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The Church of England should avoid only calling God "he", a bishop has said, as a survey found that young Christians think God is male. Research by YouGov found that almost half of 18-24 year-old Christians believed God to be male, with just one in three over-65s believing the same. The Rt Revd Rachel Treweek, bishop of Gloucester, the Church of England's first female diocesan bishop, said: "I don't want young girls or young boys to hear us constantly refer to God as he," adding that it was important to be "mindful of our language". She raised concerns that non-Christians...

A cathedral is pressing ahead with plans to show two “not for the faint-hearted” horror films and Monty Python’s Life of Brian on an inflatable big screen – despite opposition from some church wardens. The Dean of Derby, The Very Reverend Dr Stephen Hance, said the decision to host the city’s QUAD cinema’s Fright Club and other films in the nave would not compromise the cathedral’s holiness. Critics of the plans have claimed 1970s classics The Wicker Man and Don’t Look Now are inappropriate for a place-of-worship because of a graphic nude sex scene and themes of paganism. Other films...

Be sustained in ME my children for truly as I AM alive in you, eternally My living fire of Virtue is always ready to rise up and meet your Declaration of being made whole,blessed and prosperous. "Take on My Graciousness" ( (( Just Believe ! )) ) Malachi 4:1-3 The Great Day of the LORD 1“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”...

Wells Cathedral in Somerset is the latest to show its allegiance to the cause of LGBT ‘radical inclusion’. The What’s On section of its website advertises a “Rainbow Church Eucharist”, under the banner of a stylized rainbow coloured cross: ‘Rainbow Church’ is a new grouping being established in Bath and Wells diocese, with a view to promoting greater inclusion for gay people. ‘Rainbow Church’ will launch their new initiative with a Eucharist at Wells Cathedral on Saturday 22nd September at 11 am. The Bishop of Taunton will preside, and the speaker is Jayne Ozanne, a well known author and activist....

The besetting sin of pragmatic, style-conscious evangelicals has always been that they shamelessly borrow fads and talking points from the unbelieving world. Today’s evangelicals evidently don’t believe the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God (1 Corinthians 3:19). Virtually any theory, ideology, or amusement that captures the fancy of secular pop culture will be adopted, slightly adapted, perhaps cloaked in spiritual-sounding language, propped up with specious proof texts, and peddled as an issue that is vital for evangelicals to embrace if we don’t want to become totally irrelevant. That’s precisely how evangelicals in the mid-twentieth century became obsessed for...

The Rev. Dr. Mandy Ford, a lesbian in a civil partnership, has been appointed to lead the Church of England's Ministry Division, according to an official press release from Church House. Her title will be Interim Director of Ministry. It is the first such appointment of a same-sex partnered person to this position. The Church of England's current position is that marriage is between a man and a woman, however it has also maintained the position that it supports celibate same-sex relationships including civil partnership. During July and August, a number of Cathedrals publicly indicated support for LGBT 'Pride' festivals...

An Indiana minister who claims to be a pro-life Christian testified against a religious freedom ruling Friday during U.S. Senate hearings on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Alicia Baker, a community development organizer and ordained Free Methodist Church minister from Indianapolis, urged the Senate to oppose Kavanaugh’s confirmation because of his decision to grant religious exemptions to the Obamacare HHS mandate. “If Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed, access to affordable birth control will be in jeopardy,” Baker said. “This committee and the Senate must weigh the harmful impact Judge Kavanaugh would have on the health and well being of so many...

Bob Jones University is what most would call a fundamentalist school. No one, however, should think that it has low academic standards or is anti-cultural. The heavy emphasis on producing Shakespeare’s plays, the gallery of great religious art, as well as an exact replica of the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey tell us otherwise. One thing nearly all of us Protestants who have visited this beautiful and well-presented gallery cannot help noticing is the heavy preponderance, not only of Roman Catholic artists, but also of specifically Catholic themes. When Bob Jones, Jr. was challenged with the question, “Why do you...

Beloved I AM your Kingdom for ALL resides in me, Therefore I AM your Being "Zion" Do You see? For I AM the Movement within You I speak you do, It is just this simple ~ Zion living and moving through you, I AM your innate Being ALL You need to see, I reside in and through you The Wellspring you set free, I AM your true existence My Kingdom can not lie, Just let go of your existence and in me rely, Not just in steps or breathing but in each beat of your heart, For its desire must...

The old argument that defends abortion now has a new twist. This time, it’s wearing a clerical collar. It’s not enough these days to champion abortion by mere reason. Trying to convince women that ending a pregnancy is actually a shame-free “positive good” is starting to ring hollow as well. So now the latest wave in promoting abortion comes from a most unlikely source. A social ethics professor of religious studies at Elon University makes her case for declaring that abortion can actually be considered Christian. Rebecca Todd Peters writes in her new book, “Trust Women: A Progressive Christian Argument...

Due to action of The United Methodist Church’s 2012 General Conference and to negotiation of church leaders, the General Board of Church and Society held listening sessions on the Social Principles throughout the church. From them, Church and Society learned that the Social Principles need to become “more theologically grounded, more globally relevant, and more succinct” (according to a 04/12/18 press release). Then the 2016 General Conference voted to continue Church and Society’s work in revising the Social Principles. On April 11, 2018, “The United Methodist Social Principles”/“Working Draft 1” was released. Church and Society aims to propose a complete...

Protestants cannot and must not view these events with a kind of detachment or distance, for numerous reasons. First, we cannot forget that each and every revelation of abuse is the revelation of a life-altering (and sometimes life-shattering) event for the victim and a faith-crippling moment for friends, family, and countless others. Second, given the plethora of recent sexual scandals in Evangelical churches and seminaries, the Catholic catastrophe should remind us that perhaps only the lack of an equivalent hierarchy has spared Evangelical churches from similar, systemic sin. “Our” scandals are more fragmented only because our churches are more fragmented.

The Widow's mite a PENCE to you The widows mite a Pence to you, But soon shall rise from where now it is viewed, Humility about to rise, Where wisdom lives and no demise, So watch My choice begin to show, When "others" preach a Trump to grow, Truly this Pence shall be my choice , A man of God that speaks only My voice, Luke 21:1-4Tree of Life Version Teaching in the Temple 21 Then Yeshua looked up and saw the rich dropping their gifts into the treasury box. 2 He also saw a poor widow dropping in two...

I have not forsaken you, even now you stand in my courts beside me as I in all My majesty release my justice and blessings . You see you are on display in my courts as one wise and esteemed for you know IAM and in the precipise of this revelation all of creation stands before The living God awaiting My desire for I AM All in All and this is who you know to be True and Faithfull as Creator Lord and God . Yahweh is My name and there is nothing before I AM. Therfore fear not oh...

The first Ely Pride Festival will be held this weekend (August 11).Ely Cathedral will fly the rainbow flag for the first time this year to mark the start of the city's new Pride Festival. Pride in Ely aims to celebrate people of all backgrounds, regardless of age, ethnicity, sexuality or gender. The rainbow flag will fly from the cathedral tower from Friday afternoon (August 10) ahead of the event on Saturday (August 11). The dean of the cathedral, the Very Reverend Mark Bonney, said: "I am pleased to lend my backing to this community event because it celebrates the breadth...

Michael Nazir-Ali, the Pakistan-born former Bishop of Rochester, has weighed into the controversy around the burqa to call for a near-total ban on full face veils, supported by former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey. The senior clergyman told the Mail on Sunday that, while a small minority of women might be choosing to cover their faces voluntarily, that there was no doubt “the burqa or niqab is being weaponised by Islamists to impose what they consider to be ‘Islamic’ character on communities, neighbourhoods and even nations.” He added: “In Britain, this has serious implications for the freedom of women, but...

A week or so ago the Vatican announced a change in the Catechism of the Catholic Church which changed the teaching regarding the capital punishment.  It was now deemed inadmissible -- whatever that means -- or no longer moral (though Scripture clearly allows this).  Now another change, perhaps more devious and clandestine than the announced change on the death penalty.  This represents the removal of one sentence and replacing it with something that is completely different, one that fails to acknowledge homosexuality to be objectively disordered and instead sympathetically suggests that homosexual tendency is not at all a choice...

In the summer of 2008, Bill Hybels stood in front of thousands of pastors and other church leaders gathered at Willow Creek Community Church and admitted his megachurch had failed. “We made a mistake,” he told the crowd gathered for the 2008 Global Leadership Summit (GLS). A detailed Willow study had found that the church had helped many people find new faith in Jesus, but had failed to teach them how to practice the spiritual disciplines needed to grow their faith. He vowed the megachurch would do be better in the future. Ten years later, Willow Creek’s leaders confessed even...

Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio has said that the German bishops’ policy, allowing for Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive Communion on a regular basis, is consistent with the laws of the Church. Cardinal Coccopalmerio— who recently retired from his post as president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, the Vatican body charged with interpretation of canon law— told Vatican Insider that the law currently allows for Protestants to receive Communion under exceptional circumstances. However, he went on to say that when a Protestant attends Mass together with a Catholic spouse, “We can honestly answer that it is an exceptional case.”...

LEXINGTON, Kentucky, Pro-homosexual dissident 'Catholic' groups see in Pope Francis' ‘changing’ of the Church’s teaching on the death penalty the hope that the Church will one day also change its teaching against homosexuality. New Ways Ministry called the change in the Catechism proof that "Church teaching can change." "It's important for Catholic advocates for LGBT equality to take note of this change because for decades Catholic opponents of LGBT equality argued that it is impossible to change church teaching. They often pointed to the fact that condemnations of same-sex relationships were inscribed in the Catechism, and so were not open...