Because people don’t carry cash much these days, 40 Anglican churches in the UK are offering an alternative to collection plates: passing a hand-held payment device around the pews. Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Church of England’
Attendance at Anglican Cathedral services rises by 18%
Friday, September 30th, 2016
Latest figures show an 18% increase in the numbers attending services in England’s Anglican Cathedrals between 2005 and 2015. On average 36,700 people,adults and children, attended cathedral services each week in 2015. Almost all of the increase in attendance over the past decade has been in increasing midweek attendance. But in 2015 attendance at Sunday Read more
CofE vicar on bender claims Vatican immunity
Friday, June 10th, 2016
A Church of England vicar on an alcohol-fuelled nightclub binge told police he was from the Vatican and had diplomatic immunity. Rev. Gareth Jones of Ilford in London punched, kicked, bit and spat at a police officer and a paramedic who found him passed out in Covent Garden. Prosecutor Edward Avdin said the vicar yelled Read more
Cigarette breaks between hymns to revive city churches
Friday, April 8th, 2016Cigarette breaks between hymns and candlelit services in pubs are among new ideas helping to revive inner-city Church of England parishes. The Church of England has implemented a plan to “plant” new congregations into historic parishes where numbers have dwindled. The plan has the backing of the Archbishop of Canterbury and senior CofE clerics. Continue reading
Female Anglican bishop dislikes ‘Rev. Mother’ tag
Tuesday, October 27th, 2015The first Anglican female bishop to sit in the House of Lords doesn’t like being officially referred to as “right reverend mother”. An initial version of Bishop Rachel Treweek’s writ of summons to be read aloud to the House of Lords referred to her as “right reverend father in God”. Bishop Treweek, from Gloucester, sent Read more
UK rural churches future as ‘festival’ buildings only
Tuesday, October 20th, 2015Historic Church of England village churches could be closed down except on feasts like Christmas and Easter as a move to cope with dwindling congregations. A committee of senior CofE clerics and laity is recommending many village churches throughout England be designated as “festival” churches. This would be a new category of parish used only Read more
Church objects to trend of exhuming ‘portable remains’
Friday, August 7th, 2015
A UK alarm has been sounded over a trend of bereaved family members, when they move home, seeking to exhume deceased loved ones to stay close to them. Senior Church of England officials have warned that the practice is incompatible with Christian beliefs. The UK’s Ministry of Justice receives 25 applications a week to exhume Read more
Cardinal warns against reading encyclical in puritanical way
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2015
English Cardinal Vincent Nichols has said that people should not regard the Pope’s encyclical “Laudato Si’” as puritanical in its message. At a press conference following the release of Laudato Si’, the cardinal was asked about the encyclical’s appeal for “sobriety and self-denial”. Cardinal Nichols said that people needed to go beyond reading the encyclical Read more
CofE asked for baptism-like service for transgender people
Friday, May 29th, 2015A Church of England vicar has formally called for a new liturgy akin to baptism that would celebrate a newly transgender person’s new identity and name. Rev. Chris Newlands has put forward a motion for the church’s General Synod to consider. The vicar said he was asked about re-baptism by a church member who had Read more
Parallel conservative Anglican Church for UK?
Friday, April 17th, 2015
Conservative Anglican leaders have been meeting this week to discuss whether to back a parallel Anglican Church in the United Kingdom. The Global Anglican Futures Conference in the London this week was expected to discuss divisions in the worldwide Anglican Communion over women’s ordination and homosexuality. Gafcon was launched at a meeting in Jerusalem in Read more