Bishop’s progressive vision: church combining humble presence with “prophetic edge”

Sep 24, 2020 by

Bishop’s progressive vision: church combining humble presence with “prophetic edge”

By Andrew Symes, Anglican Mainstream: What’s the best way of diagnosing the state of the Church of England? For some, we look at its canons and liturgy and conclude that if they have not changed, then nor has the church. This is a bit like judging the current effectiveness and ethical practices of a company just by reading its Articles of Association.  A much richer and more accurate picture is built up from finding out what the organisation is actually doing day to day, and what those...

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What might growth in “online worship” mean for the church?

Aug 26, 2020 by

by Andrew Symes, Anglican Mainstream: What should we make of a new report, claiming that polling data shows how one in four people in the UK have engaged in some kind of “online worship” since the start of the pandemic lockdown? This went up to nearly 30% of the population in August, apparently, which of course is much higher than the number who normally attend churches, mosques, synagogues and other places of worship – probably less than 10%. From the report, whose findings are...

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House of Bishops asked to withdraw ban on individual cups at Communion

Aug 13, 2020 by

By Andrew Symes, Anglican Mainstream: A member of General Synod who asked the Bishops to reconsider the prohibition on individual cups, and was rebuffed by the reiteration of the view that it is “contrary to law”, has presented a detailed Opinion from barristers which concludes that there is in fact no legal barrier to the practice. Mary Durlacher, a lay member from the Diocese of Chelmsford, has sent the Opinion to the House of Bishops and all officers of General Synod, for distribution to...

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Attack on Christian freedom by state and business agencies should warn the faithful church to re-think ministry strategy

Jul 28, 2020 by

By Andrew Symes, Anglican Mainstream: The well-funded, carefully orchestrated and determined campaign to foster disapproval of, and then to ban, so-called ‘conversion therapy’ across nations of the developed world, has been a key component in driving the massive cultural change that has been called the global sexual revolution. This campaign has achieved its latest ‘success’ in persuading a number of multinational corporations (Barclays, Paypal, Twitter, Mailchimp) to suspend services and...

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‘Pregnancy and abortion’ – review of a new resource

Jul 12, 2020 by

By Andrew Symes, Anglican Mainstream: If every abortion constitutes the deliberate killing of a tiny human life, then this is a terrible evil and a stain on our society comparable to the slave trade and the holocaust. If we defend abortion on the grounds of ‘women’s reproductive rights’, or perhaps by arguing that the foetus/embryo is not really a person, then we open the door to serious philosophical problems. Why should an adult’s decision about what is convenient (the main reason for most...

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Repenting of privilege, signalling virtue, following the crowd

Jun 16, 2020 by

By Andrew Symes, Anglican Mainstream: We are in very challenging times, when ‘the madness of crowds’ threatens to sweep us all along in its wake. We’re hoping for leadership from the spiritual elders of our institutional church, who can guide us through our cultural crisis with wise guidance from the word of God. Instead we continue to get capitulation to the secular zeitgeist. Just yesterday: on the prominent Thought for the Day slot on the Radio 4 Today programme, a Church of England...

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