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

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.

Time to change the Marriage Canon

Time to change the Marriage Canon

It has become clear that the task for those of us campaigning for the full inclusion of LGBTQI people in the Church of England is to pursue amendment of the Marriage Canon and extend marriage in church to same-sex couples. It’s time we LGBTQI+ members of the Church of England and our tens of thousands of allies across every diocese held the bishops to account for their indifference to our presence in every diocese, to our integrity and spiritual gifts, to our fidelity to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to our incredible patience and endurance as the toxic, abusive culture has been uncovered in recent decades.

How do we change the House of Bishops?

How do we change the House of Bishops?

How do we turn the practical reality of Church of England parishes, churches, clergy and laity already providing a national network of inclusive, affirming congregations celebrating full inclusion into a vote in General Synod to change the Canons and rules that prevent lesbian and gay couples (and clergy in particular marrying and being married in church? It has to be a campaign that focuses time, attention and energy on the bishops.

The House of Bishops does not control our intimate, sexual lives

The House of Bishops does not control our intimate, sexual lives

The bishops are not in control of what we the people do sexually. From a young age, what the bishops said I could or couldn't do sexually (not that I actually knew back then what they said) has never affected the decisions and choices I've made. What I have done and do sexually and intimately is far too significant and deeply personal to me that I’ve never had a conversation with a bishop about sex.

Divine Violence and Abuse: Part Two of Ending Abusive Theologies

Divine Violence and Abuse: Part Two of Ending Abusive Theologies

What next, then, for a Christian faith that is being largely abandoned by those countries in which it was once prominent? It seems essential that the churches should pay close attention to what they believe and to acknowledge the harm they cause. There is too much emphasis in the churches on mission at the expense of reflection. An abusive God cannot be wished away. Secular cultures are right to reject him. Their rejection is a sign of moral health. The question is whether any version of Christian faith is now possible.

Letter to Archbishops objecting to Synod event in support of “Conversion Therapy”

Letter to Archbishops objecting to Synod event in support of “Conversion Therapy”

Eighty-two members of the General Synod have written to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York asking why a fringe event and exhibition space at the July 2026 Synod have been approved. The letter asks the Archbishops to exercise their discretionary powers as Presidents to uphold the Church’s safeguarding guidance and the ethos of the Church of England.

Ending Abusive Theologies - Beginning Again with Love

Ending Abusive Theologies - Beginning Again with Love

Adrian Thatcher has written a book that redraws fundamentals of Christian theologies, beliefs and practice, fundamentals of Christian orthodoxy and tradition that have been used to deny, over the centuries and into the present century, equality in the kingdom of God to various categories of people: women, black, brown, LGBTQIA+, other faiths, divorced, the sexually active outside marriage, the solo sexually active, and the myriad other ways in which people default from God’s long accepted norms of acceptability. Adrian has done something even more dramatic. He has redrawn our map of God.

The Scientific Revolution : Idolatry Triumphant

The Scientific Revolution : Idolatry Triumphant

Churches, Synagogues, Mosques, Gurdwaras, should be gatherings of people learning the dynamics of human relationship according to the life, teaching and practice of wisdom people - Jesus Christ for Christians – showing us how to live life in all its fulness as open, self-aware individuals, deepening through spiritual practice and commitment, our self-awareness as members of self-aware communities.