Photo by Steve Johnson on Pexels.com When I worked for Shaftesbury - now Livability - helping churches engage in social action, I had a boss who would often challenge our team with this question: was our work making a difference on the pavement or was it more about the platforms of church meetings and conferences? In other words,… Continue reading Which is more important: what is done on the pavement or what is said on the platform?
Drowning in the Shallow – Andy Flannagan [Review]
I must admit that I am not a big fan of a lot of contemporary Christian music. Too often, I find the lyrics can be trite and too detached from the difficulties and complexity of real life. Often laments for our broken world tend to be both more poetic and more moving from those outside the Church rather than… Continue reading Drowning in the Shallow – Andy Flannagan [Review]
Corruption, greed and the Beautiful Game – by Steve Couch
In December 2010, FIFA announced that Qatar had been chosen to host the 2022 football World Cup. Not so much a footballing hotbed as just hot, it remains a controversial choice. Qatar has an appalling record of human rights but still, it fills the FIFA coffers, so that’s all right. Closer to home, players earn… Continue reading Corruption, greed and the Beautiful Game – by Steve Couch
Sex and the Spa Town
Photo by Marina Zvada on Pexels.com In the last three months two nightclubs in my home town of Leamington Spa have applied for ‘sexual entertainment licences’ that allow them to run strip clubs and other ‘adult entertainment’. With the Green Party and others from across the political spectrum I've been campaigning to stop the licences being granted. Similar… Continue reading Sex and the Spa Town
Should Christians send their children to private schools?
Photo by Patrick Case on Pexels.com The Education Secretary Michael Gove, today gave a speech where he said that the segregation between rich and poor children was ‘morally indefensible’. The Evening Standard tonight quotes his comments at length: "It is remarkable how many of the positions of wealth, influence, celebrity and power in our society… Continue reading Should Christians send their children to private schools?
Going Beyond ‘the Project’: why we need to be less professional and more radical – by Anna Hembury
The defining, shaping character of Christian youth and community work is the Incarnation - Jesus’ birth, life death and resurrection. This presumably means we are confident that Jesus had a pretty good grasp of what constitutes “good practice” so the standards by which we might measure “being professional” should first and foremost be from an… Continue reading Going Beyond ‘the Project’: why we need to be less professional and more radical – by Anna Hembury
Don’t buy the lies about Executive Pay: Reward people for the contribution they make
“Did you know that the Chief Executive of Warwickshire County Council gets paid £173,000 per year, which is over 14 times the least well paid person in the Council who get by on £12,145?” Over the last month, I've been knocking on peoples' doors asking them if they want to sign the local Green Party's Fair… Continue reading Don’t buy the lies about Executive Pay: Reward people for the contribution they make
John Bunyan’s warning to bloggers
Recently I read John Bunyan's classic tale Pilgrim's Progress, published in 1678. Like some of the most powerful Christian writings, for example Martin Luther King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Letters from Prison and Paul's Letter to the Philippians, it is a book written from a prison cell. What makes it such a brilliant book… Continue reading John Bunyan’s warning to bloggers
Who will be the fathers?
Photo by Casey Allen on Pexels.com This story was told at my church a few weeks ago: “Elephant herds are formed of an intrictate social web of the extended family. Two or three generations of parents and cousins all play their part – it really does take a whole herd to raise an elephant child.… Continue reading Who will be the fathers?
The Church has forfeited the right to have a say on gay marriage
For as long as I can remember the church in the UK has treated people who are gay horrifically. We have denied, we have judged, we have excluded, we have hurt, we have silenced. The vicious aggression of the recent banned bus ads doesn't represent the approach of all Christians, but the church as a whole… Continue reading The Church has forfeited the right to have a say on gay marriage
