Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com This week a jury convicted Russell Brand of rape and sexual assault. Women’s lives have been terribly harmed, and a court of law has now found it so. Any Christian response must start with them. But this is more than just another celebrity whose crimes have been exposed. Brand… Continue reading Russell Brand: three lessons in grace + truth
Category: Ethics & Christian living
Freedom from reality: what hyper-liberalism gets wrong about being human – by Jenny Sinclair
Photo by Zachary DeBottis on Pexels.com This is an excerpt of a talk given by Jenny Sinclair, Founder & Director of Together for the Common Good, at Southwell Minster, Nottingham. You can link to the full text at the end of the article. A country is like a body. If one part is wounded and… Continue reading Freedom from reality: what hyper-liberalism gets wrong about being human – by Jenny Sinclair
Your neighbourhood does not need another programme. It needs you – by Ash Barker
My new book, At the Scent of Water: Growing faith, community and flourishing where you live, gathers what I have learned, often the hard way, about how local renewal actually happens. It is full of stories from ordinary people doing patient work in hard places, including some of my own mistakes. I wrote it for… Continue reading Your neighbourhood does not need another programme. It needs you – by Ash Barker
Put the phone away: let’s get back to reading real, physical Bibles
Photo by el jusuf on Pexels.com At Sunday services, home groups and Christian conferences, physical Bibles have quietly disappeared from church life. It’s not that Christians have abandoned scripture, but they have sub-contracted it to an app on their phone. Why carry around a brick of a book when it's all available on your mobile… Continue reading Put the phone away: let’s get back to reading real, physical Bibles
Beyond the veil: more than ‘a bad look’ for Lambeth Palace – by Martin Kuhrt
The image of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, presenting the Pakistani cleric Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, with an award for ‘Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation' managed to unite both the National Secular Society and a great many British Christians in bewilderment. The picture itself showed a stark contrast between attitudes to women in Islam… Continue reading Beyond the veil: more than ‘a bad look’ for Lambeth Palace – by Martin Kuhrt
It’s not enough to share a pew, if we don’t share a table – by Bruce Nadin
Photo by fauxels on Pexels.com Read part 1: Resisting ‘Christian’ nationalism & secular progressivism – by Bruce Nadin In my last article I argued that we are all being discipled by something, and that the primary place of Christian formation isn't our social media feed but the life of the body of Christ. But what… Continue reading It’s not enough to share a pew, if we don’t share a table – by Bruce Nadin
Resisting ‘Christian’ nationalism & secular progressivism – by Bruce Nadin
Photo by Aslak Su00f8nderland on Pexels.com We are all being formed by the culture around us. By the news we consume, the social media we scroll, the podcasts we listen to, the voices we give our attention to. And our algorithms are remarkably good at giving us more of what we already think. They build… Continue reading Resisting ‘Christian’ nationalism & secular progressivism – by Bruce Nadin
Why your church should mark International Women’s Day – by Anna Heydon
Photo by David Nestorov on Pexels.com It was my 14 year old daughter who asked me: "Why does church need to do something for International Women’s Day?” Objections come easily: What about men? Why should one group receive special attention? And what does it even have to do with church? Freedom and confidence Yet for… Continue reading Why your church should mark International Women’s Day – by Anna Heydon
It’s the Economy, Stupid: social justice must mean economic justice – by Tommy Sharpe
James Carville, strategist to Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, famously quipped “It’s the economy, stupid”. It is a phrase that captured the idea that the primary concern of electorates is always the economy and its impact on people’s personal finances. Just as electoral politics and the economy are inseparable, so too are movements for social… Continue reading It’s the Economy, Stupid: social justice must mean economic justice – by Tommy Sharpe
Praying in the poly-crisis: help to swim against a tide of despair – by Lee Marsden
Photo by TEP RO on Pexels.com We live in a world seemingly spiralling out of control facing environmental catastrophe, unparalleled greed and injustice, wars, famine, and homelessness. What good are our prayers and actions when set against the violence and injustice towards people and creation itself? It is easy to succumb to a counsel of… Continue reading Praying in the poly-crisis: help to swim against a tide of despair – by Lee Marsden
