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New Year Predictions for 2018
General Election in the second half of the year. “…and as the polls close, our exit poll predicts that the Conservative Party is unlikely to be able to form a new government…” The next but one leader of the Conservative Party becomes Ruth Davidson MP. The hipsters get bored of vinyl and discover cameras with…
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Last year’s predictions – how did I do (2017)
Let’s take a quick look at how well I did at predicting 2017 1 – Trump will become President of the USA later this month but won’t manage to survive for 4 years. (And don’t be rejoicing anyone, take a look at his VP). Well, Trump did but we won’t know yet whether he will…
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Here comes the sun
The solstice is past. Rejoice.
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Advent and How Religion Works
Religion is a funny thing. It is on the one hand about doing what comes naturally to people. And on the other hand it is about doing the very opposite. Let me explain. Some aspects of religion are about what comes naturally and easily to people – things like prayer and things like the way…
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Statement regarding Prayers for Prince George
Nearly two years ago, I wrote a piece about how campaigners might change the Church of England to make it more inclusive of LGBT people. The post was copied and pasted elsewhere and commented on widely at the time. In those two years I can’t remember any negative comment about it. It included the suggestion…
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Inclusive Language and Politeness
Every now and then I learn how to be just a bit more polite to someone. It isn’t that I’m particularly rude, at least, I hope not. It is more that I’m still learning about people and still learning about how people prefer to be treated. Meeting a lot of people as I do means…
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The Episcopal Way of Death
I shall spend a considerable part of my work today thinking about how to help the congregation here to face death. Face their own deaths and face the reality of the deaths of those they have known through the years – the reality of those whom they have loved with a passion and the reality…
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Love means Love
Members of the Scottish Episcopal Church voted earlier this year to allow the marriage of same-sex couples to be able to be conducted by those clergy who wish to conduct them. We voted on that after years of discussion. It was passed by the 2/3rds majority in the House of Bishops, the House of Clergy…
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The Scottish Episcopal Church and the upcoming Primates’ Meeting
There’s been a little flurry of articles in the press this week about the Scottish Episcopal Church. “SANCTIONS LOOM FOR SCOTTISH EPISCOPAL CHURCH’S PRO-GAY MARRIAGE VOTE” “SCOTS ‘TO FACE CONSEQUENCES’ OVER GAY MARRIAGE” “GLOBAL ANGLICAN CHURCH LEADERS CONDEMN SCOTLAND FOR ALLOWING SAME-SEX WEDDINGS” And so on. The only awkward thing about all these articles is…
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75 questions for people who want to help churches to grow
Helping churches to grow is hard work but there are some things that need to be addressed to help congregations to grow which seem to be fairly consistent across churches which are otherwise very different in style. Some time ago I published two lots of 25 questions for people who want to help churches to…