Is God speaking to us through our wild weather?
This video shows the scenes on Tuesday of this week, when a fine day turned foul with nigh-on Biblical ferment. After days of fabulous sunshine, there was thunder, lightning and huge hailstones crashed down. Then it rained, and then of course the sun came out.Read more…
The Church and the 'demon drink': dethroning King Alcohol
I have just celebrated my 26th anniversary of freedom from King Alcohol. Drink took me to places that I don't want to discuss in my blog at The Times. I was extremely fortunate that I understood the seriousness of my addiction and was given the grace to stop when I was just 25 years old.Read more…
Paedophile priest Fr Kit and the Rosminians: 'I would prefer sad story to remain private.'
The Times has been forwarded a press statement from Father David Myers, leader of the Rosminians in the UK. Reports of this clarification have appeared at places such as Independent Catholic News.
Because the latest statement from Fr Myers was put together using a Word, it is quite easy to track the editing process that led to the final version. I post both versions below.
Father Myers is frank in his internal correspondence in his desire for the story to remain 'private'. This is not quite so apparent in the final version.Read more…
Because the latest statement from Fr Myers was put together using a Word, it is quite easy to track the editing process that led to the final version. I post both versions below.
Father Myers is frank in his internal correspondence in his desire for the story to remain 'private'. This is not quite so apparent in the final version.Read more…
Please God, make me slim!
Many religious people are strong-willed when it comes to food because their faith demands regular periods of fasting. Faith diets have become popular in the last few years with proponents urging people to turn to God not food to meet their spiritual needs.
The principles are similar to those used by self-help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous, which advocate using a "Higher Power" instead of alcohol to deal with difficult feelings. Groups such as Overeaters Anonymous have adopted the 12-step programme of AA to achieve the same goal with food. The big problem with food is that, unlike alcohol, it cannot be given up altogether if the overeater is to remain alive.
Read more…Is belief a balm for broken Britain? Listening out for the 'still, small voice of God' with the Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
In an article in last Saturday's Times,I reported the concerns of the Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks about the internet. The article tied in with an interview of Lord Sacks by James Harding, editor of The Times, and an extract from his new book, The Great Partnership. My news story was based on an interview he did with The Jewish Telegraph and on this paragraph in the epilogue to the book, billed as a 'Letter to a Scientific Atheist'.
In it, the Chief Rabbi writes: 'The new communications technologies are changing almost everything we knew and not so long ago took for granted: the nation state, the idea of national cultures, the nature of politics and economics, the character of war and the fragility of peace, the structure of human groups, even, possibly, the architecture of the human brain. We suffer from information overload and attention defecit. The Internet makes it hard for us to distinguish between truth and rumour and is the most effective disseminator of paranoia and hatred yet invented.Read more…
In it, the Chief Rabbi writes: 'The new communications technologies are changing almost everything we knew and not so long ago took for granted: the nation state, the idea of national cultures, the nature of politics and economics, the character of war and the fragility of peace, the structure of human groups, even, possibly, the architecture of the human brain. We suffer from information overload and attention defecit. The Internet makes it hard for us to distinguish between truth and rumour and is the most effective disseminator of paranoia and hatred yet invented.Read more…
'Rebuke to Archbishop of Canterbury' in Times poll
Sam Coates and Michael Savage report the latest Times Populus poll in the paper today:
'Evidence has also emerged that voters do not trust the party to look after the economy. A Populus poll for The Times suggests that even Labour voters are losing faith in the ability of Mr Miliband and Ed Balls to repair it. Only 23 per cent of voters now say they trust the Labour leader and the Shadow Chancellor to run the economy better — a 10 per cent drop since the last time Populus asked the question in March. This contrasts with 41 per cent who say they trust David Cameron, Nick Clegg and George Osborne “to manage the economy in the best interests of Britain” — down 3 per cent since March. The Government trio have extended their lead over their rivals from 11 points in March to 18 points today.'
Our poll this week also included a question about the latest political intervention of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Links to my own coverage of that issue can be seen on my new public Times profile, which is outside the paywall.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/profile/Ruth-Gledhill
Church in the past, present and future: the Ordinariate, Flying Bishops and Catholic vocations:
With the first priestly ordinations due today, I spoke to Mgr Keith Newton, head of the Ordinariate, about its past, present and future.Read more…
On becoming a global citizen
A reflection by Maryam Duale, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation Muslim Faith Acts FellowRead more…
How to elect an Anglican bishop without cruelty
In Andrew Brown's Guardian scoop about the late Dean of Southwark's memo, which can be read about in full at Thinking Anglicans, he didn't mention what was for me personally one of the most significant aspects. I am indebted forever to Colin Slee for his unexpected little 'rave from the grave' for me. He said: 'Ruth Gledhill may be regarded as a vixen by the establishment of the CofE but she is a very good journalist.' The more serious points of course were the failings that Colin exposed in the workings of the senior appointments process in the Church of England. Below, Jim Naughton writes exclusively for Articles of Faith on the contrasting, superior process used by The Episcopal Church in the US.
How many gentle flowers grow in an English churchyard garden?
The Church of England is urging us all to take a close look at the wild plants in our local churchyards.
This is what they say. I've illustrated their release, below, with photographs I've taken at my own local parish church, St Anne's in Kew, which is currently fundraising for its Tercentenary Appeal. You can see more of these photographs and others like them at my Flickr page. I made the video, below, also at St Anne's, featuring the beautiful English folk song, Country Garden. Soon, my husband Alan Franks and I will be releasing some songs he has written, with a strong spiritual theme.
Barack Obama at Westminster Abbey
(photos Peter Nicholls, The Times)
Our live coverage of President Barack Obama's state visit to Britain, with some of my own tweets and pics, is here. But I thought readers of this blog might like a little more detail from inside Westminster Abbey where I was honoured to have a place, at one point being about two feet from the President himself. It was very thrilling!
Read more…
Oxford University: Joint Review of the Faculty of Theology, March 2010
In my story in The Times today, we report: 'For more than 800 years, the University of Oxford has led the world in the study of the divine. For centuries, it has sat alongside Cambridge as the leading centre for the study of the Bible. Now academics are considering a proposal to rebrand theology at Oxford as “religious studies” because of the growing demand from students who wish to study Islam, Hinduism and Judaism as well as Christianity. The requirement to have an A level in religious studies to study religion at Oxford is also to be dropped.' Oliver Kamm in his commentary says: 'Oxford’s Faculty of Theology insists that its core subject matter of biblical studies, doctrine and church history remains intact. But it is hard to avoid inferring that the faculty’s ferment is further evidence of the cultural decline of Christianity. That decline is an accomplished fact. Oxford’s faculty would be right to acknowledge it by changing its name and radically revising its subject matter.'Below I reproduce the original review and the faculty board response. The next important meeting will be in October.Read more…
Richard Dawkins: Religion Must Not Be Allowed To Hijack The Bible
Richard Dawkins: 'Religion must not be allowed to hijack the great cultural resource of the Bible.'
In a video posted on YouTube to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, Dr Dawkins, geneticist and author of The God Delusion, says religion must not be allowed to hijack the Bible. See my story in The Times.
Asked by Frank Field MP, chairman of the King James Bible Trust what the Bible meant to him, he said: “I think it is important to make the case that the Bible is part of our heritage and it doesn’t have to be tied to religion. It’s of historic interest it’s of literary interest and it’s important that religion should not be allowed to hijack this cultural resource.”
“You can’t appreciate English literature unless you know something about the Greek gods. You can’t appreciate Wagner unless you know something about the Norse gods. You can’t appreciate English literature unless you are to some extent at least steeped in the King James Bible.”Read more…
Asked by Frank Field MP, chairman of the King James Bible Trust what the Bible meant to him, he said: “I think it is important to make the case that the Bible is part of our heritage and it doesn’t have to be tied to religion. It’s of historic interest it’s of literary interest and it’s important that religion should not be allowed to hijack this cultural resource.”
“You can’t appreciate English literature unless you know something about the Greek gods. You can’t appreciate Wagner unless you know something about the Norse gods. You can’t appreciate English literature unless you are to some extent at least steeped in the King James Bible.”Read more…
