Eisenstadt-Evans spoke to clergy about their denominational, congregational, and personal responses to the wave of revelations of sexual misconduct, harassment, and assault that filled the end of 2017’s news streams.
The GBEC will administer the 2018 GOE on Tuesday, January 2nd, Wednesday, January 3rd, and Friday, January 5th.
Our Magazine section, with selections each weekend, is the place where we share the stories of life in the church. Below are our top ten stories from 2017.
There’s something about a new year that invites a reckoning. We want to understand what has happened, we want to imagine what might lie ahead, and we make commitments to change ad do differently. How successful we are at these surely varies, but that won’t stop us from peering into the tea leaves.
It’s farewell to 2017 (some might say good riddance) but there was grace and glory too; here are the big stories from the Café in 2017
The Church of England has committed herself to what our Archbishops have called radical new Christian inclusion, and has publicly stated that we are against
“I’ve read studies that suggest the presence of a chaplain can make a difference without saying anything,” she said. “Just being aware that someone is there helps.”
This is Godly materialism: hugging those whom no one hugs, eating with those with whom no one eats, listening to those to whom no one listens, touching those whom no one touches, remembering those whom no one remembers, loving those whom no one loves.
The bishop of Liverpool, Paul Bayes, told the Guardian some religious leaders of “colluding with a system that marginalises the poor.” He told the Guardian,
This self-emptying, helpless, stable born baby who is God has brought and continues to bring more freedom than all earth’s most powerful leaders. The nature of those who have power is to seek to hold onto it. In 2017 we have seen around the world tyrannical leaders that enslave their peoples, populist leaders that deceive them, corrupt leaders that rob them, even simply democratic, well intentioned leaders of many parties and countries who are normal, fallible human beings. We have experienced across our country terrorism that kills the innocent, claiming that it is the path to freedom in God.
The nature of God who has all power, and from whom all power comes, is to lay it aside for love’s sake and thus without fear, force or manipulation to offer true freedom for every human being. God is showing all truth in its completest form, all love in its purest aspect, the true light of freedom all wrapped up in the baby in Bethlehem.