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Southwell and Nottingham General Synod member calls for safeguarding changes

A member of the Church of England’s General Synod who campaigns against gender-based violence is calling for changes to the way the Church of England tackles safeguarding. Gavin Drake has tabled two Private Members Motions (PMMs) which may be selected for debate by the Synod if they attract the signatures of 100 other General Synod […]

Press Release: General Synod member calls for Archiepiscopal Visitation to investigate safeguarding in Southwell and Nottingham

– Call comes after High Court Judge asks the Archbishop of York to spell out “without delay” safeguarding lessons that the bishop of Southwell and Nottingham needs to learn. A recently elected member of the General Synod’s House of Laity, Gavin Drake, has called on the Archbishop of York, the Most Revd Stephen Cottrell, to […]

From ACNS: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ask Presiding Bishop Michael Curry to preach at wedding

This afternoon I wrote an article for the Anglican Communion News Service. It is so popular that it has crashed the server! So I am republishing it here. The Presiding Bishop of the US-based Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, will preach at next weekend’s wedding of Prince Henry of Wales – more informally referred to as […]

Violence against women is a sin

Yesterday, during an interview with Ed Stourton on BBC Radio Four’s Sunday programme, I mentioned a video produced by church leaders in Fiji (listen here, from 12’22”). The ecumenical campaign saw Anglican, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Salvation Army, Methodist, evangelical and other church leaders deliver a very clear and unambiguous message: “violence against women and children […]

Did you hear about the vicar who banned “Onward Christian Soldiers”?

Did you hear about the vicar who banned “Onward Christian Soldiers”? The chances are that you have: the story that the Revd Steve Bailey, team rector-designate of St Peter’s Church in Oadby, Leicestershire, has banned the Victorian hymn from this year’s Remembrance Sunday service has been reported widely, including in the Leicester Mercury, Daily Mail, […]

The Grammys: Gospel and contemporary Christian music winners

Way way back, many centuries ago (okay, the early 1990s, actually), I cut my journalistic teeth on the UK’s contemporary Christian music magazine Cross Rhythms. In recent years I’ve been privately lamenting the loss of Britain’s Christian music scene. There just doesn’t seem to be the same market, scene or buzz around Christian music. There […]