Scholarship • Serving • Ministry – Ian Paul
It is always interesting when there is a report on finance, just as when there is a report on numbers (e.g. on attendance). The reason for that is not because we should be obsessed with either numbers or money (though some people clearly are for all sorts of reasons). It is because these are two …
At Lee Abbey last week and New Wine this, I have been leading a series of sessions on ‘Gods of Our Age’. (I did the teaching myself last week; this week I am hosting a series of contributors.) It struck me some time ago that the gods of the ancient world were not merely the …
Like many people, I puzzled over the budget on Wednesday. Many were puzzled by the complexity of working out what the impact of some significant changes in both tax and welfare would be. Others were puzzled—baffled, or just plain wrong-footed—by the mix of proposals. As Nick Robinson said on the BBC that evening, there were …
In just about every deanery I have been involved with, the allocation of ‘parish share’, the contribution to the central financing of the diocese, has been a matter of contention. As with many decisions, disagreements are heightened when they are focussed on the practical decisions involved. This is often because underlying principles have not been …
If you are over the age of 40 (and I guess most of you are!) any mention of ‘pensions’ will make you sit up and take notice. (If you are under 40, believe you me, you will soon!). The most notable feature of George Osbourne’s was what has been described as the most significant reform …
