Yesterday the Church of England published its attendance statistics for 2011.  The accompanying press release has done it’s best to put a positive gloss on the figures talking in particular about a 14.5% increase from the previous year in attendance at Christmas services, reaching a total of 2,618,030.  Christenings are up 4.3%, adult baptisms are up […]

On the same day that I heard that Margaret Thatcher had passed away, I also learnt of the death of David Kuo.  Whilst Baroness Thatcher made the news around the world, David Kuo’s did not, but despite this he had something to say that I feel is worth sharing here. David Kuo died on April 5th aged […]

Last week I had the privilege of being taken round the Houses of Parliament.  I have to admit that this was the first time I had ever visited, which might come as something of a surprise given the subject matter of this blog.  I’ve seen it plenty of times from the outside and even studied its […]

It’s time for me to take a break for a couple of weeks to recharge my batteries and spend time with my family.  I’ll still be keeping busy as Archbishop Cranmer has told me I need to broaden my knowledge of church history, so I’m stuck into my reading list right now.  To finish things off […]

Following on from the huge amount of interest generated by last month’s book review of Unconditional: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs-Christians Debate by Justin Lee, I thought it would be a good idea to contact him to ask for an interview.  Justin is the founder and chief executive of the Gay Christian Network in the United States, […]

If an alien happened to land its UFO in the car park of your local Tesco sometime in the next few weeks and popped in for something to eat, would it have any idea if it was asked, why the shelves were stacked high with chocolate eggs? This is obviously a ridiculous scenario, but how […]

Even though I know several people who are gay, the biggest problem I have when I talk or write about anything to do with being gay or gay relationships, is that I’m not gay.  I can’t get close to explaining what it must be like to be gay and especially what it must be like […]

This is an interesting partnership between the NHS and various Christian denominations and bodies: A ‘groundbreaking’ new campaign has been launched today asking the church to increase the number of blood and organ donors in the UK.  It will encourage Christians to give blood  and also sign up to be organ donors as part of their personal […]

Back in the summer of last year I was given the chance to attend a seminar on supporting LGBT students in the educational environment.  Most years as a teacher I will have one or two students who are openly gay, so it made sense to go along and see if there was anything useful to learn.  The group […]

Unless there is a major news story that I feel needs responding to, this will be my last post of 2012.  It’s time for God and Politics in the UK to have a Christmas break and I’ve decided to finish the year by writing a Christmas reflection: For to us a child is born, to […]

Today God and Politics in the UK is one year old!  On November 30th 2011 I published my first post on St. Paul’s and the Occupy protests, which you can read here.  I have to admit that I had no idea what I was letting myself in for when I started.  It’s been a steep learning curve, […]

This Thursday those of us in England and Wales outside of London get to vote for our choice of Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC). Well done if you haven’t clicked away already.  As far as unsexy blog posts I’ve written go, this will probably rank near the top, but there is a point to me writing […]

Not so long ago being in a position of public leadership and also a professing Christian was seen as a virtue and nothing to be ashamed of.  Margaret Thatcher may not have been everyone’s favourite politician (to put it mildly), but you can’t deny the convictions of her Christian faith.  In her 2002 book Statecraft, […]

A week is a long time in politics as the saying goes and certainly this has been the case with all the political discussion on abortion limits since I last wrote about it of Friday.  I had no idea when I discussed Maria Miller’s comments on reducing the limit that it would blow up in such […]

Last night I was in London attending the Annual Theos Think Tank lecture, which this year was being given by Archbishop Rowan Williams.  I don’t think I’ve seen so many dog collars in one room before, but I digress. This was my first opportunity to see Rowan in the flesh and the eyebrows were as […]

Thanks to Barnabas Fund and Stuart James at eChurch who have publicised the news of the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) ruling earlier this month that people who are persecuted in their native countries due to their religion have the right to apply for asylum in Europe. The case brought to the court by the German government […]

Christina Summers, who is a member of Brighton and Hove City Council, the UK’s only Green Party council, has been dismissed from the Green Group of councillors over her views on same-sex marriage which she expressed during in a free vote. As the Telegraph reported back in July, Miss Summers was ordered to face a party […]

I spotted my first Alpha Course billboard advert today (see above), which surely signals the start of the annual Alpha Course publicity push.  Alpha is fantastic for so many reasons, not least because so many individual’s lives have been impacted by it.  If you want a chance to discuss life’s big questions and learn what the Christian […]

Not long after I started out as a full-time youth worker I visited my local school and innocently asked the Head of RE if they were a Christian.The reaction I received was probably about the same as if I’d asked her how much she weighed.  After the initial shock she pieced together a vague and non-committal […]