans, Rt Rev Dr Alan Smith Statement on Government plans to extend Sunday trading

ChurchPOP 15 Hilarious Complaints Medieval Scribes Left in the Margins

Constantino Duran The Single Path

Philip Jones Ecclesiastical Law The Proposed Enabling Measure: A Complex Process of Simplification

19 Comments

Opinion – 30 January 2016

Nigel Genders, Chief Education Officer for the Church of England, What is religious education for?

The Churchwarden Church Buildings Review: A Churchwarden’s Rant

Andrew Lightbown Why the church needs its revisionists

Linda Woodhead Why ‘no religion’ is the new religion – a lecture at the British Academy [45 minute video]

3 Comments

Opinion – 23 January 2016

Ian Paul The Primates and Public Relations

Bosco Peters 11 Ways To Stop Church Growth

Simon Hunter Law & Religion UK What is a “church” in English law?

Jonathan Chaplin Law & Religion UK ‘Living with Difference’: Time for a constructive Christian engagement

Martin Saunders Christian Today ‘When a knight won his spurs’: the lost genius of the 1980s school hymn

Andrew Brown The Guardian No religion is the new religion

Mark Woods Christian Today Church decline: Is evangelicalism to blame?

Stephen Altrogge The Blazing Center Early Warning Signs of Adult Onset Calvinism

Richard Chartres Church Times And Esau was an hairy man

Gabrielle Higgins, Chichester Diocesan Secretary, Bishop George Bell – points on a complex case

93 Comments

Opinion – 16 January 2016

Andy Walton Christian Today A warm welcome to church can change people’s lives, and even the whole country

Jonathan Clatworthy Modern Church Testing religious beliefs

Peter Ormerod The Guardian Twenty things the Church of England has done for us

Giles Fraser The Guardian Equal marriage is the next stage in the church’s continual reformation

1 Comment

Opinion – 9 January 2016

John Bingham has interviewed William Nye for The Telegraph: The ‘silencing of Christians’ in the public sector.

Bob Morris The Constitution Unit ‘Living with Difference’: The Butler-Sloss Commission’s report reflects the interests of its members rather than the public interest
[also online at Law & Religion UK]

Giles Fraser The Guardian Doesn’t Bishop George Bell deserve the presumption of innocence?

Miranda Threlfall-Holmes Pope Gregory and #Primates2016 – diversity, sex, and church order

Jayne Ozanne Church of England Newspaper Resolutely passionate

Hannah Cleugh Church Times No need to patronise men with toughness

14 Comments

Opinion – 2 January 2016

Peter Wehner New York Times The Christmas Revolution

Howard Jacobson BBC News Magazine A Point of View: Why the world needs more sermons

Archdruid Eileen Feast of Holy Innocents – Power Under Pressure

Sarah Coakley ABC Religion and Ethics Angels and Dreams: Second Naivete and the Christian Imagination

Andrew Brown The Guardian If Nicky Morgan wants Christianity to flourish, humanism should be taught in schools

Archbishop of Canterbury’s New Year Message

Giles Fraser The Guardian Karl Barth taught us not to use religion to mask the stench of war

10 Comments

Opinion – 26 December 2015

Natasha Moore The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) In defence of the nativity play

Rowan Williams ABC Religion and Ethics Where Faith is Born: Seeing Ourselves Honestly, Seeing the World Differently

Giles Fraser The Guardian The story of the virgin birth runs against the grain of Christianity
Archdruid Eileen A Canon Backfires

Some (arch)bishops’ Christmas Messages

Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of York

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry
Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of Canada – Archbishop Hiltz has also recorded this video jointly with the Lutheran National Bishop of Canada
Bishop David Chillingworth, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church (video)

Bishop of Chelmsford
Bishop of Gloucester, Bishop of Western Tanganyika and Bishop of El Camino Real
Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe
Bishop of Leeds
Bishop of Lincoln
Bishop of Liverpool – The bishop also has a separate video message.
Bishop of Sheffield

Bishop of St Asaph
Bishop of Bangor
Bishop of Swansea and Brecon

Anglican and Roman Catholic Primates of Ireland

Archbishop Philip Freier, Primate of Australia

Archbishop Stanley Ntagali, Primate of Uganda

And some sermons

Archbishop of Canterbury

Bishop of Bath and Wells
Bishop of Chichester
Bishop of Durham
Bishop of Guildford
Bishop of Leeds
Bishop of Southwark
Bishop of Taunton

Archbishop of Wales

Kelvin Holdsworth, Provost of St Mary’s Cathedral Glasgow Midnight Mass Christmas morning

23 Comments