John Bell's hymn " if the war goes on " sung to the tune The Road to Basra gives pause for deep thought this Remembrance Sunday as we reflect with thankfulness for all those who have served to preserve freedom but with deep concern over our arms sales furthering needless destruction across the world.

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Looking back over the blogs on the PCN website I was struck again by the item of May this year by Martyn Percy, Dean of Christchurch, Oxford. Martyn’s focus at the time was a challenge to the whole "Thy Kingdom Come" prayer campaign getting under way. A campaign that had come to symbolise, for many of us, the wrongheaded attempt to rebrand the Church of England. The Church, I believe, is becoming more managerial in the worst possible way and aggressive PR is part of the package. As Martyn wrote ‘It is like a business doing even more hard selling, with increasing desperation, but unwilling to ask the consumers why they aren’t buying.’

this is a paper about theology, and is not a paper about the relationship between science and religion, and most certainly not a paper about evolution verses creationism or even so-called ‘intelligent design’; neither of those are questions I think are really worth asking.

This website will carry news from across the water in order to give some insight into currents of thought in the progressive Christianity in North America. There is a ferment of ideas which can only be beneficial to us over here as well as to the folk over there. Those progressive voices are across Reformed and Catholic faith groups. .

My Palestinian friend, Imad Karam, says that a primary problem in his part of the world is that Palestinians and Israelis are both trapped in their own narratives. I’m sure that this entrapment is true for so many situations, whether with international conflicts, religious affiliations, husband/wife clashes or even football team allegiances which sometimes turn to crowd violence. Is there a universal vision which we humans, with our many different cultures and beliefs, can all buy into? And what are the implications for followers of Jesus?

Starting today, the Church of England joins other Christian communities in ten days of prayer ‘for more people to come to know Jesus Christ’, In his essay, Martyn Percy calls on the Church of England to reflect on what kind of kingdom it is building, as its focus on charismatic evangelism over the last thirty years risks achieving little and alienating many. This is a synopsis of his essay which you can read in full here

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The United Kingdom has become a remarkably more tolerant and inclusive nation in matters of its citizens’ sexual orientation than we might have envisaged twenty years ago. A Tory government introduced changes in the marriage act to allow same sex marriage. The support of LGBTQ people and the fight against discrimination can be seen throughout the mainstream media, in employment legislation, in greater sensitivity in schools, at FA football grounds and other sporting venues...