The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland may just now be beginning to understand how much it relies on trust - now that it has so little of it. Yesterday’s publication of the truly shocking 2,600-page report by Ireland's Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse found that rape was "endemic" in more than 250 Irish Catholic care institutions from the 1930s to the 1990s, and that the church in I...

The Anglican Diocese of Liverpool have an excellent scheme called "Child Friendly Church", a self-assessment (PDF 130k) which covers areas such as having a Child Protection Policy in place, safe environment, continuing training for group leaders in the children's work and other criteria. This is the logo: I'm not sure about this design, bearing in mind that we have roadsigns in our consc...

Children in Scotland have not seen any real improvements in quality of life, despite time and money invested by the government, a church leader warned yesterday.

Enjoy your final fling, liberal bishops of the C of E, because it is your last. Your time is over. A new church is rising, a church of people who believe God, who know that Jesus rose from the dead because He touches the very core of their being, who experience the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives every day. A church who know that they belong to God and to no other. As the chrysallis

The Rt Rev David Lunan moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has called on politicians to address "unacceptable" level of child poverty.

Paedophilia is a "grave sin" the catholic church teaches, so grave accused priests were moved to another parish, while paperwork was buried. Just how many abuses must be reported before they stop being above the law? If you abuse a child you commit a criminal offence and you should face prosecution. It's beyond the pale that the church was not only more concerned for their reputation than protecti...

Back to Church Langton, where J. W. Logan is remembered. St Peter's, as you can see, is an impressive church for a small village, but there could have been something even more remarkable there. William Hanbury was born in Warwickshire in 1725. As a child he was fascinated with gardening, and later, while studying at Oxford he would wander for hours in the Botanic Gardens near his college, ext...

I have already shown you the former Brixworth workhouse, but the real purpose of my trip on Saturday was to photograph its remarkable Saxon church. I came away rather defeated by the great bulk of the building, but here are some photos of it even so. The Friends of Brixworth Church website describes it well: All Saints' Church Brixworth is the largest surviving Anglo-Saxon building in this co...

Looking at Splinty’s post on Benny the Pope’s response to child rape within the Catholic Church I was sort of planning something comparing the institutional problems of the Church with those of the Chinese Communist Party. “Why Jamie, what a...

Let me annoy some bloggers by raising this issue again. Some said I was not good at this subject. Others implied I had little right to comment. I am a child of the Anglican tradition. I have every right to comment on the Church’s future, as it