SCM's blog

What inspires a successful pop star to pack it all in, convert to Catholicism and study theology? Caroline Bailey met Richard Coles to find out. this interview was first published in Issue 89 of Movement magazine in the Spring of 1995.

I recently attended Love the Earth, a climate change focused event in Edinburgh. There was only a small group of us, but that made discussion easier. The first session was led by Liz Marsh, looking at ecology in liturgy. It was interesting reading liturgy written specifically about climate change! We had some critical reflections about this and hoped that if it were re-written now (it was a few years old) the language would be much stronger. I particularly liked the idea of viewing the Earth as sacrament and what that might mean for us.

Fr. James Martin SJ//

Alex kicks off our Humans of the Movement series, which we're using to shine a spotlight on some of our wonderful LGBT+ members.

As a polite, church-going Christian, acceptability is my forte. In my first year of university, my friends would joke that I was a “good Christian boy”, primarily to get me to act out in one way or another. At church, I am frequently told how good/helpful/nice I am. I rarely face any situation where I am not accepted, particularly as I am a middle-class White man at a university in a big city. I don’t like standing out from the crowd and will do just about anything for a quiet life. In many ways my life is incredibly easy.

A particular branch of “theology Twitter” is once again debating the theological placement of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor and theologian who was killed by the Nazis in 1945. Specifically, the debate is centered on Eric Metaxas’ 2009 biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, which was widely panned by Bonhoeffer scholars. Kristy reflects on why Bonhoeffer teaches us to operate out of hope and not fear. 

SCM's trustees respond to the recent pastoral statement regarding sex, civil partnerships, and marriage from the Church of England's House of Bishops.