The CofE’s female clergy muddle is not sustainable
It’s thirty years since the first women were ordained as priests of the Church of England. For ten years, there…
Is Richard Dawkins a Christian?
When the New Atheism thing was new, I wrote a piece saying that the people who supported it were pretentious…
How Justin Welby should have responded to Gove’s extremism crackdown
When the government raises big questions about our national values, one has a choice: to see it as an opportunity…
Is there anything wrong with ‘Christian nationalism’?
When does radical religious conservatism become a dangerous bid for theocracy? It’s a question that some American commentators are pondering,…
Ukraine attacks the Church of England’s ‘pro-Russia propaganda’
Perhaps Justin Welby expected gratitude from Ukraine, after the Church of England’s Synod debated the war this week. He certainly…
The Church of England shouldn’t be neutral about the Ukraine war
The Church of England’s Synod is debating the war in Ukraine today. There will be a vote on a motion…
Why won’t Justin Welby call out Russia’s Patriarch Kirill?
Justin Welby has just visited Ukraine. While there he spoke clearly against the false religion that underlies Russia’s ideology, and…
Why do I keep falling for Boris Johnson’s charm?
On Saturday, I was in a public library, waiting for an old guy to finish with the Times. But he seemed…
When will Rory Stewart’s time come?
Can a dose of moral earnestness revive Tory fortunes? This is the question raised by Rory Stewart’s recent memoir, Politics…
Did Richard Dawkins’s ‘New Atheists’ spark a Christian revival?
The battle between New Atheism and religion was never likely to have a clear winner. It was never very likely…
When will the CofE have an honest debate about homosexuality?
At the Church of England’s General Synod on Wednesday morning, I had a good view of the sign-language person. In…
The Church of England must clarify its stance on homosexuality
The Church of England has realised that its decades of dithering over homosexuality must end. It must finally bite the…
The trouble with Canterbury Cathedral’s rave
I will not be attending the silent disco that is soon to be held in Canterbury Cathedral. I will not…
Why don’t we talk more about sexual morality?
The Russell Brand story shows, once again, how sexual morality is only usually debated in relation to allegations of abuse…
In praise of Justin Welby’s ‘less bossy’ Church of England
Justin Welby is not my sort of Anglican. Or maybe he is, in a way. I’m not really sure who…
The time is ripe for a liberal revival of the Church of England
Things are looking up for the Church of England. Its painful era of disunity is behind it, or soon will…
Why I’m romantic about climate change
Why hasn’t an anti-technology movement emerged? It seems to me that we face two overlapping crises. One is obviously climate…
The Church of England is on the brink of a crisis
A bishop said something significant at General Synod last week. I promise you. Something that might even herald a new…
What was it really like for the Windrush generation?
This article is not about me. It’s about a woman in her late eighties called Ethel who goes to my…
Would Jesus really have joined the Bristol bus boycott?
St Mary Redcliffe church, in Bristol, has removed four stained-glass windows dedicated to the slave trader Edward Colston, he whose…
What Phillip Schofield teaches us about public morality
On one level it’s all fluff and gossip, but the Phillip Schofield story actually raises some interesting questions about what…
Martin Amis and the idolatry of style over substance
To be a bookish young man in the late twentieth century was to be a Martin Amis fan. I was…
Britain’s ‘theocracy’ is something to be proud of
This coronation season, punditry is bristling with acute reflections on the British constitution, especially its religious aspect. Or maybe not.…
