What happens when you tell friends and potential employers about your autism? Why is the autistic community so opposed to Autism Speaks and the #LightItUpBlue campaign? How can you show solidarity with your autistic friends?
The following has been adapted from a series of speaker’s notes I’ve put together and delivered in various forms. It is not meant to be any form of expert view or academic piece, merely a collection of thoughts from my own experience which some have apparently found helpful.
Ordsall, in the late 1960’s during slum clearance (Manchester Evening News)
I’m a parish priest in the Anglican Church and I’m going to dive straight in with a story showing why, I believe, class is such an issue for us in terms of Church of England culture.
A couple of years ago I was in a women’s regional church leadership meeting. One of the female clergy there relayed the true account of a phone call she had recently received from a young woman who’d called her to ask if she could discuss a strong call to ordination she was feeling. When she…
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In April 2018, Philip North, Bishop of Burnley expressed the opinion that there was “a widespread perception among northern DDOs [diocesan directors of ordinands] that candidates from working-class backgrounds with northern accents are victims of prejudice” in the selection process for ordination training. Bishop North has, in recent years, become one of the sharpest critics... Continue Reading →
In 2000, the then future Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, predicted that before long the Church of England would experience “disestablishment by a thousand cuts”.1 This did not happen during his tenure as Archbishop, and as we shall see, for various reasons it seems even less likely to happen under the current Archbishop of Canterbury,... Continue Reading →
Who looks after and displays historical artefacts matters. Britain still flexes its colonial muscles, it just does so by using its cultural and academic influence more than its military influence.
This blog is a sort of semi-sequel to this one. If you have not read it, you may like to. In a recent speech, the actor and comedian Stephen Fry expressed his frustration at the apparent death of the political centre ground. The problem, he feels, is that freedom of speech is under attack from both... Continue Reading →
I can still picture the moment I discovered that there are Christians who believe that climate change is a good thing because it will speed Christ’s return! Much like the famed ‘rapture hatch’, it can be tempting to laugh at such eschatological clumsiness, but for the seriousness of its implications. A similar story emerges with... Continue Reading →
Church Action on Poverty joined with several churches recently to make a submission to an MPs’ inquiry into benefit sanctions. Lucy Zwolinska of the Joint Public Issues Team explains what we’re asking for.
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Regardless of the horrendous nature of their crimes, the UK's handling of the cases of Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, sets two very dangerous precedents: stripping them of citizenship, and refusing to demand assurances that they will not receive the death penalty.
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Bread and Rosaries 