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An Archbishop of Canterbury called to preach and to teach
THE authority of an Archbishop of Canterbury (ABC) is primarily moral and pastoral rather than magisterial or executive. Their moral authority works by persuasion and argument, of which the articulation of the faith in…
Whole world is in the next Archbishop’s hands
IN 1990, the then Primate of Canada, the Most Revd Michael Peers, wrote to the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion, Canon Sam Van Culin, about the search for Archbishop Robert Runcie’s successor in Canterbury. Peers…
A shift in political perspective
“WE HAVE to imagine something beyond all this. Politics used to share a sense of transcendence with religion. We did once believe in something, but the belief that arose in the ’80s of individual self-fulfilment as the…
Stage embraces Ronald Blythe’s spirit
AKENFIELD: Portrait of an English village is considered a classic, both as a book (Books, 1 December 2023) and a film — but now Ronald Blythe’s best-known work is set to be a stage play. It is to be produced and performed…
Facing cancer with culture: End-of-life solace in storytelling
WHEN, at the age of 21, I was diagnosed with incurable brain cancer, I discovered how serious illness changes our life story. Following a diagnosis like this, the ways that we previously understood ourselves and our situation…
‘Glorification and unimaginably tragic loss’ — a day that shaped the civil-rights movement
MUCH of the narrative of the West, at least as it approached the 20th century, was one of progress. The idea was that those movements — profit, secularism, science — would and could replace the ways of the past. These new…
food for the Christian journey
THE psalms are the “voice of the Church”. They teach us how to speak to God, and how God might speak to us. They are the words of a creature kneeling before their Creator, articulating something of the longing soul, the…
Mobile phones should be banned in school
ON A sunny Wednesday in May, early in the morning, four coaches left different Church of England secondary schools in Bracknell, Slough, Waddesdon, and east Oxford. We had invited 100 young people to share in the middle day…
Are magnetic mobile phone pouches at school the answer?
DAMIAN McBEATH is principal of the John Wallis Church of England Academy in Ashford, Kent. At the start of 2024, he introduced a complete ban on access to mobile phones during school hours.Mr McBeath’s first concern for his…
Education: Learning faith through song
AT THEALE C of E Primary School, in Berkshire, they have had similar experiences with collective worship to those of Baldwins Gate. While they have not conducted a formal survey, they have anecdotal evidence about the…
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