Jumble Sales of the apocalypse: The strangest church names

28/04/2014 | Reform 1

I once heard of an evangelical organisation looking for a snappy new name for their ministry to students. They were impressed by the kung-fu style name of CICCU (the Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union) and brainstormed ideas for names along those … Read More

Jumble Sales of the apocalypse: Victorian Lent

27/03/2014 | Reform

Simon Jenkins on the rigours of Victorian Lent

Mars and Flake, Twix and Galaxy, KitKat, Milky Way and Aero. They are like the seven deadly sins in churches up and down the land each spring. Have you ever thought about … Read More

Jumble Sales of the apocalypse: Social faux pas

24/02/2014 | Reform

Simon Jenkins on social faux pas

One Sunday, in a church in Cornwall, the minister had a problem with his radio mic. It was the start of the morning service and everyone was getting ready to sing the first hymn; … Read More

Simon Jenkins: Between hairiness and holiness

27/01/2014 | Reform

Beards have been bristling into the headlines in the recent months. Jeremy Paxman’s decision to give his razor a rest last summer proved as much of a gift to journalists as David Dimbleby’s tattoo. The Newsnight audience polarised into pro … Read More

Simon Jenkins: Do animals go to heaven?

21/11/2013 | Reform

Do animals go to heaven? Will there be mewing and woofing on the streets of the New Jerusalem? Are dogs not just for Christmas, nor life, but for eternity? Theologians have only occasionally bothered their planet-sized brains about this weighty … Read More

Simon Jenkins: Godless places

25/10/2013 | Reform

Twitter has plenty of parody accounts, where people posing as Prince Charles or Pippa Middleton share their inappropriate thoughts. One of the most interesting at the moment is the KimKierkegaardashian account. It’s a satire on the empty celeb lifestyle of … Read More