Always Hope

Twitter users will know that the Twitter interface continuously displays the top 10 trending topics at any moment in time. It's simply a matter of which 10 phrases are most rapidly being adopted by the mass of Twitter users, and is usually dominated by a combination of the current news headlines, what's on telly, and whatever silly word games have been set in motion by minor celebs that day. But on Friday, we were all treated to the sight of "The Lord's Prayer" registering as one of the top 10 UK trends. What prompted this apparent revival? It was Archbishop Rowan, who had opined, in response to a question from BBC Newsround , that he thought it would be quite good if the Lord's Prayer was re-introduced in schools. I wonder what people think about the idea. The loss of the Lord's Prayer from the collective memory of the nation is, or is a symptom of (not sure which), a massive shift in the cultural landscape of this country. I was probably one of the l...

So. Farewell Then Dr Rowan Williams. You were cleverer than The Rest of us but The papers could never Understand What you were saying. In fact Some of your Ideas were quite brilliant Apart from The Anglican Covenant. And that was That. With apologies to E J Thribb 

One of the curious things about being a specialised kind of blogger is that occasionally you get a perfect storm in your feed reader, caused by the kind of event which is irresistibly fascinating to your fellow bloggers.  "Archbishop gets political" seems to be about as good as it gets for Church of England bloggers.  When I read the Telegraph headline this morning, my first, ignoble, thought was "oo, must dash off a blog post and grab some attention", a strategy that has been effective in the past, even if the quality of the writing was unlikely to stand detailed scrutiny.  Then I realised that something like thirty other people had had the same thought, except slightly before me.  So this post comes to you with the benefit of several hours sober reflection, and after reading everybody else's posts first.  Let's start with some of the best reactions on the blogs today: The Church Mouse does his usual "calm down, everybody" to great effect.  T...

Today it is a pleasure to redress a certain imbalance that's become apparent on this site, and to celebrate and admire the gifts of the present Archbishop of Canterbury (although the temptation to dish out some advice will not be resisted). Rowan Williams' own website today published his recent address to the national Fresh Expressions conference in Oxford (you can watch it instead , if you prefer).  This is not going to be a detailed review of the talk, but it's well worth a read.  His characteristic "thinking aloud" style works well in this environment, and as usual, his content is deep and solid, without fluff or padding.  What superficially sounds like a quickly prepared address is full of biblical reflection, cultural references, and original thought. There's some great stuff there about the nature and process of evangelism, and about how the sacraments might fit in a "fresh expressions" church culture. The idea of "helping people to...

BBC news posted an extended interview with the ABC this morning. You have to go to the BBC website to view it, since they don't enable video embedding (come on, BBC). Although not gripping TV (the chemistry between Rowan and Huw Edwards wouldn't light a candle), it is an interesting chance to hear the Archbishop reflecting on the role of weddings in a society which seems to have little time for marriage. Two royal wedding links also worth reading: Cranmer , who is always strong on church and consitutional issues, on the importance of the wedding to the country and to the Church of England. Clayboy reflects on the unusual choice of the 1928 liturgy for the wedding, and what that says about the past and future of the C of E.

Bloggers have raised eyebrows at this article , a dreadful piece of hackery on the Guardian's Comment is Free , which takes exception to Iain Duncan Smith's use of the phrase "that's a sin". Our author draws two earth-shattering conclusions from this: one, that he is a Christian, and two, that his faith affects his politics. Cranmer is predictably acerbic and defends the political implications of original sin. The Church Mouse dismantles the journo's argument with forensic anger. Meanwhile, Suem , among others, is interested to hear that Rowan Williams has apparently decided to suspend the Primates Conference, the zoologically-named gathering of the world's most senior Anglican Archbishops. Apart from revealing that Suem reads the Church of England Newspaper, the most surprising thing about this is that the Conference is one of the so-called "instruments of communion" that are supposed to hold the global Anglican church together. What this say...