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fear or freedom

  • 19 Mar 2012
    Can Rowan Williams (still) rescue us from idiocy?

    Rowan Williams' archbishopric was and is far from perfect, says Simon Barrow. Of course. But if we too readily dismiss the attempts of humane, spiritual and thoughtful people like Dr Williams to point out that our difficulties are not just about someone else’s blockheadedness, we may be nearer the idiocratic realm and further from the hoped-for realm of God and of reason than we think.

  • 19 Mar 2012
    Rowan Williams: People before politics?

    Time and again in the midst of "events, dear boy, events" (Harold Macmillan's famous response to an interrogation about what is the biggest difficulty in being Prime Minister), I keep coming back to Dutch theologian Harry Kuitert's observation that while "everything is politics, politics is not everything".

  • 8 Oct 2011
    Desmond Tutu shows the way for Christianity

    The core to Archbishop Desmond Tutu's appeal, and to the opposition he has also elcited, lies in his sheer humanity as well as his fidelity to the core of the Christian message, says Simon Barrow. This is a pattern which holds out hope for the future of Christianity in dark times.

  • 3 Nov 2010
    Richard Hooker and the Anglican Covenant disagreement

    On 3 November 2010, Anglicans commemorate the 410th anniversary of the death of Richard Hooker. Many are also using the occasion to launch a campaign (http://noanglicancovenant.org/) against a proposed Anglican Covenant which they believe could stifle or deny the originating gifts he brought to Anglicanism.

  • 10 Jul 2010
    Why the obsession with sex?

    The papers are full of Anglican argument once more. The presenting issues, as usual, are sex and gender. But why?

  • 17 May 2009
    Desmond Tutu will speak at Kirk's General Assembly

    Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu will address the Church of Scotland's General Assembly in Edinburgh this week. The peace and justice activist will attend the last day of the Kirk's annual gathering as a special guest.

  • 21 Apr 2009
    Anglican wars prove a media snooze

    Just one journalist turned up for the recent GACON press conference of hard-line Anglicans. Is the long-running ecclesiastical war becoming a media snore?

  • 22 Oct 2008
    The Gospel accorded to Antoni

    In a thoughtful, passionate and challenging reflection on homosexuality
    and the Christian church, Glynn Cardy's focus is not on an 'issue' but
    on the people who are most affected by prejudice, and their need for
    justice, dignity and human rights.

  • 25 Jul 2008
    Lambeth attendees invited to discover Christ in human rights

    One of its centres of attraction in the Lambeth Conference marketplace has been the stall "Seeing Christ in Human Rights", which shows gay Christians and the Gospel in a different light.

  • 24 Jul 2008
    Anglicans can 'win' by not fighting

    Author and evangelical thinker Brian McLaren wants to shift the argument within Christianity away from "culture wars" and towards a rediscovery of the Gosple message free of the overbearing impact of Christendom culture.