This is nuts, isn’t it?

Today I was due to do a two hour session as a voluntary chaplain in the Minster. It is perfectly clear that this is a pastoral role towards visitors and others coming into the building. It is very light touch. I get my collar and cassock on and don a badge and a lanyard, and …

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Indivisible Freedom and a Homophobic Church

Moving to Zaïre in 1987, among many cultural shocks encountered was the fact that a visa to travel there was a one-way ticket. There was no automatic freedom of movement out of the country once you had entered. You had to apply for an exit/re-entry visa when in situ. For someone used to their passport …

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Pemberton v Inwood: the end of the matter

This is a press release I have put out this morning as the Court of Appeal handed down judgment: The Court of Appeal has examined the issues in my claim against Bishop Richard Inwood and has dismissed them. I am grateful for the expertise of the Court, though naturally disappointed in the judgment. I have …

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Honouring the whole Body

To be a Christian is to be woven into a community of all the baptised. I can no more go it alone in my spiritual life than I can in my ordinary secular living. There, I can pretend to be sturdily independent, but in truth my food, my housing, my transport, my comfort, my clothing, …

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Letter to General Synod Members before the July Synod

Dear Synod Member, Thank you for your contribution to the life of our church. I do not underestimate the amount of time that it takes for you to prepare for a Synod meeting, and to give up time for what is a very intense few days. I know too, from my time as a Rural …

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On infidelity, broken promises and hounding: why Elaine Storkey is wrong.

In her comment on Fulcrum on the events in Sheffield diocese, Elaine Storkey writes: Five principles were drawn up to help the church move forward in our call to unity on women bishops. The first principle states that the Church of England is fully and unequivocally committed to all orders of ministry being open equally …

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