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Will Jones writes: It rarely takes long in any discussion about a controversial ethical issue amongst Christians for someone to bring up slavery. Slavery is the great exemple of how Christian thinking has changed on a key ethical issue. Christians in the past permitted slavery, practised slavery, defended slavery. Scripture clearly permits slavery in certain circumstances, […]
Father Richard Peers offers this review of the Tyndale Fellowship NT Study Group at the beginning of July: Anyone following current education debates on Twitter or in the blogosphere will know that there is a revolution taking place in schools. The old progressive ways of discovery learning are giving way to knowledge-based learning. Facts, memorisation […]
The General Synod of the Church of England (of which I am a member) met last week in York, and there were many good things about it. We spend most of Saturday afternoon exploring some exciting developments from the ‘centre’ offering resources to dioceses and churches in the task of evangelism and the making of disciples. […]
Glynn Harrison and Andrew Goddard offer some reflections on sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE) in the light of the forthcoming Synod debate and a recent paper by Michael King and Robert Song. 1. We are grateful to our colleagues and friends Michael King and Robert Song for their observations on the effectiveness and potential harm […]
![A Cardinal adjusts his mitria cap as he attendsthe celebration of the Easter Vigil service presided [by German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger] in Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican March 26, 2005. [For the first time in his pontificate, now in its 27th year, the Pope has been forced to delegate senior cardinals to represent him at all Holy Week leading up to Easter on Sunday.] - RTXNCSN](https://www.psephizo.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/130312_EXP_cardinalhat.jpg.CROP_.original-original-100x100.jpg "Why bishops should throw away their mitres")
Why do Church of England bishops wear mitres? In our age of visual media, there is a tendency to reach for visual symbolism; it seems sometimes that those on television they don’t think they are actually talking to a bishop unless the person is wearing a purple cassock. But there are many reasons for saying […]
Why do we have any empty seats in church on a Sunday? I’m not asking about your own church strategy, but about the general decline in church attendance—and in faith—in Western countries. Some people blame changes in our culture; others blame the culture of the churches. Still others think it is the fault of the […]
Peter Ould writes: In the upcoming Church of England General Synod in York, a motion around “conversion therapy” will be debated. The motion is proposed by Jayne Ozanne, the revisionist activist, and is accompanied by a Royal College of Psychiatrists paper in her name (though it is necessary to point out the fact that Ozanne has […]
In my nearly ten years teaching preaching, and my 37 years of speaking and preaching, I have come to the conclusion that the best way of summarising the task of preaching (in whatever context) is answering the question: What is God saying to these people at this time through this text? This roots preaching in […]
A little while ago, I preached on Isaiah chapter 1, and it challenged me to think through how we proclaim bad news in our preaching. I have generally observed a striking divide between theological traditions in relation to whether the gospel is in fact ‘good news’ (as the word ‘gospel’ tells us—a ‘good spell’ or word), […]
Following the appalling disaster of the fire at Grenfell Tower, local people planned a ‘Day of Rage‘ to protest at the injustices and cost-cutting that appears to have led to the catastrophic failure of fire regulations in the tower—and almost all others like it clad in a similar way. The immediate response from many Christians […]
There was a brief report in the Daily Mail online that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, believes ‘that the Church of England will need a miracle from the Holy Spirit to solve its long-running row over gay rights.’ The Most Reverend Justin Welby said the divisions cannot be healed by human hands but only […]