February 2012 Blog Posts (16)

I am not a fan of the Sun. I have never bought it and I never will. It partly goes back to Hillsborough and the utterly shameful – and never regretted – treatment of Liverpool fansafter 96 of them died. But, it goes deeper.

I was in Oxford last night and missed the Carling Cup Final –…

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Please sign this petition



http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/29011



I believe that God can heal



Responsible department: Department for Culture, Media and Sport



Whether or not we believe that God can heal, we call on the Government to ensure that publishing statements of faith is not banned. This petition is put forward following cases where the Advertising…

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To More than Gold HQ for borough champions meeting. A lot going to be happening round this huge event. We know when the torch will be in our borough but some of us are not being told the route!

To Faith Matters MOMA Measuring Anti-Muslim attacks. Clearly a need for this and Simon Hughes and Eric Pickles spoke well. Faith Matters are organising this with support from Victim Support. www.telmamauk.org

I was doing Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2′s Chris Evans Showthis morning and arrived while some fun was being had at the expense of ITV. I caught the last half an hour or so of the Brits last night and was…

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Lent is often associated with giving up and being miserable. So, I was amused to read that one of my clergy has found a typically positive and creative way to use this reflective time of year.

City Centre Priest, the Revd Chris Howson, who is committed to seeing the city of Bradford thrive…

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Why are religious institutions apparently so inherently conservative and fearful of challenge or change?

Last night I delivered a lecture on ‘Questioning faith’ in the Faith and the Cityseries at the University of Bradford. The lecture was followed by 45 minutes of questions and…

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Following the US election marathon is always unnerving for Brits. Listening to some of the views of potential presidential candidates can be scary on this side of the Pond. But, aside from the strangely limited world view of some of the guys who clearly haven’t looked at an atlas recently, there…

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Three stories penetrate the work-ridden last few days.

Yesterday Trevor Kavanagh, associate editor and former political editor of the Sun had the nerve…

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Not much time for blogging during a full London week. The General Synod kept me occupied during the day, other meetings (usually over a meal) in the evenings. The one morning I thought I…

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The document, in which the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, the World Council of Churches and the World Evangelical Alliance jointly present guidlines and motivations for interreligious dialogue, representing between them 90% of the world's Christians, should be a very valuable resource for doing what we are urged to do in Meeting God in Friend and Stranger: pursuing dialogue with other religions together with other Christians. The document can be found at:…

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According to the commentariat the General Synod of the Church of England is obsessing about women bishops today. The twitter sphere is buzzing with it. A bit disappointing, then, that the day begins with a ‘debate’ about the plight of Christians in Nigeria. Or… about time we got some proportion…

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To take place from 10th-12th September 2012 at Roehampton University: http://estore.roehampton.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&prodid=85&deptid=164&catid=70.

Yesterday was a bit worrying. During my sermon at a Confirmation service in Ilkley an elderly woman began to look unwell. As I came in to land she lost consciousness and, assisted by medics in the congregation, slid to the floor. She came round and was eventually taken off to hospital for a check…

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Back in the summer of 2011 the Churches Inter-Religous Network held a consultation on the subject of Jewish-Christian relations. The Jewish-Christian encounter is probably the original inter-faith dialogue, at least from the Christian point of view. It is also the one with its own very distinctive issues, not least a common heritage but also centuries of anti-Semitism.



The Holocaust/Shoah has been one of (possibly THE most) defining issues of Jewish-Christian relations since 1945.… Continue

You might enjoy viewing the recently made web videos which are accessible from the Home Page of CT Connect and also via the YouTube channel ChurchesTogetherinEngland.

They are a little contribution to greater understanding and collaboration.

Best wishes to one and all.

Celia

Just got back from a great trip to our link diocese in the USA – Southwestern Virginia – and trying to pick up what has been going on while I was away. Both the BBC and the Guardian websites were re-shaped into US sites while I was over there, so some domestic news seemed to slip by.

So,…

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