Columns
Christmas Message from Salvation Army's General Larsson: 'The Gift Beyond Words'
Are you behind with getting your Christmas cards sent off? If so, you will sympathise with the woman who rushed into the card shop just before Christmas, snapped up a packet of 50 identical cards...
Archbishop of Canterbury Releases Christmas Message
The Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual head of more than 70-million Anglicans worldwide, and head of the Church of England has released a Christmas statement. Even though the Archbishop has endured a tough year...
Christmas Message 2005 from the World Council of Churches General Secretary
It was in the midst of last year's Christmas season that the December 26th tsunami killed thousands of people on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Who can forget the images of the killer waves...
How to Get the Punters in the Pews
Can anything halt the numerical decline going on presently in most mainline Christian denominations? Whenever this question is asked, one obvious clue to an answer seems to get missed. It is a fact that in every part of the country, there are churches that are cheerfully bucking the trend ...
Engineering Disabled Embryos: the Race to be First
How should Christians react to this bioindustrial use of human embryos? Those who have read David Jones’ absorbing new book The Soul of the Embryo will be aware of the complex history of Christian thought on ensoulment. The earliest strand of Christian tradition made no distinction between early and late abortion ...
A Forward Look at Mission
Whether the Church of England remains the ‘established’ Church of the land or not – and some doubt it -- it must continue to have a concern for the people among whom it is placed, and its mission to the nation as a whole must remain a top priority. But what exactly is that mission?
Who Are the New Missionary Giants?
When what we know changes, the world changes and with it, everything. These words, from James Burke the scientific journalist, sum up the themes of his TV series and book, ‘The Day the Universe Changed’ (Little, Brown & Co, 1986), in which he examines pivotal moments in history when some aspect of science was ‘known’ until someone came along who challenged, and ultimately changed, that perception...
Pope John Paul II: "Do not be afraid"
The Pope of one billion Roman Catholics stood for Jesus Christ. He stood for Jesus Christ against Communism. He stood for Jesus Christ against right wing dictatorships in Latin America. He stood for Jesus Christ against abortion ...
John Paul II - The Man and His Legacy
The death of Pope John Paul II brings one of the Roman Catholic Church's longest papal reigns to an end and closes the last chapter on one of the most significant lives of our times. By any measure, John Paul II was one of the most influential figures on the world scene, leading over a billion Roman Catholics worldwide ...
It's as if the Reformation had never happened
It is a compelling measure of the personal and political impact made by the long reign of John Paul II - to say nothing of the changed nature of British public life during his 27 years as Bishop of Rome - that the death of the pontiff this weekend ...
The Black and White Gap
Black church leaders attend one conference, white church leaders a different one - not good. Jonathan Oloyede challenges the status quo and suggests practical ways bridges can be built between majority black and white congregations and leaders...
The Truth and Nothing But the Truth
It is now apparent to even the most unenlightened or blind that there are two entirely different and opposing understandings of the Christian Faith now currently at work in the worldwide Anglican Communion...
Repositioning "Evangelical"
When Archbishop Fisher went home on the night of the Queen's Coronation in 1952 he made a momentous entry in his diary. "Today," he declared, "Great Britain has come close to the Kingdom of Heaven." What was even more remarkable was that the newspapers agreed with him the following day...
Who influences whom?
Billy Graham may not be as active or as publicly visible as he once was, but he remains the most trusted spokesman for the Christian faith in the U.S. His ministry peers also regard him as the person who has the greatest influence on American churches and church leaders...
The Church and the Charity Commission - Friend or Foe?
Winston Churchill once described Russia as a 'riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma'. I have no doubt that many Church leaders would say the same thing about the charity commission! Too often, the Commission has been seen to be something of an administrative Goliath towering over a tiny David...
The Mature and Holy Hope of a Nation
Over a Nigerian dinner a few moments ago, I asked a missionary deep into his second decade about the health of the Church in this nation ...