#1daywithoutus

Today was the One Day Without Us National Day of Action to celebrate the contributions migrants make to the UK. For me, it was more a day of inaction; the past week has been very busy, and I have been out every evening for the last five nights at either rehearsals or social appointments, which left me more than a bit deflated today. It has been busy in other ways, too. I had a few ideas that will...

New Atheism, Christianity, and Identity

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

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...

What the frack?

The Church of England on Friday issued a press release about fracking (hydraulic fracturing). It declared that there is no official CofE policy on this issue. Be that as it may, the tone of the press release is mostly positive, and there is an implication that lower fuel prices as a result of fracking will ease financial pressure on some of society's poorest and most vulnerable people. I do not...

The Angel : a poem for Stephanie Bottrill

by Trish Burns Joey slips behind me, mewing as, unthinking, I replace the cups and pens, the writing pad in the box marked "Kitchen." He purrs against my legs - I touch him - grumbles as the front door clicks. He will be better fed. My home is not my home now, Nor have I elsewhere, nor am I fed. I must be gone, and I am gone - ghosting between the houses which sleep on in the early light. How...

WLP2: Workfare and church investments

This is the second letter of the Weekly Letter Project. This week (yes, I'm late) I am writing to James Featherby of the Church of England's Ethical Investment Advisory Group. Dear Mr Featherby, I was pleased to see that the national investing bodies of the Church of England have adopted a policy on executive remuneration on the recommendation of the Church's Ethical Investment Advisory Group...

WLP1: joined-up housing help

This is the first letter of the Weekly Letter Project. This week I am writing to Rev Canon Paul Hackwood, chair of the board of trustees of the Church Urban Fund, about an idea for helping churches provide social housing. I struggled to get this down to one page of A4: the font is smaller than I'd like and I had to mess with the page margins! Next week, I'll try to keep it shorter. Dear Canon...

Sing Alleluia, and keep on walking

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...

Subversive, wonderful economic activism: Rolling Jubilee

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.

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...