Starving for Meaning: Is Fasting Too Retro To Survive?
Sorry, we got it wrong In our rush to make Christianity more palatable for each
Articles & Reflections
Valentine against the Machine
Valentine was an early Christian Saint from the period before the ‘Christianization’ of Rome. He
Hope at the Helm of Canterbury
The recent appointment of a new Archbishop of Canterbury didn’t seem to be commented upon
Icons of Horror in Gaza
This week, images from Gaza of veiled women holding emaciated infants have been everywhere. They are icons of unspeakable horror.
Ours is the dying part
A letter from Archbishop Jeremy Greaves at the beginning of Holy Week. As I sit
From where I stand: The Heresy of Patriarchy, The Church and its damning evidence of Coercive Control
By The Ven. Dr C. Lucy Morris It was a packed conference, filled with women
The Shame of ‘It’ and the Power of God in a Woman
Content Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual abuse and gendered violence. This is a
Seeking Resonance
The this Church Times podcast the Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani speaks of the weariness in the church and in society at large and her discomfort with the relentless call to numerical growth. Well worth 30 minutes of your time. (See an excerpt below:)
Being Peacemakers Along the Battlefront of Life
There was my daughter Makayla dancing in the darkness – just spinning around, saying, ‘Look at me, Daddy’. I said, ‘Makayla, you need to go to bed, its 3 am. You need to go to bed.’ But she said, ‘No, look at me, Daddy. Look at me.’ And she was spinning, barrettes going back and forth, pigtails going back and forth. I was getting huffy and puffy wanting her to go to bed, then God spoke to me. ‘Look at your daughter! She’s dancing in the dark. The darkness is all around her but it is not in her!’ Makayla reminded me that weeping may endure for a night, but if you dance long enough joy will come in the morning. It is the job of preachers….to [send] this word to us in the hardest of times: do not let the darkness find its way in you. (Brous 2024:130)
Weapons, Peace and Gaza
Empathy is painful. As we watch what is happening in Palestine and don t turn away, we deeply mourn, and the mourning goes on and on. In the midst of this mourning we realise that we are not alone in our mourning. This mourning reaches across cultures, and languages and ethnicities. It goes deep, into the fabric of life itself. It is deep calling to deep. And there is a flame that burns, which both destroys and creates. And out of this mourning comes a renewed commitment to justice.
Neither Last Supper or Olympics are Politically Neutral
Having drag performers centre stage at the Olympics, on one of the biggest stages in world theatre, is not a politically neutral act. Being able to have that act understood as referring to Jesus and the twelve apostles is not a politically neutral act. Doing this in France, with the ascendancy of the Far Right and its alliance with conservative Christianity, is not a politically neutral act. It is about taking sides. The side of broadening the boundaries of inclusion.
Why do we assume religion and science are in conflict?
Misunderstandings as to the true nature of Galileo’s battle with the church, for example, along with beliefs such as the church banning the number zero, the excommunication of Halley’s comet, or that the church believed for centuries that the earth was flat, are urban myths peddled, in the main, by Draper and White’s writings.