Category: The Lead

Giving leaves her happy

As the months passed, out went stacks of sweaters, shoes, books, pots and pans, even the television after a trial separation during which it was relegated to a closet. Eventually, they got rid of their cars, too.

Read More »

ACC Constitution: interview with legal adviser

The incorporation of the ACC as a limited company does not subject the ACC to UK or EU equalities legislation to which it would not otherwise have been subject. The Church of England has played a major part, with other churches in the UK, in achieving and preserving certain exclusions for itself…

Read More »

Ramadan fasting increases awareness

I’ve fasted since I was a child, and the practice has continually strengthened my self-control and improved my ability to make better choices and avoid things that are not good for me. It promotes the acute God consciousness called taqwa, which reminds me to more caring, sharing and compassionate throughout the day.

Read More »

Liturgy and touch and sexual exploitation

When clergy blur the lines between the touch of the shaman—God’s conduit to be physically present in the liturgy and in pastoral settings—and the touch of an individual—it is inherently dangerous. It’s why the Episcopal Church has training in sexual exploitation of both minors and adults.

Read More »

CREDO and clergy wellness

… the clergy who have been the focus of extensive CREDO research reflect higher negative emotions about work (mainly due to stress), but ironically, also higher positive emotions about work when contrasted to the general population.

Read More »

Are we scapegoating our clergy?

It seems that priests are being explicitly used as handy scapegoats for the deeper issues of our day – issues whose presenting symptoms are the economic woes of the wider church; the turning of a mostly latent anti-clericalism into its ugly, active counterpart; the desire by some to exercise more and more control over the nature of priestly identity and ministry; a cultural opposition to any form of institutional authority; and, compounding all of these, the decline of involvement in organized religion.

Read More »
Archives
Categories