Scholarship • Serving • Ministry – Ian Paul
At this time of year, my social media feeds are full of pictures of people in robes standing outside cathedrals, they or their friends having been ordained. So this is a good time to reflect on what is happening, and to ask: ‘Is this Anglican approach to leadership actually following a biblical pattern?’ Someone might …
This week, good old Grove Books Ltd has published an important title by Andrew Goddard called Right to Die? The ‘Assisted Dying’ Debate. It is very timely, given that the so-called Assisted Dying Bill is coming back for its third reading in the Commons on 20th June. I offer here some samples of the text, showing how …
Andrew Goddard writes: On Tuesday 27th May, in the week when the first Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) meeting takes place to begin discerning who should be nominated as Archbishop of Canterbury, the Canterbury Diocese Vacancy-in-See Committee (ViSC) elected its three representatives. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this final stage in the process once again highlights problems with the …
Andrew Goddard writes: Sometime this week those tasked with nominating a new Archbishop of Canterbury will be meeting for the first of at least three scheduled meetings (the next are in July and September). It is most likely that the person chosen will be a current (likely diocesan) bishop serving in the Church of England …
Regular readers will know that I have been concerned for many years at the gradual erosion of the clergy stipend, and both the corresponding decline in the clergy pension, together with the major changes made in 2008 and 2011, reducing the pension to 1/2 of the stipend from 2/3, and extending the qualifying period of …
There has been a record-breaking rise in antisemitic incidents in the UK since the attack by Hamas on October 7th 2023. Antisemitic incidents reached the highest level recorded, the monitoring and community safety organisation the Community Security Trust (CST) said. In the 12 months after the 7 October attacks there were 5,583 incidents in the …
Last Friday, the statistics unit of the Church of England released an ‘early snapshot’ of attendance figures, based on the returns from the count that happens in churches in October last year. The headline looked promising: Attendance at Church of England churches grew for the fourth year in a row last year, preliminary figures show. …
Andrew Goddard writes: This week the number of confirmed members of the Canterbury Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) rose from 3 to 14 with only 3 names left to be determined and announced (those from Canterbury diocese). A helpful website provides details of each of the people and the 3 non-voting members. What can we learn …
Ian Silk has written a Grove booklet on the vital subject of encouragement. I interviewed him about it, and include the video below. Here is the start of the chapter of the booklet, to give you a flavour. You can buy from the Grove website here. What is encouragement in common experience, and where is …
Earlier in the year, I was at a conference listening to John Wyatt, the well-known Christian medical ethicist. He spoke about the importance of friendship, and I bought and read his fascinating book Transforming Friendship. Ed Shaw was also there, and had been very influenced by the book, so I asked him some questions about both …
Summary Andrew Goddard writes: Election processes are of limited interest to most people but it is a matter of serious concern when they go wrong. This is especially the case if they are important elections such as those with an impact on who will be the next Archbishop of Canterbury. On the basis of the …
