In praise of Justin Welby’s ‘less bossy’ Church of England
Justin Welby is not my sort of Anglican. Or maybe he is, in a way. I’m not really sure who…
The time is ripe for a liberal revival of the Church of England
Things are looking up for the Church of England. Its painful era of disunity is behind it, or soon will…
Why I’m romantic about climate change
Why hasn’t an anti-technology movement emerged? It seems to me that we face two overlapping crises. One is obviously climate…
The Church of England is on the brink of a crisis
A bishop said something significant at General Synod last week. I promise you. Something that might even herald a new…
What was it really like for the Windrush generation?
This article is not about me. It’s about a woman in her late eighties called Ethel who goes to my…
Would Jesus really have joined the Bristol bus boycott?
St Mary Redcliffe church, in Bristol, has removed four stained-glass windows dedicated to the slave trader Edward Colston, he whose…
What Phillip Schofield teaches us about public morality
On one level it’s all fluff and gossip, but the Phillip Schofield story actually raises some interesting questions about what…
Martin Amis and the idolatry of style over substance
To be a bookish young man in the late twentieth century was to be a Martin Amis fan. I was…
Britain’s ‘theocracy’ is something to be proud of
This coronation season, punditry is bristling with acute reflections on the British constitution, especially its religious aspect. Or maybe not.…
Belief in God doesn’t come from a fear of death
When I was a teenager someone asked me if I was scared of dying. No, I said, but I’m a…
Does the Church of England need evangelicals?
The Church of England is in for an explosive summer. In February, Synod decided to allow the blessing of gay…
Kate Forbes and the conundrum of marriage
The fuss over Kate Forbes’ opposition to gay marriage shows that the concept of marriage has become a serious muddle.…
In praise of meat-free Fridays for Lent
The bishop of Norwich, the Right Reverend Graham Usher, has suggested that Anglicans might like to abstain from eating meat…
Sandi Toksvig should stop picking on the Church of England
The breaking news is that Sandi Toksvig has demanded a meeting with God, over a friendly cup of tea. The…
The problem with a gender-neutral God
The Church of England will soon launch a commission on the question of gendered language in relation to God. Is…
Do we, don’t we?
The Church and the vexed question of gay marriage
Did the Church of England let Prince Harry down?
Prince Harry is not a Christian believer, he tells us in his book Spare. Fair enough. Every British person is…
Forgotten dream
Martin Luther King and the demise of liberal Protestantism
Was Pope Benedict XVI right about Catholic tolerance?
It is not for me, a non-Catholic, to say whether the late Pope, Benedict XVI, served his Church well. But…
Meghan Markle and the uncomfortable truth about Britain
I’m not defending Harry and Meghan. But I think they deserve some credit, for they have put the British character…
What Rowan Williams gets wrong about democracy
Rowan Williams used his Reith lecture on religious liberty to make a plea to religious believers: don’t be afraid of…
It’s nonsense to say we are no longer a ‘Christian country’
According to the census, British Christianity is having a disastrous century. In the 2001 census, a clear majority of people in…
Sam Bankman-Fried and the twilight of the ‘Effective Altruists’
Crypto whizzkid Sam Bankman-Fried has come a cropper. His $16 billion (£13 billion) fortune vanished overnight last week after FTX, the crypto exchange he…
Don’t condemn the Church of England for its stance on gay marriage
The Bishop of Oxford, Steven Croft, has come out in favour of gay marriage – the first senior bishop to…
A.N. Wilson and the ‘aesthetic’ relationship to religion
My first Spectator article, 21 years ago, was a rebuke to the religious attitude of certain public intellectuals whom I…
