“Secularisation is indeed a catastrophe for the churches. But we won’t outlast this period of history by being more business-like or by adopting slicker models of evangelistic marketing. We won’t be saved by panicky spread-sheet evangelists, Indeed, we must be Read more…
“Look at their actions over recent months and you could be forgiven for thinking that Anglican bishops are on a mission to alienate their flocks, run down their parishes and ultimately give up their special place in British public and Read more…
“From leading online worship to managing a booking system for sunrise services, multi-parish clergy face a daunting task at Easter”
“It’s hard not to see this overzealous interpretation of Covid restrictions as emblematic of the problems the Church of England has got itself into over the past year in its response to the pandemic. When lockdown was first imposed, back Read more…
This has been a tough year for everyone. Death, mental collapse, grief, unemployment. In my church we’ve lost people to Covid — one of the earliest victims was a regular at our 9 a.m. Communion. We’ve lost people to mental Read more…
A clergyman admitted to me that he’d recently burst into tears. He’d received an email from his diocese in this latest lockdown ‘strongly urging’ vicars to close their churches. He has an elderly working-class congregation in a poor area. Coming Read more…
“The parish has long been the jewel in the Church of England and where Christianity binds its most stubborn forms of resilience to secularisation. Which is why it’s such a tragedy that the parish is now under threat from those whose very job it should be to defend it.”
“The difficulties posed by the coronavirus crisis have exposed many fault lines and weaknesses in organisations around the country — and the Church of England is no exception.”