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
Tag: COVID-19
What are they teaching?
The professor who takes in the Pevensie children in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe famously asks “What do they teach in schools these days?” Well, whatever is being taught in schools, we have quite a good idea of what is being taught in our universities and by whom. We know because academics quite… Continue reading What are they teaching?
Responding to a bit of anti-vax propaganda
One of my concerns during the pandemic has been the way that truth has so often been the first casualty. The debate has often been polarised between two extremes. On the one hand you’ve had the zero COVID lobby determined to prove that our governments are intentionally trying to kill us, at the other end,… Continue reading Responding to a bit of anti-vax propaganda
COVID-19 risk management for churches update
Here’s my latest update on what we are seeing regarding the data at the moment. We’ve recently seen a substantial fall in COVID cases across the UK reflecting falls in daily reported cases in both Scotland and England. However, over the weekend we saw growth in week on week cases. Here’s the chart plotting average… Continue reading COVID-19 risk management for churches update
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?
Avoiding scaremongering
I want to share with you two examples of how the media’s handling of COVID-19 has been extremely unhelpful. The public have a significant part to play in response to the pandemic and therefore needs accurate information in order to make informed decisions. The first example was published in the Independent. You can read the… Continue reading Avoiding scaremongering
COVID church risk assessments data update
Here are the latest charts Case numbers are continuing to rise at the moment Although comparing this week with last week is made a little challenging due to the distortion to reporting caused by the Bank holiday weekend. Notice the spike in case growth caused by the Monday and Tuesday comparisons. It is also worth… Continue reading COVID church risk assessments data update
Another look at the COVID data – and a hypothesis
I’ve been having another look over the hospitalisation and deaths data following this tweet from Oliver Johnson. Oliver is not an epidemiologist, so in that respect he is a layman like me. However as a maths and stats professor, his observations of the data throughout COVID have been helpful throughout the pandemic, so worth paying… Continue reading Another look at the COVID data – and a hypothesis