Peter Anthony All Things Lawful And Honest Tunnel Vision
Laudable Practice A Time to Rediscover Mattins
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church The Melissa Caslake resignation. Crisis for Safeguarding?
Simon Butler ViaMedia.News LLF: History Repeating Itself: The “Beautiful” Story
Philip Murray All Things Lawful And Honest Truth and Tradition
Janet Fife Surviving Church Saving Lives at Sea
Sarah Mullally Contemplation in the shadow of a carpark “Take courage! It is I. Do not be afraid”
“My introduction to Living in Love and Faith at The London Diocesan Synod”
Trevor Thurston-Smith The Pensive Pilgrim Those Videos and LLF : When Managers Don’t Manage
Jay Greene ViaMedia.News LLF: Bishops – The Time Is Now!
Matthew Chinery All Things Lawful And Honest Dispense with the PCC
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Gracious Disagreement. How do we move forward with divided Anglicanism?
15 CommentsJames Martin America magazine Whatever brings a person to God is holy–whether you like it or not
Jonathan Clatworthy The point of it all Love or faith? Can we live with both?
Jo Sadgrove ViaMedia.News LLF: Power, “Mother Church” and the Anglican Communion
Giles Goddard ViaMedia.News LLF: Can Perfect Love Cast Out Fear?
Giles Fraser UnHerd We don’t need more spreadsheet vicars
Stephen Conway All Things Lawful And Honest Only Connect
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Inclusive pro-LGBTIQ+ group writes to thirty four pro-gay bishops
Jonathan Clark The Commonwealth of Heaven Living in love and faith – and peace, with justice
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Reflections on Churchmanship Labels in the Church of England
Archdruid Eileen Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley Take a Break, Justin
70 CommentsJayne Ozanne ViaMedia.News LLF: That Video, Those Principles & a Call for a Public Inquiry
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Christian Concern and Anglican Mainstream sabotage the LLF process
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Politics, Evangelicals and the Church of England
Meg Munn Chair of the National Safeguarding Panel Past Cases Review 2
Karen Armstrong The Guardian Dear archbishop, now is not the time to take a sabbatical
50 CommentsThe Church of England’s General Synod meets virtually from 1300 yesterday until 1530 on Wednesday. The papers are available here.
Video recording of the morning’s proceedings
Video recording of the afternoon’s proceedings
Order paper 2 – details of the morning’s business
Order paper 3 – details of the afternoon’s business
The morning’s business started with a presentation from the Archbishop of York on Vision and Strategy, based on this paper: A Vision for the Church of England in the 2020s, ‘Christ centred and Jesus shaped. Simpler, humbler, bolder’. This is accompanied by A theological reflection on our emerging vision and priorities, ‘Salt for the earth, light for the world’ by Stephen Croft, Bishop of Oxford, and by this summary.
The other morning business was the Cathedrals Measure which received final approval.
Reports from members and the press
Stephen Lynas A change gonna come
Andrew Nunn Simpler, Humbler, Bolder
Church Times Synod: cathedral governance put on a new footing
2 CommentsPeter Leonard ViaMedia.News LLF – Patience & Pain
Rosie Harper ViaMedia.News LLF: Power, Fear & Our Inability To Do The Right Thing
Andrew Village and Leslie Francis Church Times The writing is on the wall for fragile rural churches
“The pandemic has exacerbated the crisis, and action is needed urgently”
Gilo Surviving Church BLM and Redress Schemes
[In this context BLM is a law firm – ed]
Lee Gatiss Church Society Initial thoughts on LLF
Trevor Thurston-Smith The Pensive Pilgrim Mirror, Mirror : A Journey in Imagination for the Heterosexual Christian
Philip Murray Dinner at the Vicarage Wine for the Feast: the wine cellar and eschatology
85 CommentsHelen King ViaMedia.News Living in Love & Faith – Waiting for Godot
Diarmaid MacCulloch Modern Church Living in Love and Faith
David Monteith Dean of Leicester Living in Love and Faith
“No change but change?”
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church ‘Vulnerable Adults’ and Safeguarding literature.
Church of England Evangelical Council The Beautiful Story “a film to encourage and enable evangelicals to engage and contend in discussions about human sexuality”. It’s 32 minutes long. They have also published a fuller introduction and suggested ‘next steps’ for church leaders here.
Charlie Bell has published this response.
See also opinion on Living in Love and Faith here; I’ve been adding to this daily.
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Nourishing and enriching our innate goodness and love
Paul Wilkinson Church Times Threat that is keeping our solicitors busy
“The pandemic has spurred greater numbers to consider leaving their affairs in good order”
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Safeguarding Complaint against Archbishop Welby dismissed
Jayne Ozanne PinkNews The Church of England is ‘deaf to the cries’ of the LGBT+ people it is harming. Its recent actions have proven that
13 CommentsSee also opinion on Living in Love and Faith here.
David Brown Surviving Church Leaven. Challenging the Power of Culture in our Church
Brian Castle Church Times Comment: What the Government fails to grasp about public worship
“Theresa May was right to draw attention to the sinister precedent that the lockdown ban on gathering for services sets”
Ian Paul Psephizo Should church buildings close during lockdowns?
3 CommentsTrevor Thurston-Smith The Pensive Pilgrim The Harsh Truth Unlocked by Lockdown
Giles Fraser UnHerd Boris Johnson doesn’t get God
“This second lockdown has robbed church-goers of more than community”
Alistair Macdonald-Radcliff Church Times The Church’s sacramental ministry is not an optional extra
“The precautions in place in churches mean that there is no justification for suspending public worship”
Church Times Leader Worship banned
Paul Bayes ViaMedia.News Uphill Struggles and the Road to Peace
11 CommentsHelen King sharedconversations Waiting for publication: the week before Living in Love and Faith
Elizabeth Adekunle Via Media.News Wise Leadership: Needed Now More Than Ever!
Marcus Walker The Spectator If anything is essential, it’s worship
4 CommentsTimothy Goode ViaMedia.News Covid, LLF and the Power of “Lived Experience”
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church The John Smyth affair: further reflections
Modern Church has an insert in yesterday’s Church Times. It includes these two articles from their blog.
Miranda Threlfall-Holmes Communion, Tangible and Virtual
Augustine Tanner-Ihm How Long O Lord?
Peter Crumpler Church Times The pandemic has changed how churches use media
“From YouTube services to the traditional magazine, parishes have been innovating”
Martyn Snow Church Times Dare to think differently about lay ministry
“It is about much more than filling the gaps left by stipendiary clergy, argues Martyn Snow. A whole new vision is needed”
Charlie Bell ViaMedia.News Collusion, Hypocrisy & the Greasy Pole to Success
Colin Coward Unadulterated Love Living in Love and Faith in a Systemically Abusive Church
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church The work of a Diocesan Safeguarding Advisor. Insights from the Whitsey Report
7 CommentsStephen Parsons Surviving Church Responding to wounded abuse survivors. Can the post-IICSA Church get this right?
Anne Foreman ViaMedia.News Church of England – Please Mind the Gap!
Jeremy Pemberton From the Choir Stalls Deadly Pressure
Stephen Cottrell, Nick Baines and David Walker Yorkshire Post We must face up to the human heartache in a Britain divided by lockdowns – Archbishop of York
10 CommentsAndrew Graystone Surviving Church What do we mean by Redress?
Alan Wilson ViaMedia.News World Without End…?
Richard Scorer National Secular Society The Church of England’s culture of entitlement has to end
22 CommentsMeg Munn Chair of the National Safeguarding Panel First reflections on IICSA’s second report
Helen King ViaMedia.News Why the Church of England Must ‘Connect the Dots’ – IICSA and LLF
Shirley O’Shea The Living Church What Mentally Ill Persons Wish Their Clergy Understood
Anne Atkins Church Times When people won’t believe you
“Victims are often doubted, Anne Atkins finds”
Andrew Graystone Surviving Church Towards a Theology of Redress
6 CommentsCharlie Bell Anglicanism.org Risk and Prophesy – has the Church got its COVID-19 response right?
“In this paper Charlie Bell challenges assumptions about how we should approach the COVID- 19 crisis not least in church. He argues that church authorities have misunderstood the science and imposed a culture of fear thereby exacerbating the crisis. It is time for a radical reassessment.”
Simon Butler ViaMedia.News Safeguarding, ‘Reabuse’ and LGBT People
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church We are sorry, but please be patient: An Apology after IICSA
Narcissism – A Recipe for Unhappiness in the Church
Ian Black Church Times Comment: how the Church can end its abuse culture
“Policies and procedures are not enough to stop abuse, says Ian Black. Much deeper changes are needed”
Sam Dennis All Things Lawful And Honest Mass Education
“As many churches are forced by the pandemic to reconsider their Sunday School or Children’s Church, Sam Dennis asks whether the Mass is the best place for teaching the faith.”
Jayne Ozanne ViaMedia.News Resignations, Dysfunctionality and the House of Bishops
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Cultural Change and the Church
We have added several Church Times opinion pieces to our post: More about the IICSA report.
47 CommentsStephen Parsons Surviving Church Rebuilding Trust after the IICSA Report
Martin Sewell Archbishop Cranmer The Church of England – a safer space for abusers than for the abused
Peter Ormerod The Guardian Think unconscious bias training is a fad? It’s been going for at least 2,000 years
“MPs balking at ‘PC gone mad’ forget that Jesus instructed people to examine their consciences for unacknowledged sin”
Christina Baron ViaMedia.News Living in Love and Faith – Is There Really Hope for Change?
18 CommentsJohn Sundara The Living Church A Thicker Constellation of Vocation
Stephen Parsons Surviving Church Is the Church of England ready for new moves in Safeguarding?
Meg Munn Chair of the National Safeguarding Panel Time for Review
Rogers Govender ViaMedia.News Walking in Beauty – Contemplation in times of Struggle, Suffering and Exclusion
Paul W Thomas Church Times Deaneries’ moment of truth has at last arrived
“It is time that they replaced parishes as the locus of the Church of England’s mission”
Trevor Thurston-Smith The Pensive Pilgrim Lament, Joy and Hope in a Time of Pandemic
34 Comments