Living

Clergy Tax Returns: Tired of waiting for your P11D?

Thu, 22/06/2017 - 13:19 -- James Oakley
Form P11D

Here's a simple tip, which may help some clergy looking to complete their tax returns.

Disclaimer: I am not an accountant, so this is not professional advice, merely a tip from a fellow traveller. Needless to say, you are responsible for the figures you put on your own annual returns.

A perennial frustration

There's a cycle that repeats each year.

Blog Category: 

Preventing Schism in the Church of England

Tue, 13/06/2017 - 09:43 -- James Oakley
The fabric is torn
Image Credit: Rigers Rukaj

Is schism the biggest, or even the only, heresy in today's church?

Recent events in the Scottish Episcopal Church (SEC) have led to big cracks opening up in the wider Anglican Communion. The Archbishop of Canterbury has, rightly, regarded unity as vital to pursue. A house divided against itself cannot stand. He wants the Anglican Communion to stay together, walk together, in spite of profound disagreement. However, latest events have left him having to work frantically to keep the Anglican Communion together.

Blog Category: 

Who is the trouble-maker?

Fri, 24/02/2017 - 13:26 -- James Oakley
Godfrey, the trouble-making parrot

The Gossipy Parrot by Shen Roddie, a story that our children used to love: Godfrey, the parrot loved to make trouble. He used to tell tales on the other animals - "Gorrila says that bee has stung his own bottom." "He does, does he?", says bee - and off he goes to get even. One day the lion decided to teach Godfrey a lesson. He fed him all kinds of juicy snippets: "The trouble maker says that crocodile has false teeth", which Godfrey would faithfully relay to crocodile.

Blog Category: 

It really is time to choose

Wed, 15/02/2017 - 21:05 -- James Oakley

Yesterday, I wrote about the debate before the Church of England's General stood as to whether to take note of the House of Bishops' report into human sexuality.

I explained that the document, and the process that led to it, was all about "good disagreement" - how can traditionalists and progressives get along together without falling out.

Blog Category: 

With what rapture

Sun, 04/12/2016 - 15:26 -- James Oakley
Clouds
Image Credit: phtorxp

It's Advent, which traditionally has two focii.

The season is about preparing for the coming of Christ. The more obvious half of that is preparing to celebrate Christmas. The other side to it is about the final return of Christ to this world, when he comes to judge the living and the dead, to usher in the new heavens and the new earth, and to free the cosmos from its bondage to decay. What we, slightly mistakenly, call the "second coming". We remind ourselves that it's coming, and we prepare ourselves for it.

Blog Category: 

Peter Leithart on Paedocommunion

Fri, 11/11/2016 - 12:12 -- James Oakley

I'd taken a break from reading other people's blogs, but when I had a look to see what I'd been missing I found a superb 4-part essay by Peter Leithart on the subject of paedocommunion - the admission of baptised children to the Lord's Table.

Blog Category: 

Pages

Subscribe to Living
Additional Terms