Vincent Nichols writes about Pentecost in The Times: Pentecostal drama explodes with energy, freedom and joy.
Carolyn Reynier writes about the Anglican chaplaincy in Nice in Face to Faith.
The Daily Telegraph has Christopher Howse on The enigma of Gerontius.
Giles Fraser writes about Ascensiontide in the Church Times: No clinging to the old ragged cloth.
The Tablet has a feature article: Pentecost is just the start by Denis Minns.
Last week’s Church Times had an article by Bob Holman about why Christians, especially bishops, should not seek power in the Lords: What happened to servanthood?
3 CommentsThe Times has a review by Geza Vermes of the book Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI.
And Alan Webster writes there about Life with Lenin in one corner and a holy icon in the other.
Peter Stanford writes in the Guardian about C Day-Lewis in Face to Faith.
Christopher Howse writes in the Daily Telegraph about Gregorian chant in Where stone comes to life.
Giles Fraser’s Church Times column is titled Community life isn’t all about pubs.
31 CommentsLast week’s Church Times carried my review of the new play at the Chichester Festival Theatre under the title Post-mortem on the year of three popes.
It has since been announced that The Last Confession will open in London in June at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket.
2 CommentsGeoffrey Rowell writes in The Times that Ascension raises more than a cordial for drooping spirits.
Christopher Howse writes from Spain in the Daily Telegraph about A ploughman who was Chaucer’s ideal.
Christina Rees writes in the Guardian about Li Tim-Oi in Face to faith. See also this site.
Two earlier columns from Ekklesia:
Simon Barrow asked last week Is religion the new parliamentary belief divide?
Even earlier Jonathan Bartley asked Is ‘Christian nation’ rhetoric aiding the far right?
Jonathan Sacks writes in The Times about the new exhibition at the British Library in The peoples of the Book need to find a new ‘convivencia’.
Christopher Howse writes about a new book Heresies and How to Avoid Them in the Daily Telegraph: Heresy and the good press that now goes with it.
In the Guardian Bishop Paul Richardson writes about links between religion and good health, in Face to Faith.
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times about Paul v. Jesus — a bid to take over?
Also in the Church Times this week Peter Doll writes about the history of the Episcopal Church in the USA, When a founding myth becomes a weapon.
In the Tablet Peter Kavanagh interviews the Canadian philosopher and Templeton Prize winner Charles Taylor in Called to question.
10 CommentsChristopher Howse in the Daily Telegraph has Rowan Williams on the side of the angels.
Shelina Zahra Janmohamed writes the Face to Faith column in the Guardian and blogs at Spirit21.
The Times Credo column is written by Roderick Strange.
From the Church Times Giles Fraser writes about film-making in Quarter of a million well spent.
From the Tablet Austen Ivereigh writes about irregular migrants in Plight of the shadow people.
From the Spectator The new religious right by James Forsyth.
31 CommentsGuardian Tom Horwood Religious leaders should be hopeful, not defensive, in public debate.
The Times Jonathan Romain If thy scripture offend one of another faith, pluck it out.
Daily Telegraph Christopher Howse The orientalist of Letchworth.
The Church Times had this leader, Picking up the Bible’s tune.
And Giles Fraser argues that cars are a moral issue.
The Tablet has a feature article by Keith Ward Order out of chaos about Pope Benedict and evolution.
69 CommentsAs part of his current brief trip to Canada the Archbishop of Canterbury has given a lecture The Bible: Reading and Hearing to students at Wycliffe and Trinity theological colleges in Toronto. The full press release from Lambeth Palace is below the fold but here is the first paragraph.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan WIlliams, has told an audience of theological students that both intensely liberal and ultra conservative readings of the Bible are ‘rootless’ and are limited in what they can contribute to the life of the church. In the Larkin Stuart lecture, delivered today at an event hosted jointly by Wycliffe and Trinity theological colleges in Toronto, Dr Williams said that Christians need to reconnect with scripture as something to be listened to and heard in the context of Jesus’s invitation to the Eucharist and to work for the Kingdom.
The full text of the lecture is online here and here.
107 CommentsIn The Times Luis Rodriguez who is an Anglican priest writes that the Church will find a special place for its scapegoats — again.
In the Daily Telegraph Christopher Howse asks How did the death of Jesus save us?
In the Guardian Nicholas Buxton, an ordinand at Stephen’s House, writes the Face to Faith column.
Giles Fraser wrote in the Church Times about The great thanksgiving at sunrise.
There is an excellent article in The New Yorker by Jane Kramer on The Pope and Islam.
6 CommentsJudith Maltby wrote Easter: finding God on Comment is free.
Richard Harries wrote Why the church must ease the pain of Rowan’s Passion in Sunday’s Observer.
Stephen Bates wrote Easter: a cross to bear on Comment is free.
The Sunday Times published this Leader: Misplaced sympathy in response to a news report by Christopher Morgan Bishop praises Iran.
Update Monday- Libby Purves has more comment on this matter in Religion: it makes bishops go bonkers.
The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church Idris Jones wrote this Easter Message.
The Archbishop of Wales Barry Morgan wrote this Easter Message.
The Archbishop of Armagh Alan Harper wrote another Easter Message.
The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church Katharine Jefferts Schori wrote New life out of death: a message for Easter.
26 CommentsThe Times
Geoffrey Rowell On Easter morning a new order broke into the world
And Pete Wilcox Don’t be afraid of the winged messengers
Guardian
Tom Wright Easter’s message of resurrection is a powerful one
And Giles Fraser Embrace freedom
Daily Telegraph
Christopher Howse Ancient Easters caught in stone
And Leader The flesh and blood hopes of Easter
Church Times
Leader Called to be witnesses
And Giles Fraser Why liberals believe the resurrection
Judith Maltby writes in the Guardian about Good Friday.
Jonathan Sacks writes in The Times about Passover.
Christopher Howse writes in the Daily Telegraph about Circumcision.
Paul McPartlan writes in the Tablet about Palm Sunday.
Simon Parke writes in the Church Times about Labelling.
5 CommentsThe Times Many roads lead to the One in southern India by Guy Liardet
Guardian Stephen Tomkins writes about the abolition of slavery campaign.
Telegraph Christopher Howse The lost language of worship
Church Times Giles Fraser Capitalism can have a warm heart
Tablet Dangers, toils and snares by Michael Fitzgerald
Church of England Newspaper via Fulcrum The Church of England: More than Evangelical but not Less by Graham Kings
18 CommentsJonathan Romain considers issue of national loyalty in the Guardian’s Face to Faith column.
Christopher Howse writes in the Telegraph about Templeton Prize winner Charles Taylor in Behind a prize of £800,000.
John Wilkins writes in The Times on why Theologically, Rome and the barrio are still worlds apart.
Robert Mickens in The Tablet has a related article, Iron fist, but velvet glove and there is also an editorial column on this.
Giles Fraser writes about The time of selfishness in this week’s Church Times.
10 CommentsChristopher Ohlson writes the Face to Faith column in the Guardian on the subject of sidelining old hymns.
Christopher Howse writes in the Telegraph’s Sacred Mysteries column about horse-biers in Welsh churches.
Roderick Strange writes in The Times that It’s time to repent our failure to love and seek forgiveness.
Two articles from the Christian Century (hat tip AKMA):
Taking the plunge by James Alison
Pastors writing badly by Lillian Daniel
Giles Fraser writes in the Church Times: What am I blind to now?
7 CommentsUpdated Saturday morning
Some months ago, Time called Archbishop Akinola one of the 100 most influential people in the world. See this piece by Rick Warren.
More recently, there was an opinion article At the Center of a Schism.
In another opinion piece yesterday David Van Biema Crunch Time on Gays for Anglican Archbishop now says this:
Awkward as it may be for an outsider to intrude in the doings of a country or a church that is not his own, I nonetheless believe that the Most Rev. Archbishop Peter Akinola has some explaining to do. The Anglican Primate of Nigeria, one of the most powerful churchmen in Africa, needs to clarify his stance on a Nigerian anti-homosexuality bill he initially supported, which assigns a five-year prison term not only for practicing gays, but also for those who support them. Akinola either needs to publicly renounce, in strong terms, his early support of the bill’s punitive clauses and to amplify the rather tepid concern he later expressed about them, or else he needs to explain why he’s not doing so to the dozen or so churches in Virginia whose congregants were largely ignorant of the legislation when they voted to join Akinola’s archdiocese in December.
As Jim Naughton points out, Time’s reasoning on this topic does sound odd.
Saturday Updates
Voice of America has Nigerian Activist Slams Anti-Gay Bill
Ruth Gledhill has Akinola must speak out to save gays
In Denying Rights in Nigeria the New York Times today expresses its editorial opinion, starting this way :
A poisonous piece of legislation is quickly making its way through the Nigerian National Assembly. Billed as an anti-gay-marriage act, it is a far-reaching assault on basic rights of association, assembly and expression. Chillingly, the legislation — proposed last year by the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo — has the full and enthusiastic support of the leader of Nigeria’s powerful Anglican church. Unless the international community speaks out quickly and forcefully against the bill, it is almost certain to become law…
Update
Matt Thompson reports Passage still imminent.
The website Religious Intelligence has republished from the Church of England Newspaper a column with this title written by Stephen Bates.
So there we were, sitting round the hotel swimming pool in Tanzania, doorstepping the Primates’ Meeting, as one does, and waiting for the regular appearance of Archbishop Akinola, inconspicuously dressed in full Nigerian costume on one of his discreet forays to consult with Bishop Martyn Minns in an upper chamber, when the conversation turned to the question of primatial vicars…
You gotta read it all.
12 CommentsArtistic genius has nothing to do with faith – it’s down to God’s profligacy says Stephen Hough in The Times.
The Times also prints an extract from A Heart in My Head: A Biography of Richard Harries by John S. Peart-Binns under the title Inside track on the road to Anglican schism.
Alex Wright writes about images of God in the Guardian’s Face to Faith column.
In the Telegraph Christopher Howse writes about the history of the church in Leicester Square, in Delivered from the Prince of Wales.
This week’s Church Times column by Giles Fraser is What’s right with risk.
In the Tablet, Terry Prendergast writes about marriage, in The best chance to grow.
Over at Comment is free Theo Hobson wrote Mass Exodus in reply to last week’s column by David Self.
10 CommentsThe Times Jonathan Sacks Failure is one of the greatest gifts bestowed on the faithful
Telegraph Christopher Howse The man who made Byrd live
Guardian It may be a poor imitator of Jesus’s inclusive love and tolerance but the church is necessary, says David Self in Face to Faith.
Church Times Giles Fraser Why Lent needs to be a bit less busy
And, See addicts as victims, not criminals by Paul Vallely
2 Comments