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, […]
Category: Culture
The week that Walsall beat England
Well, not quite! But I was slightly amused yesterday, when it dawned on me that in the space of seven days I was on the pitch at Wembley addressing more than 72,000 football fans for a Saddlers match on the Sunday; and then the following Saturday I was on the pitch at Walsall addressing less than […]
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 […]