A report from the most recent REFORM one day conference It was just a week before Synod met in York that I was in a large suburban church praying in a small group for the Church of England. As the [...]

The sign on earth of your infinite holiness or ‘the Church in the gutter’? Manifesting holiness A preface for Apostles in the Roman Rite boldly proclaims God's purpose for his Church: she is to manifest his holiness openly to the [...]

If our faith is true, why do so few people believe in it? In case you hadn't heard, churchgoing in England has declined significantly during the past forty years. This is true of most of the major denominations. It is [...]

Anne Gardom goes to Paradise Paradise is the title of the new exhibition at the National Gallery. Galleries in Bristol and Newcastle have joined with the National Gallery to bring together this lovely selection of pictures. London hosts its final [...]

Roots Why, asked Austin Farrer in a sermon preached in Pusey House years ago, is ‘primitive’ a term of approbation among liturgists? It is a good question; and not only about liturgists. The new primitives Nobody, except an enthusiastic antiquarian, [...]

Patrick Henry Reardon on a powerful but unpopular image Perhaps among the least appreciated, and seldom thought on, descriptions of Jesus our Lord is the one given by John the Baptist, ‘His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he [...]

The cruelty of a lack of discipline A lady in Leicester writes to me, pondering the behaviour of children in church. (May I apologize for not replying? Your letter got mixed up with other correspondence, and was prematurely binned.) She [...]

The Affaire Jeffrey John was described by the Archbishop of Canterbury as approaching a soap opera. Certainly any debacle requiring quite so many outraged comments by Colin Slee can justifiably be so described. But no soap opera has ever raised [...]

Summer reading, some more liturgy and a teaching booklet Transformations of Love The friendship of John Evelyn and Margaret Godolphin Francis Harris OUP, 330pp, hbk 0 19 92357 2, £25 Samuel Pepys is the diarist of preference for the modern [...]

The Sermon Previous articles The preceding articles have been exploring the rich vein of Anglican devotion in manuals of private devotion, poetry, devotional classics, catechetical books, forms of preparation for Holy Communion and William Law. The sermon is another form [...]