London Bridge Vigil

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Unintended Consequences of the Protect Duty

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  A government consultation reveals some significant concerns for churches and places of worship.  As chair of the Faith Sector Panel of the London Resilience Forum I have a lot to do with London’s Faith Communities’ response to terrorism (see here for my role). So it was with interest that I heard that there was to be a consultation on a new “ Protect Duty ” to “make the public safer at publicly accessible locations.” The proposals follow campaigning by Figen Murray, whose son Martyn was tragically killed in the Manchester Arena attack , to introduce “Martyn’s Law” which aims to legislate for a duty on those who own or manage publicly accessible places to take actions to reduce the threat of terrorism. The ‘simple common sense security’ for which Figen Murray calls must be right; but the legislation now being consulted on causes considerable concern. The proposed legislation has very significant unintended consequences for places of worship. In my view it needs to be...
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A Long Good Friday or a Long Holy Saturday?

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This year the Triduum - the great Three Days of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday - is unwontedly quiet. Having been brought up in a Vicarage it has always been for me about the busiest time of year - much more so than Christmas - with almost wall to wall church, all the time not spent worshipping given to sorting out all the kit for washing feet, watching at the altar of repose, heading out to walks of witness, praying the Stations of the Cross, preparing for the Liturgy of the Passion, and getting ready for the Vigil. Narthex doorway Hagia Sophia Trabzon (Trebizond) Although for some there has been a scramble to get things done in new ways, for most this year, all that is gone. For me the experience has been truncated liturgies with hardly any preparation,and the quietest Triduum of my life. It's sorrowful and disconcerting; we yearn for it to be over. While I and many others find that prayer through activity is at the heart of our spirituality, the enforced re...
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Christian Patriotism: a Sermon on S George's Day

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The Tyndall Sermon for the  Armourers and Braziers Company  p reached at the church of  S Margaret Lothbury on the Feast of S George, 23 April 2024 The Will of Roger Tyndall, Citizen and Armourer, 1589: … and also to procure yearly, on the feast-day of St. George the Martyr if it be not a fish-day, and if it be a fish-day then the next Sunday or Monday after that, a godly sermon be made in the forenoon of the same day in the parish Church of St. Dionise Backchurch [Now in S Margaret Lothbury ] by a godly learned preacher of King's College in Cambridge, [or some other godly preacher] at which sermon the livery of the said company, or the greater part of them, to be present in their liveries, they to give the said preacher for preaching the said sermon 6s. 8d., and also to have him with them from the said Church to their common hall to dinner if he will go. John 1:43-50 John 1:46 Nazareth! Can anything good come from there? “S George for England!” we used to cry, innocent ...
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