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

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

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

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