The regulation of new funerary methods — including “water cremations” and human composting — has been recommended by the #LawCommission of England and Wales #funerarymethods #watercremations #humancomposting #churchnews #churchtimes

A statement from the Sunderland Minster PCC said that it had met on Monday to discuss the social media post. “The post,” it said, “would not have been supported by the trustees if we had been consulted in advance, nor do we support it retrospectively.”

Upholstered chairs must not be introduced into a listed church building of special architectural and historic interest, the Consistory Court of the diocese of Oxford has ruled. #ConsistoryCourt #churchnews

Cally Hammond reflects on the lectionary readings for 7 June 📖 #lectionaryreadings #sundaysreadings #lectionary #churchtimes

An emergency shelter run by St Paul’s By-the-Sea, Ocean City, Maryland, in the United States, is being ordered to close by 8 June #Homelessness #UnitedStates #EpiscopalChurch

The #BishopofGloucester has expressed her “deep disturbance” at the binary nature of the debate on #antisemitism, which, she says, can be condemned at the same time as opposing the actions of the current Israeli government #Palestine #Israel #churchnews

“Only love drives out fear,” the Bishop of Southampton, the Rt Revd Rhiannon King, said in a statement on Wednesday regarding the killing of 18-year-old #HenryNowak in December and the subsequent unrest this week #southampton #southamptonriots #churchnews

The Provost of Sunderland Minster, Canon Clare MacLaren, has defended the display of a sign that welcomed the use of the church’s women’s toilets by trans women #sunderlandminster #transwomen #churchnews #churchtimes

The sales of Fairtrade tea have increased by 35 per cent in 2025 — the equivalent of 549 million additional cups, the Fairtrade Foundation announced on #InternationalTeaDay on 21 May #tea #fairtrade #TheFairtradeFoundation #Sainsburys

The hundred visitors who descended on St Peter’s, Haveringland, in Norfolk, last month were far more than it usually has in a day. It is known locally as “the church in the fields” and stands in isolation on a former Second World War airfield #ruralchurch

Gerry Lynch listens to a Lincolnshire audience discuss solar farms, Rod Liddle on changes in world views, and a discussion on challenges faced by commissioners of TV programmes 📻 #radio #radioreview #churchtimes

Jayne Manfredi on the latest #Netflix docu-biography and a fictionalised account of attempts by the then England manager, Gareth Southgate, to bring home the goods #kylie #dearengland #GarethSouthgate #tvreview #churchtimes

The remains of 66 people whose bones date back to medieval times have been reburied at Holy Trinity, Kendal #Kendal #medieval #churchnews

"Part of the ageing process for me is that religious issues that once concerned or even obsessed me have now become largely unimportant." Read this week's Notebook, by @revmichaelcoren.bsky.social 👇

Hundreds of UK-based Iranian Christians and others attended a special choral evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral on Saturday, held in solidarity with the people of Iran, amid the country’s conflict with the #US and #Israel #stpaulscathedral #iran

Cally Hammond reflects on the lectionary readings for 7 June 📖 #lectionaryreadings #sundaysreadings #lectionary #churchtimes

Fiona Hook attends the UK première of a Mass Palestrina did not finish 🎶

"Perhaps, alongside work, encouragement, and abandoning the smartphone, the anxious young need to find a form of spirituality to help them to get up and go"

"The horror of murder effortlessly juxtaposed with cosiness and comfort ought to trouble us. The fact that it does not provides a fascinating insight into human psychology." #cosycrime appeals to a society experiencing uncertainty and turmoil, writes Jayne Manfredi

"While the church is rightly seen as a centre of community, it should also be recognised as a centre of 'the community economy'." #IntheParish Torin Douglas suggests that the parish church can be an economic hub for its local community

Photo stories of the week 📸 📷 Christian climate flash mob at Westminster Abbey 📷 The National Pilgrimage at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham 📷 Aldersgate Sunday 📷 Jesus March in London

"Throughout the country, parish churches are repositories of local memory. The parish church is sometimes the one building that remains when other institutions have departed. The challenge is to balance affection for the past with hope." Read this week's Leader ⬇️

"This is an interesting book, which covers a wide range on the borders between theology and philosophy." 📚 Peter Vardy welcomes a reply to #atheism which explores much further #Books #philosophyofreligion

"This is an interesting book, which covers a wide range on the borders between theology and philosophy." 📚 Peter Vardy welcomes a reply to #atheism which explores much further #Books #philosophyofreligion

“Crucially,churches have not lost their identity. Each congregation has retained its own DNA, traditions, and sense of call, while being better supported within a wider parish framework" #dioceseofliverpool

"Time stops, and my heart slows as reflections of the sun and the rampart walls dance on the canal, into which the cemetery’s grass bleeds." #FaithforHolyPlaces Anthony Seldon reflects on a peaceful cemetery near the Lille Gate in Ypres, Belgium

"I’ve sometimes heard preachers tell me that we need more of this Holy Spirit. And, yes, I know what they mean. But I have a different prayer. If we are going to change the world, I think the Holy Spirit needs more of us" Striking sayings or writings from the past week 👇 #quotes #quotesoftheweek

“It was quite moving. You can cultivate a relationship with an object" An Elizabethan-era #Bible credited with saving the Welsh language has been preserved for future generations, Ed Beavan discovers

"Artists, poets, and musicians — of every faith and none — help us to face into reality without despairing. They are called to enable prayer." #Faith Lorraine Cavanagh finds creative inspiration for #prayer

An Episcopal church in Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania, has opened a respite space for shelter, rescue, and foster dogs, as part of a ministry recognising animals’ stress in shelters, as well as the needs of the people who look after them. 🐕

Upholstered chairs must not be introduced into a listed church building of special architectural and historic interest, the Consistory Court of the diocese of Oxford has ruled. #ConsistoryCourt #churchnews

"I was gazing out of the window of the Uber while the City of London rolled past me. So it was that I caught my first glimpse of St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe" Passing a church in the City of London, @malcolmguite.bsky.social’s mind turns to Narnia #MalcolmGuite #poetry

"For Hackett, anthropomorphism is emphatically personal language that contrasts sharply with atheistic nihilism." 📚 Anthropomorphism is defended as the way to truth in this book, says Robin Gill #Theology #ApophaticTheology #Books

A consultation on a proposed lowering of lead-exposure limits for employees has been extended, following criticism from the stained-glass industry #stainedglass #lead #churchnews #churchtimes

"'No one is listening to us' was a common refrain. There was a genuine ache beneath the aggression." ‘Brave spaces’ are needed in which people can speak about their frustrations without judgement, says the #BishopofEdmonton, Dr Anderson Jeremiah

"His prescriptions seem written for a world with a benevolent and far-sighted international system, which may never have existed, and certainly is not the the world we now live in." @seatrout.bsky.social writes about #PopeLeoXIV's encyclical, #MagnificaHumanitas

The Church Times is seeking to recruit a Digital Editor (Maternity Cover), for six to nine months, beginning in August, with the possibility of extension after that. More info 👇 #DigitalJobs #DigitalEditor #JournoJobs #journalismjobs

Just ten per cent of Americans view “Christian nationalism” favourably, a new survey from the Pew Research Center suggests. A minority — 17 per cent — want the government to declare Christianity the official religion of the United States.

An emergency shelter run by St Paul’s By-the-Sea, Ocean City, Maryland, in the United States, is being ordered to close by 8 June #Homelessness #UnitedStates #EpiscopalChurch

“The idea of being a minster is not new. It’s what the congregation have been praying about for 40-odd years.” #StHelensMinster #dioceseofliverpool

Religious leaders in #Croatia have appealed for transparency about the post-Second World War massacre of tens of thousands of internees after being forcibly repatriated by British officials from Allied-occupied Austria.

Smaller churches are a gift Too often, however, they do not feel valued by institutional structures, writes Jody Stowell

An airman who was shot down over the village of Bachy in northern France on 19 May 1940, and wrongly identified as having been laid to rest there, has been buried with full military honours in France.

The dignity of #retiredclergy demands a “transformed mindset” among the Church’s leaders, the Retired Clergy Association has told the Clergy Retirement Dignity and Fairness Review

"Written in 1941 as an allegory for the rise of fascism, it was intended as a warning about how democratic societies become complicit in their own corrosion. It feels unnervingly timely." Paul Vallely sees a Brecht play with echoes of the #Trump administration

The latest issue of the Church Times is out today 🗞️ In the news: The #Pope condemned the “culture of power” surrounding artificial intelligence 💻 And the theological response of the C of E’s Faith and Order Commission to the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals was discussed by the House of Bishops ✝️

In the “malaise” of an increasingly divided world, the Church can too easily find itself “pulling up the drawbridge and building bigger walls”, the #ArchbishopofYork, has warned in a sermon preached at Christ Church, Westerly, Rhode Island.

"This is biography as theology at its best." 📚 John Saxbee reviews If God is the Answer, What is the Question? by Christopher Insole #Atheism #Agnosticism #theology #books

The Eurodiaconia network of 62 Churches and Christian organisations has urged greater efforts to tackle family #homelessness in the European Union. #EU

Church leaders in #Ukraine have deplored Russian mass attacks on civilian targets across their country over the weekend #ukrainerussia #ukrainewar #churchnews #churchtimes