Tag: It’s Up To Us

New Atheism, Christianity, and Identity

Byartsyhonker January 30, 2015 1 Comment
Someone re-tweeted this into my timeline today: "This is a test. If you don't believe in God, share/comment/like this image. If you do believe in God, pray that not one single person likes or shares this image. Let's see who wins." Now, there are a few obvious issues here, such as God not necessarily answering our prayers in the way we expect, the exhortation to waste a rich and deep prayer life...

Yes, I want the Welfare Budget Reduced

Byartsyhonker February 25, 2014 8 Comments
There has been a bit of a palaver in the church-y corner of the news recently, with articles saying that most Christians, or at least most Anglicans, "think the welfare budget should be reduced", see the welfare system as being in trouble, blame scroungers and foreigners for some of that trouble, and so on and so forth. This is being used in some instances to criticise the Bishops of the Church...

In which I show up anyway

Byartsyhonker November 8, 2013 4 Comments
Each winter, I help out at the Forest Churches Emergency Night Shelter. This is an ecumenical project, open the five coldest months of the year. Guests (or "clients") visit different local churches on different nights of the week. They get an evening meal, somewhere safe to sleep, and breakfast. St Andrew's is too cold to offer sleeping facilities, so some of us help out at Leytonstone United...

Weekly Letter Project

Byartsyhonker April 1, 2013 1 Comment
I know, I know, no posts for weeks at a time and then they all come at once. It's amazing how much I can write when I don't want to tidy up. I have written before on the problems of the "you make your own life" narrative. Since I wrote that post, the situation in Britain has not improved. Things are, frankly, dire and getting even worse. @kaygeeuk, who has carried out more activist interventions...

Sing Alleluia, and keep on walking

Byartsyhonker April 1, 2013 0 Comments
Thanks to @DrBattyTowers for the title of this post. I know she's used it, too; I just couldn't think of a better one for what I'm going to say later. Image from Miss Music Nerd. Holy Week has been and gone; Christ is risen, and walking amongst us. Yesterday -- Easter Day -- was a varied one for me. I woke early, having been up late enough to notice that yes, my various devices moved over to...

General advice during General Synod, part II

Byartsyhonker November 20, 2012 12 Comments
Well, that's a bit embarrassing. For the measure on women in the episcopate to pass, it needed a 67% majority in all of three houses: bishops, clergy and laity. It got 94% in the House of Bishops (Yes 44; No 3; Absentions 2), 77% in the House of Clergy (Yes 148; No 45) , 64% in the House of Laity (Yes 132; No 74). So it lost by a whisker, really. Six votes -- or fewer than that and a few...

Subversive, wonderful economic activism: Rolling Jubilee

Byartsyhonker November 9, 2012 0 Comments
I've commented a few times on Twitter that we in the West do not have a debt problem so much as a usury problem. I won't say that charging interest is always evil: in the case of someone starting a new business and needing to borrow in order to do so, or someone buying a home and needing a mortgage, I believe it is fair to charge some interest. I do think that punishingly high interest rates are...

Let all the world in every corner sing.

Byartsyhonker July 13, 2012 7 Comments
I had a bit of a rant on Twitter this morning. I was upset by the government's continued assault on the poor and vulnerable through the dismantling of the welfare state, and I was frustrated with churches for what seems like apathy in the face of it, though it may be that it's closer to self-preservation than lack of care. Too often, it seems, we want to leave "politics" out of our religious...

It’s Up To Us to Change the Narrative

Byartsyhonker February 2, 2012 9 Comments
I was thinking the other morning about community size, economies of scale, and our perception of other people as human beings worthy of care and respect. In larger communities, where everyone doesn't know everyone else, the media have quite a lot of power over how we see one another. And now Cameron's government have passed the Welfare Reform Bill.I don't know whether the Daily Fail, the Sun and...

Alive and well.

Byartsyhonker August 9, 2011 1 Comment
I'm not in London at the moment, and where I am is perfectly safe.St Andrew's Leytonstone will be open tomorrow from 11am to 3pm for prayer and for discussing concerns and responses to the London riots.I might do a more in-depth post later. In the meantime if you want to help please see for information on how to do so.