Today, the United Kingdom gets a new Prime Minister. However we feel about her personally and the party she represents, our first responsibility as Christians is to pray for her and the government as well as for the leader of the opposition. Liz Truss comes into power with some pressing challenges to respond to. The… Continue reading The Cost of Living Crisis: What does Liz Truss need to do?
Tag: Brexit
Do we need to make Scripture relevant?
Over the weekend we saw a crisis start to take shape. It was in effect self-inflicted. Warnings that there might some pressure on fuel supplies led to panic buying and over the weekend the pumps ran dry. In this article on Sunday, I commented that it would be peculiar if the crisis we were facing… Continue reading Do we need to make Scripture relevant?
Preaching in the middle of a crisis
Over the last couple of days, I ran a little survey on twitter asking people when was the last time they’d heard pastors addressing specific contemporary issues. You can see the results here and I’m planning to share a few articles later this week with further analysis and discussion of them. One thing that came… Continue reading Preaching in the middle of a crisis
Post truth
One of the major concerns that was raised about Brexit was that going ahead risked undermining the Good Friday Agreement. One of the requirements of that agreement was that there must never be a hard border on the island of Ireland again. We all know that fact weel don’t we? Except it’s not true. The… Continue reading Post truth
The danger of conclusions drawn from circumstances
Yesterday I wrote about the short term supply chain problems affecting various economies around the world and causing specific shortages in terms of food in the UK. I observed that people are quick to draw conclusions from correlations that support their particular political presuppositions so that some people are adamant that this has been caused… Continue reading The danger of conclusions drawn from circumstances
Did you vote for food shortages?
Although this site is primarily focused on pastoral and doctrinal issues, I often seek to engage with wider issues too including aspects of politics. This is because I believe we are here part of the world around us and meant to play our part in society. This means first of all that Christians should be… Continue reading Did you vote for food shortages?
Eurovision, hate and indifference
Eurovision returned last night after a one year COVID enforced hiatus. Normal service was well and truly resumed with outlandish costumes, cheesy lyrics and quirky voting. To cap it all, once again, the UK finished bottom with the ignominious “null points”. Then as usual, people took to social media to complain that everyone in Europe… Continue reading Eurovision, hate and indifference
Reflections on elections
Last Thursday was the first significant electoral event in the UK since the 2019 General Election and since COVID. As well as local council elections, there were votes for metro mayors, the devolved assemblies/parliaments and a by-election in Hartlepool. So, what did those election results tell us about he current state of the parties. Labour… Continue reading Reflections on elections
It’s not just whether we get out of the pandemic but how that matters
The British approach to vaccine roll out has on one level been impressive. There were two important decisions made. The first was to go in early and negotiate contracts to ensure a good supply of the vaccine. The second was the calculated risk to extend the period between first and second dose in order to… Continue reading It’s not just whether we get out of the pandemic but how that matters
Showing Up: Alternative Hope
In this chapter, we start to think more about idolatry and the alternative (false) hopes that people living in urban neighbourhoods are offered. Showing up, is the stage where we start to think about why idolatry offers false hope by showing up its failings and flaws. Idolatry offers false hope because whilst for a time… Continue reading Showing Up: Alternative Hope