Colin Coward
Changing Attitude, Human Connection and ...

There is something missing in the public conversation about human connection and community identified by Catharine Viner in a recent Guardian article. I observe that human connection and community are also missing in the Church of England. Discovering this essence would be a valuable outcome of changing attitudes, helping people develop lives well-lived and enriching all our lives, engaging with unadulterated love and living life in all its fulness.

Changing Attitude, Human Connection and Community and Unadulterated Love

To achieve the full inclusion in Anglican life and ministry of married LGBTQI+ people

To achieve the full inclusion in Anglican life and ministry of married LGBTQI+ people

I have been feeling in a precarious position since I posted the blog last Friday about finding the WhatsApp Southwark Affirming Clergy. The blog has had over 1,600 hits. I have been taking my time, as I always do, to process practically, emotionally, intuitively and spiritually, what has happened, what I have done, and what I am learning, over the last five days. What I haven’t had since I retired eleven years ago is an organisational, structural, a campaigning home. With OBOFs demise, I urgently want to be part of a campaign movement that no longer exists.

The Diocese of Southwark – an archetypal story of flourishing and decline

The Diocese of Southwark – an archetypal story of flourishing and decline

This week, after nine months of searching, I found the WhatsApp Southwark Affirming Clergy: social and political organising. The group has a membership of one hundred and eighty-five clergy. It is exclusively for LGBTQI+ licensed clergy. I am not allowed to join. This is the culture of Southwark Diocese and the wider Church of England today. Why? Because the culture of the Church of England has become toxic, abusive and unsafe thanks to the failures of Living in Love and Faith, the Clergy Discipline Measure and the safeguarding process. Powerful Conservative forces in the Church have, in the space of less than thirty years, transformed the culture, tolerated by Archbishops and bishops desperate to ensure the survival of the Church.

Safeguarding the Institution: What Has Sex Got to Do With It?

Safeguarding the Institution: What Has Sex Got to Do With It?

Stephen Kuhrt’s book Safeguarding the Institution concludes with two radical proposals.

A wider clear-out of the Church of England’s senior leaders is desperately needed, a ‘circuit-breaker for the Church since, at present, most new bishops inevitably adopt the ethos of the group they are joining. A new type of bishop is required to replace the “one single characteristic overwhelmingly found in the bishops of the Church of England.

And “the single most controversial issue within the Church of England”, equal marriage. The official position must be brought into line with current practice, accepting and endorsing “gay marriage”. This is overwhelmingly favoured by the general public and the majority of churchgoers.

Safeguarding the Institution: How the Culture of the Church of England Facilitates Abuse

Safeguarding the Institution: How the Culture of the Church of England Facilitates Abuse

Stephen Kuhrt’s book ‘Safeguarding the Institution: How the Culture of the Church of England Facilitates Abuse argues that the running of a properly functioning church involves confronting issues and problems rather than avoiding them. The question “why are we doing this?” has been unconsciously present in most of the meetings Stephen has had with bishops and archdeacons. Every time they have been unwilling to discuss matters of principle and truth. It is the most terrifying question they can be asked.

I Had A Dream

I Had A Dream

I had a long, vivid dream two weeks ago.

It was a dream about my experience of visiting churches and what I find. I’m engaged in conversations with various friends about the state of the Church today. A small core understand my awareness and ideas. The majority do not. When I engage people in conversation, they struggle to comprehend what I’m saying.

What I am not finding is a clear awareness that life in all its fullness is the essence of healthy, flourishing Christian life, fuelled by unconditional, infinite, intimate love, goodness, wisdom, and truth.

A Brief Very Personal Survey of Global Challenges on the Anniversary of 9/11

A Brief Very Personal Survey of Global Challenges on the Anniversary of 9/11

I’m trying to map the many dimensions of change and concern that impact my life every day. I want to change and expand and bring into conscious awareness the multiple challenges confronting us, here and now, in space and time, stories for me as an individual, for humankind corporately and for the Anglican Christian community of which I am a member.

Artificial Intelligence and the decline of truth and trust

Artificial Intelligence and the decline of truth and trust

I had a dramatic introduction to AI recently. We are used to the idea that our fellow humans might intentionally mislead or manipulate us, but the idea that computer programmes can now do the same is deeply unsettling. Christianity’s operating systems and mechanisms, it’s theology, Biblical formulations and commentaries, teachings and practices, are in a seriously bad condition, unhealthy spiritually, morally and theologically. Human leaders, politicians, bishops, don't seem to have the maturity or ability to see and understand the dramatic changes that have taken place.

The Mystery of God: God is Love - part three of Ending Abusive Theologies

The Mystery of God: God is Love - part three of Ending Abusive Theologies

This is the third blog exploring the essence of Adrian Thatcher’s latest book, Ending Abusive Theologies. Adrian says the story he has outlined so far shows that It is possible and necessary to speak of God in a different way, as Love - love without qualification, exception or restraint. The first Christians made it possible by seeing the life of Jesus as the life of God among them and so interpreted it as both divine and as love.