How to save the parish church
Parish churches are in trouble: about fifty churches close every year, according to a report from Civitas. The review, published…
Shame on George Carey
There are many grey areas in this safeguarding saga. So it is nice when some black and white emerges. It…
Masterchef gives me the creeps
Eating porridge with my daughter this morning (me brown sugar; her honey) I was telling her about Ready Brek, and…
Are Christian holiday camps a force for good?
In my early teenage years, I attended Christian holiday camps very like the ‘Bash’ camps where John Smyth and Justin…
Why did so many Christians vote for Trump?
It’s hard to know what to say about Donald Trump. Well, maybe it’s easy enough if you’re a fan, or…
The trouble with Guy Fawkes night
My reaction to fireworks is a bit eccentric. Lovely, I think, but can’t they be more meaningful? To be more…
Justin Welby’s homosexuality reforms could still backfire
Last week, Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury since 2013, started leading the Church of England. He got off the fence…
Justin Welby has made a huge shift on homosexuality
Forget Nixon in China. That phrase needs renaming: Welby on sexuality. For it is now at last clear that he…
Has Britain really entered its ‘first atheist age’?
Some sociology academics have, after a three-year research project called ‘Exploring Atheism’, unveiled a startling discovery: there are a lot…
The unlikely Christian conversion of Russell Brand
Questioning the sincerity of a fellow Christian’s faith is a big no-no. It would be wrong, then, to doubt the…
What the Church of England should say to its conservative rebels
The evangelicals really are revolting. After a lot of talk of the need to break away from a tainted, liberal,…
The C of E needs to talk about sex
My friend Andy is getting married. It’s about time – he and his girlfriend have a one-year-old daughter. He wants…
What does it mean to have a more secular House of Commons?
The House of Commons has a more secular character than ever before. Roughly 40 per cent of MPs have chosen…
What price is too high to keep conservatives in the Church of England?
Future historians of the Church of England might look back at this weekend as the beginning of the end. A…
What should we make of Russell Brand’s baptism?
Could Russell Brand, who has just been baptised, become a significant Christian figure? I suppose he could become a sort…
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…
