Scholarship • Serving • Ministry – Ian Paul
The NT epistle for the Second Sunday before Lent is Rev 4, the first half (with Rev 5) of John’s vision and audition (seeing and hearing) of worship ‘in heaven’ as he is ‘in the Spirit’. This is a fascinating passage, in part because it is so dense with theological ideas, but also because this …
John Root offers his analysis of the recent report: ‘Behind the Stained Glass: A Report on the participation of UK Minoritised Ethnic People in the Ministry and Leadership of the Church of England’, written for the Racial Justice Commission of the Church of England by Professor Paul Miller and associates of the Institute for Educational …
Gary Jenkins has previously written on this website about the Church of England and its struggle to engage with the working class. In 2020, following a debate in General Synod, he concluded with this comment: The really strange thing about the problem of the church’s relationship with the working class is that it is simply …
What do you find most irritating about this time of year? The drawing in of dark and cold nights? The hideous adoption of that consumerist import ‘Black Friday’? People putting up Christmas trees when we have only just started Advent? Being urged to spend more money by means of schmaltzy human interest mini-dramas? For me, …
Andrew Bunt has just written an excellent new Grove booklet in the Ethics series, Three or More: Reflections on Polyamory and Consensual Non-monogamy. I was able to catch up with him and ask him about why he wrote the booklet, and what we need to think about on this issue. IP: Why have you decided to …
John Root offers this review of Eric Kaufmann’s Taboo: How making Race sacred produced a Cultural Revolution. The week-end before last the Wireless Festival was held in Finsbury Park just down the road from my home. Amongst the items that attendees were prohibited from bringing were ‘Clothing, garments, items which promote cultural appropriation’. What’s going …
In the last few weeks I have been busy with the media, and this is a reflection of the fact that there are more and more opportunities for us to engage in broadcast media than ever before. Quite apart from the (literally) millions of podcasts and pre-recorded YouTube videos, there is demand for live radio, …
The Sunday lectionary gospel reading for Easter 7 in Year B is John 17.6–19, the central section of Jesus’ so-called ‘High Priestly Prayer’. The reading omits the introduction and opening sentences of the prayer, and stops short before the often-quoted ‘that they might be one’; I have previously commented on the use of this phrase, …
The Sunday lectionary gospel reading for Easter 7 in Year B is John 17.6–19, the central section of Jesus’ so-called ‘High Priestly Prayer’. It continues to weave in a range of interconnected ideas from earlier in the gospel, drawing them together into a picture of Jesus’ followers sanctified in the world and sent to proclaim …
Dr Hilary Cass has delivered her final report offering an independent review of gender identity services for children and young people. The report is online, and is long and complex (not surprisingly) at 232 pages for the main body of the report, but there is a helpful summary of the key points on the supporting …
Laurie Clow offers this review of Carl Trueman’s new book Strange New World (Crossway Books, Wheaton, Illinois: 2022): As I move inexorably to the end of my sixth decade and celebrate (?) over 25 years ordained, I find myself increasingly becoming a grumpy old man. My background in social sciences, a graduate of Economics, Politics and …
