Young parents seem to be constantly under attack by the media for their parenting failures, and it’s easy to see why.
There are significant concerns about the development of preschool children. The recent Kindred Squared School Readiness survey had some disturbing findings, including the number of children arriving in reception who are not toilet-trained, starkly contrasting to other parts of the world. Children come with poor motor skills, with some unable to use the stairs and many struggling with emotional dysregulation. There are various causes attributed to this, from Covid baby syndrome to parents working full-time or the pressures of social deprivation; however, one factor appears over and over again – the use of technology. School nurses report that these issues began emerging before Covid alongside the increased use of mobile phones.
I have a confession to make. I actually like listening to political speeches — at least the good ones.
But in recent years the quality of political speeches has rapidly declined; I can remember speeches by Tony Benn, Alex Salmond, Michael Gove, Margaret Thatcher, Michael Foot, Ronald Regan, George Galloway, Dennis Skinner and Charles Kennedy. But it’s been a long time since I have heard a speech that I would regard as culture-changing — or perhaps emblematic of a culture change. Until just recently. For there is no doubt that JD Vance’s speech to the Munich conference was a game-changer.
On Saturday mornings I really enjoy grabbing a great cup of coffee and picking up TheTimes newspaper. It is a brilliant way to catch up on the news and to see where to direct my prayers.
How delighted I was to read the following headline last week: ‘Gen Z half as likely as their parents to identify as atheists.’ As I read on, it was amazing to see that those who are part of Gen Z (born between 1996 and 2010) are a far more spiritual generation than many think. This particularly impacted me as I am a parent of teenagers and had already sensed this might be true. Only 12% of under 25s are atheists which is far lower than for Boomers at 20%, or my own generation, Gen X, that is the most atheist of all the age groups.
What are the ‘primary issues’, the essentials of the faith around which we unite as Christians; and what issues are ‘secondary’, or ‘adiaphora’? What do we do when sharp disagreements over these matters which, in theory, are seen as ‘indifferent’ compared to salvation, spill over into personal animosity and division?
Five years ago, colleagues and I began the project of forming a new church movement, Anglican in heritage, church order and global affiliation, but intentionally confessional and not aligned to Canterbury. At an initial meeting people from different backgrounds met to talk about the way forward. All were committed to the same understanding of the Bible’s authority and the same gospel; all had shown courage – in standing against revisionism in the official denomination; and in pioneering enterprise by church planting outside it. But it soon became clear that major divisions existed. Some agreed in theory that issues such as ordination of women, charismatic gifts, worship styles and administrative authority structures are ‘secondary’ or even ‘adiaphora’, but in practice they couldn’t see themselves part of the same church grouping as those who held different views.
‘US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that prevents transgender women from competing in female categories of sports,’ a recent BBC item says.
Trump’s move followed on an earlier order which restated traditional and indeed scientific truths about men and women, declaring: ‘Ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women’s domestic abuse shelters to women’s workplace showers. This is wrong.’
Well, we are roughly a month into the Trump presidency and the character of the new White House is becoming very clear.
Although I have a track record of sounding the alarm regarding Donald J. Trump, in the New Year of 2025 I was trying to be quite balanced on a number of occasions. In one column I pondered whether we would get ‘Trump unleashed’ or ‘Trump lite’? That I even suggested the latter was a sign that I thought it might be possible: lots of aggressive noise but not the political meltdown that many (myself at times) feared. A few weeks in, I would like to amend that brave optimism on my part. It is ‘Trump unleashed.’
Crossing the Severn Bridge from my home in Cambridge always evokes nostalgia, connecting me to my childhood in South Wales. Each trip home is layered with memories, especially during the Six Nations rugby tournament.
This week, the fervour of competition deepens for me, particularly after Wales' recent 43-0 defeat to France. With the brilliant Irish team looming later in February, apprehension and anticipation build for our next match in Cardiff.
It’s been a long, strange trip from George Washington to Elon Musk—and maybe we should ask if that has anything to do with Jesus.
For many years, some of us in the USA have warned that this moment’s technological platforms would lead us to the point of constitutional crisis. Most of us, though, meant that this would happen indirectly—through the erosion of social capital and the heightening of polarization by social media. Few of us foresaw the crisis happening as directly as it has: with Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, and a small group of 20-something employees having virtually unilateral veto power over the funds appropriated and the legislation passed by the United States Congress.
This month’s General Synod will receive an update from the Living in Love and Faith Programme Board, but there will be no formal motion or debate this time.
This could wrongly be interpreted as ‘no progress’ for the LLF cause, and CEEC will be calling on orthodox members of General Synod to exercise a number of cautions.
Everywhere you look, you see politics and politicians. News coverage has seldom been as dominated by politics as it has been for the last year or so.
Election fever gripped first the UK, then the US, and just a few months later the whole political landscape is in a state of dramatic flux. Opinion polls are all over the place; it takes a brave person to predict the next few months, let alone the next few years. If, two generations ago, Harold Wilson said that ‘a week is a long time in politics’, in these days of social media, AI bots and multi-billionaire political donors, a week seems like an eternity.
In the blue corner, once-Conservative MP, now-podcaster Rory Stewart. In the red corner, the Vice President of the United States of America, JD Vance. The topic: a Christian doctrine from the fifth century?
Welcome to 2025, everyone. But could a surreal exchange on X (formerly Twitter) help us better understand God’s calling for our lives and our nation?
‘The concept of work-life balance was invented by people who hate the work they do. So if you love what you do, you don’t need work-life balance - you need work-life integration.’
That was the advice that James Watt, the captain and co-founder of drinks company BrewDog, gave in a recent Instagram video.
One should never watch anything that wounds one’s conscience; Romans 14:23 tells us there are terrible consequences of acting against our conscience.
I don’t often, therefore, speak about my fascination with the horror genre in cinema. And yet, the popularity of horror films is worth pondering. Rather than engage at any length with the film which prompted these reflections — Robert Eggers’s 2024 remake, Nosferatu — what might its success teach us?
How are your notices? Highlight of the service, or a necessity that is dull as ditch-water?
For most of us, they’re probably too long and just a bit awkward. Like an Aunt who’s come for Christmas but, love her as you do, you don’t quite know what to do with her, and everyone can all relax once she’s gone home. So, can the notices be improved? Or moved? Or removed?
Just after Christmas the Irish Government released state papers from the year 2000. They told how the Queen had expressed her relief to the Irish Ambassador at a Buckingham Palace Garden party that Northern Ireland’s ‘silly marching business’ was quieter than expected.
No doubt the Queen did not intend her comments to become public. The Grand Secretary of the Orange Order responded to the release of the papers by commenting that the Queen thanked the Order ‘for our proclamation of loyalty each year on the 12th July’.
Two of the most atypical Marvel/Disney+ series of the past couple of years have been two of the most interesting.
Instead of action men, explosions, robots and galactic threats, they featured intelligent storytelling combined with a quirky central concept, and a female showrunner and predominantly female casts. They were both, unusually for big budget productions, also about grief. Wandavision (2021) gave us the poignant line: ‘What is grief, if not love persevering?’, and in Agatha All Along (2024) the burden of grief carried by the charismatic villainess helped to humanise her.
Across the last few months many Christian organisations and individual evangelicals are among those who have left social media platform X.
Reaction to this has been varied – do Christians have an obligation to be a light in dark places (there are over 600 million on X)? Or is our presence on the platform implicitly condoning what goes on there?
In 2023, my sister was diagnosed with Stage 1B breast cancer. She immediately underwent four months of initial chemotherapy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy aimed at preventing secondary tumour formation.
Thankfully, last year, after undergoing radiotherapy at the Royal Marsden hospital, she received the ‘all clear’ from her doctor.
Comment
Technoference: How screens are shaping our youth
Young parents seem to be constantly under attack by the media for their parenting failures, and it’s easy to see why.
There are significant concerns about the development of preschool children. The recent Kindred Squared School Readiness survey had some disturbing findings, including the number of children arriving in reception who are not toilet-trained, starkly contrasting to other parts of the world. Children come with poor motor skills, with some unable to use the stairs and many struggling with emotional dysregulation. There are various causes attributed to this, from Covid baby syndrome to parents working full-time or the pressures of social deprivation; however, one factor appears over and over again – the use of technology. School nurses report that these issues began emerging before Covid alongside the increased use of mobile phones.
JD Vance & the crisis of the West
I have a confession to make. I actually like listening to political speeches — at least the good ones.
But in recent years the quality of political speeches has rapidly declined; I can remember speeches by Tony Benn, Alex Salmond, Michael Gove, Margaret Thatcher, Michael Foot, Ronald Regan, George Galloway, Dennis Skinner and Charles Kennedy. But it’s been a long time since I have heard a speech that I would regard as culture-changing — or perhaps emblematic of a culture change. Until just recently. For there is no doubt that JD Vance’s speech to the Munich conference was a game-changer.
Fanning the flames of the hopes and dreams of Gen Z
On Saturday mornings I really enjoy grabbing a great cup of coffee and picking up The Times newspaper. It is a brilliant way to catch up on the news and to see where to direct my prayers.
How delighted I was to read the following headline last week: ‘Gen Z half as likely as their parents to identify as atheists.’ As I read on, it was amazing to see that those who are part of Gen Z (born between 1996 and 2010) are a far more spiritual generation than many think. This particularly impacted me as I am a parent of teenagers and had already sensed this might be true. Only 12% of under 25s are atheists which is far lower than for Boomers at 20%, or my own generation, Gen X, that is the most atheist of all the age groups.
When secondary issues feel like primary ones
What are the ‘primary issues’, the essentials of the faith around which we unite as Christians; and what issues are ‘secondary’, or ‘adiaphora’? What do we do when sharp disagreements over these matters which, in theory, are seen as ‘indifferent’ compared to salvation, spill over into personal animosity and division?
Five years ago, colleagues and I began the project of forming a new church movement, Anglican in heritage, church order and global affiliation, but intentionally confessional and not aligned to Canterbury. At an initial meeting people from different backgrounds met to talk about the way forward. All were committed to the same understanding of the Bible’s authority and the same gospel; all had shown courage – in standing against revisionism in the official denomination; and in pioneering enterprise by church planting outside it. But it soon became clear that major divisions existed. Some agreed in theory that issues such as ordination of women, charismatic gifts, worship styles and administrative authority structures are ‘secondary’ or even ‘adiaphora’, but in practice they couldn’t see themselves part of the same church grouping as those who held different views.
Trans Atlantic
‘US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that prevents transgender women from competing in female categories of sports,’ a recent BBC item says.
Trump’s move followed on an earlier order which restated traditional and indeed scientific truths about men and women, declaring: ‘Ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women’s domestic abuse shelters to women’s workplace showers. This is wrong.’
Donald Trump unleashed
Well, we are roughly a month into the Trump presidency and the character of the new White House is becoming very clear.
Although I have a track record of sounding the alarm regarding Donald J. Trump, in the New Year of 2025 I was trying to be quite balanced on a number of occasions. In one column I pondered whether we would get ‘Trump unleashed’ or ‘Trump lite’? That I even suggested the latter was a sign that I thought it might be possible: lots of aggressive noise but not the political meltdown that many (myself at times) feared. A few weeks in, I would like to amend that brave optimism on my part. It is ‘Trump unleashed.’
Defining love
We pride ourselves on being an ever-progressive, forward-thinking, constantly moving society.
Cultures and countries compete on who has the elixir of true enlightened living, most notably fulfilled in emotional, physical and mental well-being.
Eternal perspective on life's final whistle
Crossing the Severn Bridge from my home in Cambridge always evokes nostalgia, connecting me to my childhood in South Wales. Each trip home is layered with memories, especially during the Six Nations rugby tournament.
This week, the fervour of competition deepens for me, particularly after Wales' recent 43-0 defeat to France. With the brilliant Irish team looming later in February, apprehension and anticipation build for our next match in Cardiff.
Elon Musk, a simulation universe - and Jesus
It’s been a long, strange trip from George Washington to Elon Musk—and maybe we should ask if that has anything to do with Jesus.
For many years, some of us in the USA have warned that this moment’s technological platforms would lead us to the point of constitutional crisis. Most of us, though, meant that this would happen indirectly—through the erosion of social capital and the heightening of polarization by social media. Few of us foresaw the crisis happening as directly as it has: with Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, and a small group of 20-something employees having virtually unilateral veto power over the funds appropriated and the legislation passed by the United States Congress.
Have the Prayers of Love and Faith stalled? Not at all
This month’s General Synod will receive an update from the Living in Love and Faith Programme Board, but there will be no formal motion or debate this time.
This could wrongly be interpreted as ‘no progress’ for the LLF cause, and CEEC will be calling on orthodox members of General Synod to exercise a number of cautions.
Praying for God to raise up new true leaders
Everywhere you look, you see politics and politicians. News coverage has seldom been as dominated by politics as it has been for the last year or so.
Election fever gripped first the UK, then the US, and just a few months later the whole political landscape is in a state of dramatic flux. Opinion polls are all over the place; it takes a brave person to predict the next few months, let alone the next few years. If, two generations ago, Harold Wilson said that ‘a week is a long time in politics’, in these days of social media, AI bots and multi-billionaire political donors, a week seems like an eternity.
JD Vance, Rory Stewart and the order of love
In the blue corner, once-Conservative MP, now-podcaster Rory Stewart. In the red corner, the Vice President of the United States of America, JD Vance. The topic: a Christian doctrine from the fifth century?
Welcome to 2025, everyone. But could a surreal exchange on X (formerly Twitter) help us better understand God’s calling for our lives and our nation?
Should we be aiming for our 'dream job'?
‘The concept of work-life balance was invented by people who hate the work they do. So if you love what you do, you don’t need work-life balance - you need work-life integration.’
That was the advice that James Watt, the captain and co-founder of drinks company BrewDog, gave in a recent Instagram video.
Who dares steal your dignity?
Dignity. The dictionary definition of this word is 'The state or quality of being worthy of honour or respect.'
However, as Christians we use the word dignity in many different ways, and as a result its real meaning has been eroded over the years.
The draw of darkness: why horror fascinates us
One should never watch anything that wounds one’s conscience; Romans 14:23 tells us there are terrible consequences of acting against our conscience.
I don’t often, therefore, speak about my fascination with the horror genre in cinema. And yet, the popularity of horror films is worth pondering. Rather than engage at any length with the film which prompted these reflections — Robert Eggers’s 2024 remake, Nosferatu — what might its success teach us?
Could we abandon church notices?
How are your notices? Highlight of the service, or a necessity that is dull as ditch-water?
For most of us, they’re probably too long and just a bit awkward. Like an Aunt who’s come for Christmas but, love her as you do, you don’t quite know what to do with her, and everyone can all relax once she’s gone home. So, can the notices be improved? Or moved? Or removed?
Does God find any of our church practices ‘silly’?
Just after Christmas the Irish Government released state papers from the year 2000. They told how the Queen had expressed her relief to the Irish Ambassador at a Buckingham Palace Garden party that Northern Ireland’s ‘silly marching business’ was quieter than expected.
No doubt the Queen did not intend her comments to become public. The Grand Secretary of the Orange Order responded to the release of the papers by commenting that the Queen thanked the Order ‘for our proclamation of loyalty each year on the 12th July’.
Turning to griefbots or grieving with hope?
Two of the most atypical Marvel/Disney+ series of the past couple of years have been two of the most interesting.
Instead of action men, explosions, robots and galactic threats, they featured intelligent storytelling combined with a quirky central concept, and a female showrunner and predominantly female casts. They were both, unusually for big budget productions, also about grief. Wandavision (2021) gave us the poignant line: ‘What is grief, if not love persevering?’, and in Agatha All Along (2024) the burden of grief carried by the charismatic villainess helped to humanise her.
Leaving by X-ample?
Across the last few months many Christian organisations and individual evangelicals are among those who have left social media platform X.
Reaction to this has been varied – do Christians have an obligation to be a light in dark places (there are over 600 million on X)? Or is our presence on the platform implicitly condoning what goes on there?
The dangers of over or underdosing the gospel
In 2023, my sister was diagnosed with Stage 1B breast cancer. She immediately underwent four months of initial chemotherapy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy aimed at preventing secondary tumour formation.
Thankfully, last year, after undergoing radiotherapy at the Royal Marsden hospital, she received the ‘all clear’ from her doctor.