This is a highly personal reflection from a prejudiced position. I’m looking for depth, reflection, contemporary awareness of theology, justice, intelligence, awareness, stillness, contemplation, beauty, goodness, love and wisdom. I have come to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit is failing to update the software and hardware operating systems of faith within the Church of England is supposed to operate and be inspired by.
The church’s problem with sex according to Diarmaid
A Sunday morning energised and enlivened by a new book by Diarmaid MacCulloch providing ammunition for someone campaigning for a healthy, fully inclusive church. Diarmaid MacCulloch has provided us, LGBTQIA+ people and allies, and the Church itself, with a new resource, a resource that is almost certainly more authoritative and healthy than the Living in Love and Faith book, an egregious book that panders to conservative evangelicals, he says. Diarmaid and the book, Lower Than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity, are the subjects of an article in today’s Observer Review where it is described as “an incendiary new book that challenges centuries of fakery, abuse and homophobia.”
The past, the present and the future Church of England
I visit churches in the hope of finding inspiration and wisdom, of finding something, anything, that communicates the essence of Christian love, truth and faith as I have experienced and known it through earlier periods of my life. There have been notably few places where love, God’s unconditional, infinite, intimate love, is the first truth the church wants to communicate.
Doing some theology – a sermon about the boy Jesus in the temple
Last week an idea came to me. I should do some theology on the Unadulterated Love blog. One morning when I was meditating, the story in Luke’s gospel came to mind, of the boy Jesus in the temple, aged twelve, gone missing. Luke’s Gospel points out the necessity of the hidden years of Jesus’ childhood and adolescence, that he might grow strong in the full experience of a human nature; thus he might be able to bring the Spirit of God into immediate contact with every human area. From the age of twelve, Jesus grew in all ways – physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually – for the work that lay ahead of him – he advanced in wisdom.
Turning conservative evangelical dogma and doctrine in today’s C of E upside down
Recent comments on the Thinking Anglicans website made very dogmatic assertions about doctrine in the Church of England. There is another, entirely different basis on which faith can be formed, a path that subtly infused my consciousness, creating freedom. Love is the essence. God is love. Love changes everything. St John got it. Jesus got it. The Christian teachers and writers and theologians who inspired and enthused and infused me got it.
Mapping the primary activities of today’s Church of England
I would like to be part of a Church that is evolving spiritually, theologically and culturally, intentionally responding to the movements of our time: the climate crisis, poverty, war, abuse, the transformation of the place of minorities and those against whom prejudice is expressed. I would like a Church that is growing, maturing, overcoming prejudice, committed to radical new Christian inclusion more than it is committed to growth in numbers and income – AND is committing resources to this ambitious Christian vision.
Being a “Nice” Priest or a "Nice" Church
A homophobic Church or a Church free from homophobia?
Changing Attitude – campaigning against the hostile, abusive, prejudiced and homophobic god of the CEEC
The desolation of the Church of England
In the period of my lifetime, I have witnessed a movement in church and society from reliance on interior to exterior authority. This movement has happened because of changes that have taken place that have increased human anxiety and insecurity at the same time as we have become more scientific, more aware, more person-centred, more able, potentially, to diagnose and heal physical and emotional disturbances to our bodies and psyches. Externalised authority and awareness has become dominant in the Christian Church today over and against our internal intuition and wisdom.