Anglican Accounting
Afraid I couldn’t resist this rather naughty letter to the Times, which was passed on to me this weekend: Church accounting- Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical disestablishment Sir, The Church of England is to be congratulated on its audacious plan to solve its longstanding financial difficulties (“Church of England votes to ordain women bishops”, July 8). Simultaneously […]
Occam’s Razor: If only it were that simple…
Rather a fallow blogging week (LOTS of talks to write at the moment). But couldn’t help noticing yet another gag from Libby Purves’ Faith Central (though one wonders slightly whether or not she and her colleague Bess are more concerned with unfaith?) taken from the provocative but sometimes amusing irrelegion.org. It looks great, doesn’t it? […]
God or Man ‘in the dock’?
Saw this today on Libby Purves’ Faith Central. Says it all really. It certainly describes what the modern world does to God and illustrates Rudolf Bultmann’s (in)famous statement: It is impossible to use electric light and the wireless and to avail ourselves of modern medical and surgical discoveries, and at the same time to believe […]
The Horror behind closed doors
This article does not make comfortable reading, by any stretch. In fact, it is horrific – because it is real. But it merely serves to illustrate, as if illustration were needed, that the human heart is deceitful above all things, and that education, background, charm and intelligence have never been accurate barometers of the morality […]
“I’m all here but I’m not all there…”
“I’m all here but I’m not all there…” In case you didn’t spot it, this is one of the most brilliant dramatic lines in all English history. It is uttered by Alan Bennett’s immortal character of the king, in his unsurpassed play, The Madness of George III, played superbly by the late great Nigel Hawthorne. […]
Freedoms staunchly defended, but happily forfeited
Our culture is obsessed with rights – but has no idea how to build community (or at least a community of diversity). It seems that it is impossible to hold to both. Well, Hugh Palmer has just finished a brilliant series from 1 Corinthians 8-10 about the relationship between our rights and freedoms on the […]
Turkey, Christians and religious freedom?
I’ve just come back from an extraordinary week’s travels. What a privilege. 3 days in Turkey and 4 days in Romania, in both places with a view to helping local church leaders develop preaching movements for their respective countries. I think i should blog about them separately because of their marked differences – there are […]
TYPHOON – a new spy-novel that pulls no punches
Every now and then a book comes my way which gets under my skin – and I instantly feel a blog coming on. I love historical novels on the whole, and of course, they are in vogue – not only do they transport, but they can (should?) also educate. But from the novelist’s point of […]
50 years on – Packer & Stott as relevant as ever
A number of people have asked for my thoughts on GAFCON and its follow-up meeting at All Souls last Tuesday. To be honest, i don’t really know what to make of it all and it is too early to say. I was impressed with all 4 speakers at the All Souls meeting, as well as […]
Mandela at 90: The world in search of a hero
Well, we were there. Regulars may be thinking that we spend our lives heading off to big rock gigs, but that’s far from the truth. Still, this felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity to see Mandela on his last visit to the UK and quite possibly his last major public appearance. The Gig […]
ELF Reflections published
Well, it’s been a frantically busy week with just LOTS to blog about (yippee!). So there’ll be a few things over the next few days (hurrah!). Watch this space. But after getting back from the European Leadership Forum, I was asked to write a review of the whole thing – and lo, and behold, i […]
