Scholarship • Serving • Ministry – Ian Paul
Jean Vanier was a French-Canadian Roman Catholic lay philosopher and theologian, until recently best known for his establishment of the network of L’Arche communities that aimed to integrate the lives of the able-bodied with the disabled, so that each learned from and supported the other. He was originally an academic, completing a PhD on Aristotle …
As part of building a community of reflection related to the blog, I have previously hosted three one-day Festivals of Theology during 2018 and 2019. On each occasion we had a great time of listening, learning, reflection and discussion, with around 100 people attending on each occasion. As a result I am planning a fourth Festival on Tuesday …
One of the most important debates in General Synod last week was on children and young people in the Church of England—or rather, why they aren’t. The paper we were offered summarised the analysis of where young people are in the Church based on church attendance returns, and built on a question asked at a …
There is a small number of television programmes that I love to watch regularly when they are on. Monday nights are quiz nights, with Only Connect and University Challenge; Fridays from the Spring means Gardener’s World; but there are two less regular mid-week programmes that I love. One is Michael Mosley’s ‘Trust me, I’m a …
Jon Kuhrt writes: The church frequently has to respond to the scandal and upset created by safeguarding failures and other cases of serious malpractice. As we all know, these scandals powerfully undermine the integrity of the church’s witness. One key factor in ecclesiastical failures that is frequently downplayed is the poor state of basic ‘human resources’ …
Paul Eddy writes: Franklin Graham’s UK Tour sought to reach eight cities with the gospel in 2020. As of today, three out of the eight venues, the O2 in London, Liverpool and now Sheffield have refused to sign contracts with Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA,) and others may well follow. Is this an attack on the …
On Wednesday last week, the House of Bishops issued a ‘pastoral statement’ on the status of Civil Partnerships, and it caused something of a stir. What was it about? Why was it needed? And why did it cause a commotion? The background to this discussion began in 2004. The Government passed the Civil Partnership Act, …
I have been contributing to the Church’s Renewal and Reform stream on developing lay leadership, and one of the questions that has come up is: ‘What does the Church of England actually believe about the laity and lay leadership?’ I am not referring here to what some have called ‘ecclesial lay leadership’, that is, the …
Whilst we are in the Christmas season liturgically, the main busyness of Christmas is over. Presents have been bought and given; Christmas cards and letters have been written and read; and services have been planned and executed. But in terms of Christian ministry, I have been struck this year once again by the oddness of …
Around this time of year, there comes a recurrent debate about what people are ‘really’ doing when they celebrate Christmas. A while ago, there was a programme on Radio 4 exploring the origins of the tunes of carols. For example, the tune for Good King Wenceslas was originally a spring carol celebrating the fertility of nature. It is …
Every year, Stephen Kuhrt, vicar of Christ Church New Malden, writes an all-age drama for Christmas, as a way of engaging the whole community with the story and meaning of Christmas. His last play was focussed around a debate between Matthew and Luke about who wrote the best version of the nativity. Enjoy! Use! Matthew …
