What the bishops might also have said

A ‘Draft Explanatory Note’ intended to be attached to the House of Bishops’ Response to LLF has come to light. Its stated purpose is to ‘anticipate some likely questions the Response raises’ and to ‘enhance the theological integrity and intellectual honesty’ of the Response. It seems not to have won sufficient support for publication. We … Continue Reading

How the World’s Earliest Astronomical Chart was Discovered under a Biblical Manuscript in Cambridge

West Cambridge – the edge between university city and river pasture – has been growing for many years with institutes armed with ever finer technology for understanding the world around us and above us. It may be a surprise to many that it is the research institute for biblical scholarship, Tyndale House, with its iconic … Continue Reading

The Desire of Jesus, Deep and Daring: What if…?

This piece was originally delivered at one of Westminster Abbey’s pre-Lambeth Conference ecclesiology seminars. A volume of these essays will be published in due course. ‘God’s Church for God’s World’ is the motto of the 2022 Lambeth Conference. How can we in the Anglican Communion be resourced and inspired to be the sort of Church … Continue Reading

‘Staying in the room where it happens’? A response to Lucy Winkett’s defence of establishment

A 2003 survey found that 42% of Anglican clergy and 35% of laity favoured a complete severance of constitutional ties between the Church of England and the state. Whatever the comparable figures today, it is reasonable to assume that a substantial minority of English Anglicans continue to harbour significant doubts about the church’s established status. … Continue Reading

Henry Martyn (1781-1812) in Cambridge: Spiritual Nurture and Ministerial Formation

Much has been written about Henry Martyn. The Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide (CCCW) Library has a range of books by different authors, for example David Bentley-Taylor, C. D. Bell, Jim Cromarty, Barbara Eaton, Kellsye Finnie, John Martyn, Constance Padwick, Jesse Page, John Sargent, George Smith and Vivienne Stacey. A number of these focus on … Continue Reading

Florence Allshorn (1887-1950) and St Julian’s

An important collection of papers of the St Julian’s Community, Coolham (West Sussex), including material about the life of the founder, Florence Allshorn (1887-1950), is held in the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide (CCCW) Archive. Work has been done on Florence Allshorn and the Community, the most comprehensive being by J.H. Oldham, Florence Allshorn and the … Continue Reading

Christian Ethics and Climate Change

Ahead of COP26, and in light of the current and ongoing climate emergency, Fulcrum will be posting a series of articles exploring climate change, theology and our ethical response during September and October. This is the first in this series: a lecture given at Christ Church Oxford Summer School 2018.   Do you recall the … Continue Reading

Reflections on the Public Purpose of Marriage

My intention in writing this article is to explore long-standing legal principles of marriage and their scriptural endorsement as a means of delineating the over-arching public reason for marriage. I will also provide examples that demonstrate how this public reason is being undermined by the re-definition of marriage. The repeated and inevitable result is that … Continue Reading

Job’s Silent Friends

If you’ve ever heard a sermon on the book of Job, it’s likely that the preacher will have criticised the protagonist’s friends. In the opening chapters, Job’s life is decimated. His children die, all of his property (and therefore security) is taken away and he is afflicted with physical illness. His friends arrive and almost … Continue Reading