‘Did the Church of England's divisions over homosexuality contribute to child sex abuse cover-up?’ proclaimed the headline to one of its purported news reports last week.
If the editor of Christian Today thought that putting a question mark at the end of the headline would mask the story’s revisionist bias, then, with respect to Mark Woods, he would be mistaken.
The opening of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) into the deficiencies of the Established Church will take the headlines, but other stories have also arisen. The poor handling of Fr Matt Ineson's complaints against five bishops was featured in the BBC Inside Out programme, and the substance of it appeared on the BBC website. It was covered by Christian Today, and, as so often, His Grace offered a strong and incisive contribution.
Read more'Them' being John Sentamu, Archbishop of York; Peter Burrows, Bishop of Doncaster; Steven Croft, Bishop of Sheffield (now Bishop of Oxford); Martyn Snow, Archdeacon of Sheffield (now Bishop of Leicester); Glyn Webster, Bishop of Beverley; and Roy Williamson, Bishop of Bradford (now retired).
Read moreThe letter, also signed by Simon Rufus Isaacs, Marquess of Reading, who is a friend of Prince Charles, former bishop of Woolwich Colin Buchanan, and campaigner Andrea Williams of Christian Concern, says that similar high-profile cases have not resulted in prosecutions for misconduct in public office.
Read more'I woke up the next morning at some point in the bed in Colin Prichard's house. I was completely naked,' he said. 'I don't know what happened. I can only speculate and I expect you can speculate too.
'That really bothers me not knowing what really happened. It was terrifying.'
Read moreMy longing for the LSD-like experience of discombobulation was satiated over the weekend when Justin Welby kept popping out of the newspapers like a Jack-in-the-box on steroids.
Read moreEzekiel 13:10--16 Precisely because they have misled my people, saying, 'Peace,' when there is no peace, and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash, say to those who smear it with whitewash that it shall fall! There will be a deluge of rain, and you, O great hailstones, will fall, and a stormy wind break out.
Read moreShould Reform be calling it a day? I would respectfully suggest not.
When Reform was founded in 1993 because of the Church of England General Synod's decision to ordain women to the presbyterate in 1992, its founding fathers wanted to establish a network of local churches and ministers that would work together for evangelism through the local church and contend for biblical truth in a denomination that they believed was beginning to incarnate unbiblical innovations.
Read moreThe different groups splintered over different emphases and over their individual stance on women's ordination.
Dr Gatiss hailed the change as the 'biggest thing to happen in the Anglican evangelical world here [in the UK] for 25 years' as he celebrated the coming together.
Read moreElectronic links for these can be found here
http://churchsociety.org/docs/applications/church_society_membership_form_2018.pdf
http://churchsociety.org/docs/about_us/cs_conference_form_2018.pdf
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