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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Anglican Alternative Facts

The Archbishop of Canterbury has published a message about the forthcoming Primates meeting in Canterbury in October 2017. His comments, and those of the Secretary General of the Communion, Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon, talk not only about the forthcoming meeting, but also about the Report of the House of Bishops’ Working Party on Marriage and Same-sex  …

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You know who you are

Even from the back of the class you can see the assignment is covered in red pen. The teacher holds it disdainfully by the corner and then lets it fall fluttering to the floor. She scans the room with a baleful glance before focusing on the offending student: "You know who you are".  If I …

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Lamenting Orlando

Sometimes place names get meanings they would rather not. From now on, Orlando will always mean the Pulse massacre - the biggest loss of life in any American mass shooting in modern times. It will live like Sandy Hook, or Dunblane, or Hungerford in our consciousness of horror and terror. But it will not be as puzzling …

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Shared Conversations – Talking in Circles

Getting together with fifty or so other people, only a few of whom you already know, to talk about sex and religion for three days is, frankly, not something that any sane person would really want to do. We did it because the Church of England has decided the way forward over the issue of …

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Waiting for someone to sort it out – a blog from 2009

There is a good deal of chatter and not a little activity among some evangelicals about "false teachers"and the need to purify and re-reform the church. It is focused of course by the Bishop of New Hampshire's existence and by the determination of the diocese of New Westminster in Canada to provide liturgical rites for …

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