Should church buildings close during lockdowns?

When the first lockdown was announced on 23rd March this year, it was followed fairly swiftly by the announcement from Church of England bishops that, going beyond what was legally required or requested, that church buildings should be shut definitively. Not only were there to be no physical gatherings of congregations, clergy were not to …

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Do we have a theology of the laity?

Following my article exploring whether there is a real theological distinction to be made between the ‘clergy’ and the ‘laity’, there was some interesting discussion online, and out of that John Griffiths passed me the article he wrote on the theology of the laity, which was published in The Reader Magazine (now titled Transforming Ministry) …

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Recreating Narnia: an open letter to Netflix

Jon Kuhrt writes: Dear Netflix, Congratulations on acquiring the rights to The Chronicles of Narnia. I am writing to share five thoughts on what Netflix needs to bear in mind to make the series a success. I cannot claim to know anything about producing films or TV series. But I do know about Narnia. Like millions of …

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What can the Christian faith say to the crisis of capitalism?

Capitalism appears to be in some kind of crisis. On the one hand, it has provided a mechanism for lifting people out of poverty and creating unprecedented wealth, including reducing global poverty to historically low levels. On the other, it has led to untrammelled destruction of the environment, and unrestrained inequality and individualism which has …

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