Revd Dr Bawtree

@DrFrancisYoung 🤣

In fairness, many clergy feel much the same

@ArchbishopSarah 🙏

Thank you everyone who supported me on my pilgrimage to Canterbury over the last week - whether you joined me for some of the way, offered me a warm welcome, or prayed for me from afar. You don’t make journeys like this alone. You depend on the kindness and support of others, and it teaches you something about how we all need each other - and the joy and life there is in embracing that. The early Christians were known as “people of the way”. I think that’s still a good name for us today. We are pilgrim people, on a journey with God and with each other. Along the way I have also seen so many local churches doing what they always do: offering a space of welcome, support and community. They are beacons of God’s love and care for the people in that place. As I prepare for my Installation at Canterbury Cathedral this week, please keep journeying with me - and pray for me as I pray for you. archbishopofcanterbury.org/archbishop-sar…

My prayers are with the Jewish community after the appalling antisemitic attack on Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green. Such acts of violence, hatred and intimidation have no place in our society.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧 1829. Five machines. One mile of track. The world was never the same. 🚂 In October 1829 the Liverpool and Manchester Railway held a competition. The world's first inter-city passenger railway was nearly built. Nobody knew what should pull the trains. The directors wanted stationary engines fixed to the ground. Hauling carriages with cables. George Stephenson disagreed. The directors said: prove it. A £500 prize. One mile of level track. Rainhill, Lancashire. Ten entered. Five showed up. One was powered by a horse. 🐴 The crowd favourite was the Novelty. Small, elegant, built in London. Never tested on a real railway before the day. Then there was Sans Pareil. Heavy, dark, powerful. Built in Shildon, County Durham. And the Rocket. Built in Newcastle by Robert Stephenson. George's 26-year-old son. Quietly confident. The Novelty went first. The crowd erupted. Then its boiler joints failed. Then failed again. Sans Pareil ran powerfully. Then its cylinder cracked. The Rocket kept running. Day after day. Run after run. Hauling thirteen tons. Then on the morning of the 8th of October they uncoupled the load. And the Rocket ran free. Thirty-two miles an hour. 🚂 The crowd had never seen anything move that fast. The Rocket was the only locomotive to complete the trials. £500 prize. And the contract to build every locomotive for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. One year later the railway opened. A Member of Parliament stepped onto the track. William Huskisson, the railway's most passionate supporter, became the world's first railway fatality. The railway opened anyway. History doesn't pause. The Rocket became the template for every steam locomotive built for 150 years. Within twenty years Britain had six thousand miles of railway. It started in a field in Lancashire. With one family from Newcastle who believed a locomotive could win. Did you know this story? 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧 Nobody thought a locomotive could do it. One family from Newcastle proved them wrong. We tell the stories because we think they matter. Be Part Of Us. 👉 proudofus.co.uk/support Be Proud Of Us. 🇬🇧

@Adrian_Hilton @RevArun The optics aren’t as good as they could be, and with the proclamation of Jesus as Lord being the preeminent of the 5MoM - surely that is our first aim as Anglicans in the reconversion of England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Hi Arun. I'm familiar with the late Queen's speech at LP. Indeed, I wrote about it at the time, and have referred to it often since. She articulated perfectly the essential Anglican missiological understanding of freedom of religion as it relates to the practice of other faiths in the public realm. As I said, I don't agree with Nick's view of Muslim prayer at Trafalgar Square, but his theological and sociological concerns are not unimportant. Far easier, of course, to call him racist and Islamophobic and demand that he be sacked. But that's where we are. I just don't think bishops in the Church of England should be doing that.

I don't entirely agree with Nick Timothy on banning Islamic prayer in Trafalgar Square, and have explained why. But what I find interesting about the intervention of Church of England bishops is the immediate push-back they give, once again, to the political right while the left is given a perpetual free pass. The Bishop of Kirkstall believes the essential Christian mission to be “to seek the common good and to live at peace with our neighbour”; the Bishop of Willesden that “our diversity is not a problem to be solved, but a resource to be cherished”. What neither addresses is the gospel response to the public proclamation: ‘I bear witness that there is no god but Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.’ The Bishops seem to have no problem at all with Mohammed being named in Westminster Abbey in the succession of prophets “from Adam, Noah and Abraham to Moses, Jesus and Mohammed Mustafa”, yet if he was a prophet, Jesus is not the Son of God. Nick Timothy has stated the orthodox position that Mohammed was a false prophet, but which bishops have done so? Ah, but their mission is the common good, the pursuit of diversity, and living peacably with our neighbour. Does that gospel save? Is their soteriological understanding that salvation is universal? When did it become ‘right wing’ to express that Jesus alone saves, or that Christianity is and should remain preeminent in the Constitution? It seems to me that what Nick has done is to initiate a debate, but instead of engaging with the social theology of his concerns, the political left and the Bishops (if they are not the same thing) seek to shut it down or to make such thinking unutterable. “Sack him!” they cry, instead of addressing his argument. What exactly is wrong with a debate about the public expression of the Islamic faith and how, with demographic change and the rise of Islam in society, that increasingly impinges upon the continuing freedom of Christians to express their faith, and of Jews to live in safety and security?

@liambeadle @NJ_Timothy Thank you Liam - all is not yet lost

It would definitely be a good day

@WalkerMarcus @turtology Good point well made

The downgrade here from AV to NRSV is not just poetic. There is a serious problem with translating ben-Adam as “Mortal”. It strips the words of its later, messianic, Christological, meaning. It makes it far harder to read as a foretelling of the Resurrection.

Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, Reformation Martyr, 1556 Our first Catholic & Reformed Archbishop- he knew the Scriptures, 📖was up to his neck in politics, but when push came to shove he simply put his trust in Jesus as he was burnt to death as an old man 🔥

@LiamPeterTemple @DrFrancisYoung A tranquil location

Delighted to catch up with the Capuchins of GB at their recent Chapter of Mats at the beautiful Launde Abbey. I spoke on the theme of 'Franciscan freedom and itinerancy' for them.

@ArchbishopSarah Thank you - always good to be reminded of our duty to go and baptise.

A prayer as we continue our pilgrimage.

@2D0XPS @cath_cov Therein lies the nub of the matter both seek to make disciples both follow somebody very different from the other - Jesus of Nazareth is not the same as Mohammed of Arabia. Eternal consequences and temporal competition.

@cath_cov Christianity and Islam are competing missionary religions. When the number of Muslims in the country was small, that wasn't really a major consideration. Most Muslim religious efforts were about enabling an immigrant population to practice their religion in a new country.

I am in two minds about Nick Timothy's comments but he has started a necessary debate. Islam's relationship to the British public square is not like that of Judaism, Hinduism, or Sikhism. These traditions are at home in the British constitutional and civil orders. Islam has 1/5

Most people don’t realise where the £180 million actually went at the A303 Stonehenge tunnel project. It wasn’t construction. It was years of: • Environmental impact assessments • Heritage & archaeological studies • Legal challenges and consultations • Design, engineering and traffic modelling • Public inquiries and revisions All before a single shovel hit the ground. This is the real problem in Britain: We don’t just waste money, we build systems that guarantee it. £180 million to build nothing.

@Adrian_Hilton Collectively probably not, for various reasons, but as individuals we will.

@danny__kruger @liambeadle It would - and many in the CofE are mindful of the challenge of Islam. As we prepare to gaze upon the crucified God , who becomes the risen and ascended God - a renewed confidence in Christ Jesus is to be desired. 🙏

Nick Timothy and Nigel Farage are right, and Sadiq Khan and Keir Starmer are wrong. Small groups of people, of whatever religion, praying in public places is fine. And as a Christian country we should allow a special privilege for churches to lead services in our national spaces, like the Palm Sunday celebration that happens in Trafalgar Square. What we don't want is mass ritual observances intended to claim the civic realm for another religion, or assert the domination of another culture over our own Christian traditions. What happens in our national spaces is not neutral. People use Trafalgar Square, for celebrations and demonstrations, to make a point about the kind of country they want us to be. The Palm Sunday pageant reminds us of who we are - not as individuals (many or most of us don't identify as Christians at all) but as a national community, with the roots of our institutions in the ground of the Bible and our most solemn communal moments, from coronations to funerals, mediated through the liturgies of the Church. A mass Adhan held there, or in any town square, is making a different point: that Britain is not a Christian country, and that - inshallah - one day it shall be Muslim. This is unacceptable to the British public and indeed incompatible with our constitution. As ever with these debates, the issue is partly one of kind and partly one of degree. There is an issue with Islam itself as a religion which in most interpretations does not admit of pluralism or freedom of conscience, and therefore is inherently aggrandising, including over territory. But with a bit of confidence and a bit of toleration we could handle that - if it were not for the issue of degree. It is the scale of Islam in Britain, and the ambition of its leaders for greater scale, that makes the problem. The numbers of people who assembled for the adhan in Trafalgar Square, clearly and openly claiming the territory for a faith with no connection (indeed, with strong doctrinal disagreement) with the model of Western liberal democracy that Britain has developed and exported to the world - that is the problem. The numbers, whether everyone there understood it this way or not (and I suspect many did), convey an explicit threat to the foundations of our country. Being relaxed about other people's religion is a good thing, a very British thing. I don't mind modern druids dancing around Stonehenge in my constituency (arguably, though the historicity is tenuous, they have a claim to the place). I don't mind small groups of Hindus or Buddhists or Muslims demonstrating the reality of Britain's religious toleration by worshiping in Trafalgar Square. But let's not kid ourselves about this adhan, or pretend that we're just seeing another harmless expression of Britain's religious diversity. We are seeing an abuse of liberalism, led by people who are not themselves liberal; or - let us imagine they are acting in good faith - who are themselves deceived about what they are doing. It should not happen again. And it would be good to hear the Church of England say so.

@john_ritzema @si_rubinstein @_paullay They are welcome to cycle to Morning & Evening Prayer too 🙏

What could be more British than warm beer? Old maids biking to Holy Communion through the mists of the autumn morning, perhaps.

In a devastating moment for our country, the House of Lords has voted for an amendment which would legalise abortion up to birth. In reaction to this tragic news, Archbishop John Wilson said: "This is a truly tragic moment for our nation. How can this frightening legislation, which, following Royal Assent, will permit the abortion of children right up until the moment of birth for any reason, have any place in a civilised society? We can never underestimate the challenges that women and men facing difficult decisions. There is, however, another life involved which is now to be ignored and silenced. There are also serious concerns for the safety of women. While there is an even more difficult journey now to protect the unborn child, we must continue to speak up for the voiceless and work to protect the most vulnerable who are no longer protected by the law. “As Christians, we affirm that each of us is loved by God and each of us is made in God’s image and likeness. Our innate human dignity is not something granted at birth, but exists from the moment of conception. The increasing advances that allow babies born prematurely to live full and happy lives stands in stark contrast to this legislation. This is fundamentally a matter of justice and this legislation, which favours some lives over others, increases inequality in our society.” St Joseph, protector of expecting mothers and unborn children, pray for us

𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦’𝐬 𝐮𝐩 🔥 PREM Rugby is finally back at The Rec and we're ready for Round 11! This Friday, we're under the lights for Bath Rugby v Saracens. Let's get it! Full team news 🗞️👉

@CapelLofft This doesn’t happen over night, sadly we have been drifting away from our Christian moorings for decades. Industrial sized abortion has been taking place for years, sex selective abortion more recently, now this - Moloch if he were a god and not a mere devil must be smiling 💀

Relying on legal inertia and constitutional tactics to hold back the tide is only ever a strategy of delay, however much that delay might be a good thing. The root of our spiritual life and culture has been poisoned: we have to go to that root and give it life again

What the Lords did last night was quite evil, but let's be honest: it's a symptom of a broad trend, the reversion to a pre-Christian contempt for the sanctity of human life as the last embers of our ethical and spiritual inheritance are consumed in the fire of secularism.