What Do We Want? Owned Space and Thick Culture! When Do We Want It? Now!

As I mentioned in my last post I’m thinking about moving, and I outlined some of things I’d be ideally looking for in a church community. In this post I thought I’d take it up a level and talk about Christian institutions in the UK wholesale, or rather the lack of them. For the last …

Parish decline and pioneer ministry

I recently read a piece over on Unherd by the Journalist/Priest Giles Fraser on ‘The neoliberal revolution within the Church’ which I’d normally have passed over but something in this has made me want to dig deeper into the claims it makes. I normally like some of the stuff Fraser writes, but in this instance …

‘If the Church of England really is a hallway…’ and other thoughts

It wasn’t long since I stepped away from the discernment process that lockdown began in the UK. A lot of my thinking about Church since then has been rendered pretty abstract since we can’t actually go anywhere, especially given we spent Easter in lockdown this year. Yet I can’t help but wonder what things will …

Superficiality or Sobriety

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.1 Peter 5:8 Over the last year I have been in the process of discernment for Priesthood within the Church of England. This is been an intense period of self-reflection for myself and an examination into …

Reimagining the Parish and Beyond

Off the back of my recent post redesigning my Parish church after reading about the tradition of the Church of England when it came to the Lord's Supper I've been thinking about how Parishes, Dioceses, and potentially Provinces could be organised. What follows, I think makes sense, but I'm not under any illusions that there …

Inspired by the North Side. Reimagining my Parish Church.

I recently read an article on the distinctive way in which the Church of England has historically served communion. It opened: For three hundred years the Church of England was unique among all other churches across the world in relation to where the minister was to stand.  The Book of Common Prayer rubric from 1552 …

Egalitarianism and the Church of England

Awhile ago I wrote something about my developing views on women in ministry yet I hadn’t really thought out how this impacts how I interact with my church, The Church of England. Women’s Ordination CS Lewis on Women's Ordination In an immediate sense I am conscious of how lukewarm many of the arguments for a …

On Baptism and it’s timing. Part Four: Conclusion

Introduction Having looked at Baptism I am left with a number of impressions. On the one hand we hear everyone who is saved is baptised. On the other hand not everyone who is baptised is saved. What is more is that baptism takes a panoply of forms. It can be in the ark of Noah, …

On Baptism and it’s timing. Part Three: Witness of History

Introduction In the last entry, I covered for opening half millennium of the church regarding its position on the timing of the baptism. My conclusion, having looked at various sources, was that conversion, following catechism, was the normative time for baptism. The ritual and process for both developed considerably over the opening centuries but this …

Amusing myself to death

I've been struggling for some time in knowing where I fit in with Christianity. I know I am a Christian of some sort. It is God's truth, love, wisdom and beauty that keep me going, outside of it I am nothing. Despite this the conflict between my personal convictions and trying to work them out have been …