Church of England

Is the future of leadership lay or ordained?

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It is arguable that the greatest challenge currently facing the C of E is not to do with sexuality, not related to changes in culture and moral values, and unconnected with Church-State relations. It actually arises from a decision made around the time I started ordination training in 1989, that candidates needed ‘more experience of … Continue Reading

Jeremy Pemberton appeals the tribunal case

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I previously reported on the Employment Tribunal case of Jeremy Pemberton versus Richard Inwood, retired Acting Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, and the debate on BBC 2’s Victoria Derbyshire show between Jeremy and myself. Jeremy has been gracious enough to comment on the blog from his perspective, and a couple of days ago his partner, … Continue Reading

Is Archbishops’ Council too powerful?

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I spent most of the last two days in my first meeting of Archbishops’ Council. I think I am still processing the experience, not least because to what one person called ‘institutional vertigo’—it feels a little surreal to be considering questions of national and strategic importance, when there are few other places to experience this. … Continue Reading

Evangelicalism and the Church of England

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This guest post by Andrew Goddard is a review of Andrew Atherstone & John Maiden (eds), Evangelicalism and the Church of England in the Twentieth Century (The Boydell Press, 2014). Evangelicals in the Church of England are often remarkably confused and ignorant about their recent past. The wider church knows even less about who we are and … Continue Reading

Can the C of E do evangelism?

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One of Justin Welby’s personal commitments for his time in office is to prioritise evangelism. With the Archbishop of York he set up the Evangelism Task Group as part of Archbishops’ Council, and it reported to Synod earlier this month. Introducing it, Welby emphasised the centrality of evangelism to the life of the church: On … Continue Reading

Are evangelicals taking over the Church?

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Something has changed in the Church of England. It is a radical change, but one that has not attracted much comment. I was alerted to it when Martyn Snow was announced as the next Bishop of Leicester. A diocese with a long tradition of liberal leadership, most recently under Tim Stevens, has appointed someone with … Continue Reading

Coherence and variety in ordained ministry

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One of the many fascinating debates at Synod this week was on the proposals for Resourcing Ministerial Education (RME) on which I have written a couple of times before. I had put down one of four amendments to the motion from Steven Croft, Bishop of Sheffield, and I was asking for work to be done to check that RME was not undermining ‘our shared, catholic understanding of ordination as expressed in the Ordinal’ prior to implementation in September 2017.

What is the future of ministerial training?

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One of the important issues coming up in this session of Synod is the reconfiguration of ministerial training as part of the Renewal and Reform programme, under the title ‘Resourcing Ministerial Education.’ I commented on it last year, and had an exchange with Steven Croft, Bishop of Sheffield, who is leading on this. In view … Continue Reading