Dear +Steven, It’s always difficult to put one’s head above the parapet when confronting the controversial issues of one’s time. It takes courage to do so – and for that I admire you in writing your statement. I too would much rather keep my head safely below the trench-line. I don’t enjoy conflict and would … Continue Reading
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
Ronald J Sider 1939- 2022 With the death of Ronald Sider we say ‘adieu’ to one of the most significant evangelical Christian voices of the last 60 years. Born in in Erie, Ontario, Canada in 1939, he became known for his rejection of any dichotomy between evangelism and social action and his claim that the … Continue Reading
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
Last year I reviewed a very useful collection of essays on the Lambeth Conference, the ten-yearly gathering of the bishops of the worldwide Anglican Communion. (The next meeting is to take place this summer in London and Canterbury). In that review, I wrote: There is much more room left for detailed historical work on past conferences – … Continue Reading
The question of who will be attending Lambeth which was explored in the first article last week is distinct from, but connected to, the question of where Lambeth is going, what it will do, what outcomes are being sought. The significant recent development here is the announcement that the Archbishop of Canterbury has decided that this Conference … Continue Reading
“Rowing, not rowing” was the Economist’s elliptical, intriguing headline (9th Jan 2016), prior to the make-or-break 2016 “Primates’ Meeting” of the Anglican Communion concerning the looming rift over issues of sexuality. The subheading was: “The archbishop of Canterbury tries to save the Anglican Communion.” This alluded to Justin Welby’s undergraduate experience as a cox of the first … Continue Reading
The Lambeth Conferences opens on July 26th, just over a month away. In recent days there has been quite a flurry of activity—including two announcements from the Archbishop of Canterbury—which has highlighted some of the challenges that it will face. The first communication was the text of a letter sent on 27th May by Archbishop Justin and Archbishop … Continue Reading
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
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