Archbishops' Council

God talk – the Church of England in crisis

God talk – the Church of England in crisis

I think the Church of England is in crisis. I think the contemporary ideas held by the Church, the “theologies”, the ideas about and metaphors for and images of and awareness of the God it claims corporately to worship have become grossly inadequate and dangerously flawed. The result of this systemic incompetence are the gross failures of safeguarding and the deep malaise of abuse and the inability of the Church of England to recognise and face up to the abuse that is now a dominant narrative in the Church.

It’s the Church of England’s doctrine of God that requires our primary attention

It’s the Church of England’s doctrine of God that requires our primary attention

It’s not the doctrine of marriage that needs our primary attention, It’s the doctrine of God. That’s why I keep asking the question – what kind of God? I won’t stop asking the question. I believe it is fundamental to what we seek and that by which we are drawn – the mystery of love – what this mystery of love is and why we fall into it.

Makin, substitutionary atonement and the distortion of homosexual desire

Makin, substitutionary atonement and the distortion of homosexual desire

The toxic culture of prejudice and abuse affected by public school pathology and an addiction to substitutionary atonement theology advocated by conservative evangelicals is not going to be overcome until the Church of England Synod and in particular the House of Bishops and the Archbishops’ Council are shaken into a radically changed attitude in their understanding, teaching, practice, liturgy, doctrine and corporate life leading to a dramatic change in C of E culture and teaching.

The desolation of the Church of England

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.

Time to challenge toxic theology and poisoned prejudice in the Church

Time to challenge toxic theology and poisoned prejudice in the Church

We need to get this toxic theology out of the Church
The theology and behaviour of the Anglican Church is intolerable
Clinging to faith is increasingly problematic
The Church is making the faith less and less attractive with a theology that messes people up
Bad theology is in the bloodstream of the Church
Passionless sex is very problematic

This week’s events bring me close to despair

This week’s events bring me close to despair

The events of the past two weeks, the meeting of General Synod in November 2023, the conduct of the entire LLF process and the incompetence of the Church to respond the victims of abuse and implement an effective Safeguarding system all demonstrate to me a Church that has none of the characteristics that communicated to me 60 years ago by practice and example what Christianity looks and feels like. Words were not needed.

The difference between the unconditionally loving God of Jesus and today’s abusive, unhealthy omni-God

The difference between the unconditionally loving God of Jesus and today’s abusive, unhealthy omni-God

We are all infected to some degree by what is, in Trump language, a fake God, and as with Trump’s followers who are totally seduced by his manipulative oratory, many millions elsewhere have great difficulty telling the difference between the fake Omni-God and the true unconditionally loving God.

A Spiritual Health Check for the Church of England

A Spiritual Health Check for the Church of England

In a heart-felt blog for ViaMedia the Revd Dr Charlie Bell writes of “a sense of almost total, paralysing powerlessness amongst ordinary churchgoers and clergy” in the Church of England. He proposes that “As a church, we need to commit ourselves to undertaking a serious spiritual health check.” Yesterday’s blog attempted to set out in some detail what the landscape looks like to me. When and where is such a radical movement going to start? Going public is the only way such a movement to persuade the Church of England to undertake a serious spiritual health check stands a chance of achieving anything.

The Safeguarding Crisis in the Church of England

The Safeguarding Crisis in the Church of England

We are living at a time of crisis, globally and individually. The crises are multiple: climate, ecosystem, political, economic, spiritual, religious, refugee, health, housing, pollution. Every member of the human race is at risk of being affected by and infected by this systemic state of crisis – emotionally, intellectually, physically and spiritually. In the Church of England, the drama last week about the sacking of the members of the Independent Safeguarding Group manifests the total mess that is safeguarding policy and practice in the Church of England. The Church is directly affected by the unhealthy magical thinking that is a normative part of today’s Christian teaching and thinking.

The Church of England’s systemically abusive culture

The Church of England’s systemically abusive culture

On Wednesday I wrote to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York putting a question to them arising from the blogs exchanged by a number of bishops’ chaplains:  “How are you going to ensure good practice in the future, practice that at least meets the legal requirements, to avoid a repeat of the concealment that led to the shameful abuse of children in the Church of England?” This is but one example of the bad practice within the Church of England that has been the subject of recent reports. Below the letter, I comment on the Archbishop of York’s failures, the incompetence of the Clergy Discipline Commission and the disregard for proper process exhibited by William Nye, Secretary General of the Archbishops’ Council.