Mother’s Day/Mothering Sunday is regularly a joyous affair in the media. There’s plenty of talk of what flowers and presents we should be giving our mothers along with various individuals including celebrities telling us how wonderful and inspiring their mothers have been. Father’s Day on the other hand has become something of a political football. […]

Dear Prime Minister Back in January of this year you recorded a video message setting out the UK’s position on global hunger.  You said: “The UK is leading the fight against global hunger. The generosity of our people and the hard work of our charities have helped millions of families get the food they need. […]

Following on from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s speech in the House of Lords during the debate on same-sex marriage and the subsequent statement by the Bishop of Leicester, there appears to be a certain amount of confusion as to whether the Church of England has capitulated on the matter of marriage.  On the same day last week […]

Last week’s piece on marriage and the cost of weddings has received plenty of interest, with a good number of people expressing similar views.  In the article, I mentioned a charity by the name of Wedding Angels who support couples on low incomes who want to get married.  Their website gives an intriguing taste of what […]

Yesterday’s piece on the new Faith in the Community report by Christians in Parliament and the Evangelical Alliance took the number of posts on this blog to 300.  I’m giving myself a moment to pause and celebrate having got this far.  It’s been a hard old slog working at producing about 200 posts per year, […]

Back in February 2012 the All-Party Group, Christians in Parliament produced a major report on the freedom of Christians in the UK entitled Clearing the Ground. One of the main findings of the report was that there is widespread religious illiteracy in many public institutions. In response to this outcome, Christians in Parliament commissioned a follow-up survey to Clearing […]

Saturday was a great day for the Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign.  The sun was shining and people came out in force.  The events were covered by the media and issues were raised and reinforced by a host of celebrities, campaigners and religious leaders. The IF coalition, which includes Save the Children, Oxfam, Unicef, […]

It’s the Big IF London today.  I’ll be there and will be reporting back afterwards. In the meantime please watch this wonderful video from 24-7 Prayer and World Vision and then think about what you can do to respond.

The battle over the redefinition of marriage has been a long and painful one since David Cameron announced at the Conservative Party conference in October of 2011 that his government was consulting on legalising gay marriage.  But during his speech he also said this: ‘Marriage is not just a piece of paper. It pulls couples together through the […]

After all the build up to today’s vote in the House of Lords, the result was more one-sided than many were expecting.  The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill passed easily by 390 votes to 148.  And so same-sex marriage draws another step closer and ‘traditional’ marriage is consigned to history in this country. It’s a sad […]

David Cameron’s dream of The Big Society may have fizzled away since the 2010 election, but there are still a few remnants that live on.  One of these is the Big Society Awards that seek to recognise outstanding people and organisations whose innovative and dedicated work improves lives and strengthens communities. It’s very encouraging to […]

Sixty years ago on Sunday 2nd June, the coronation of Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor took place at Westminster Abbey.  During the Service for the Coronation, the Queen made this oath: Archbishop of Canterbury: Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel? The Queen: All this I promise […]

This blog has been following the story of four Christians who have taken freedom of religion cases to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for most of the last year.  You can read a the background details on each applicant’s case here.  These cases involving Nadia Eweida, Shirley Chaplin, Lilian Ladele and Gary McFarlane have been dragging on for some […]

Just over a week ago I ended up appearing on Question Time.  As the May 16th broadcast was coming from my local town of Ipswich it seemed like a good idea to apply in the hope that I might be able to engage with politicians firsthand.  I’d done the same back in 2010 when it was last […]

It’s not the first time that someone has been murdered in London this year, but it’s entirely understandable that yesterday’s brutal and horrific killing in Woolwich has gained so much attention.  There is still an underlying nervousness in our society surrounding terrorism and religious extremism   That’s why it was imperative that the violence caused was condemned […]

The Church is often accused of being obsessed with sex (or at least a dislike of it under certain circumstances) and it’s not too hard to see why.  Yesterday’s news was filled with the gay marriage bill and surprise, surprise those who were shown to be complaining the most were Christians outside parliament.  We also […]

Whatever you think about gay marriage and the current legislation passing through parliament, it is most definitely not boring.  perhaps one a day a film will be made based on all that is happening with its complex plot and plentiful twists and turns.  Once upon a time the institution of marriage was a pretty straightforward […]

Christmas and Easter rightly have prominent places in the Church calendar.  Jesus’ birth, death and Resurrection are should be properly celebrated, but the place of  Pentecost is equally as important.  Without that point in time when the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus’ followers as they waited patiently after his ascension, they would have remained a group of […]

The declining proportion of the population who identify themselves as ‘Christian’ along with church attendance is in the news yet again today and the numbers don’t look great.  When the Church of England’s latest attendance figures were published earlier this month, there was a similar story with the usual spin and analysis (including my own) that attempted to determine just […]