evangelicals & catholics
Mission impossible?
Leonardo De Chirico
Date posted: 1 Apr 2024
Evangelicals have known for centuries that Rome is a ‘mission field’.
It is no coincidence that as soon as the breach of Porta Pia opened in 1870 (when Rome was liberated from Papal power and the Pontifical State ended), Bibles and Christian tracts were immediately smuggled in to further the evangelisation of the city. Rome was a mission field because it prevented the free circulation of God’s word in the vernacular language and suppressed any attempts to bring about a Biblical reformation.
The ‘black hole’ at the centre of the Church of England
John Dunnett
Date posted: 28 May 2025
It is easy to think that the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) can is being perennially “kicked down the road”.
However, en readers are invited to note that we are about to enter a season in which Diocesan Synods across the Church of England are being invited to hold a special discussion on the proposals. Make no mistake – these discussions will be used to give “ballast” to the project – and the juggernaut will lumber on.
Franklin Graham UK tour prompts support – and caveats
Milla Ling-Davies
Date posted: 26 May 2025
American missionary Franklin Graham, son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham, is bringing his evangelistic tour to the ExCel venue London this June – despite recently provoking concern among some UK evangelicals.
The event comes as part of Graham’s God Loves You Tour, which aims to partner with local churches to share “the simple message of God’s love”. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) are hoping to draw thousands to the venue, as they did when it was last held there in 2023.
Reformed scholar Gordon Wenham dies
en staff
Date posted: 25 May 2025
Tributes are being paid to renowned Biblical scholar Gordon Wenham, who has died.
Wenham, born in 1943, was a Reformed British Old Testament theologian and writer, and was once described by US academic Tremper Longman as “one of the finest evangelical commentators today”.
Myanmar: Christians acting after quake
Luke Randall
Date posted: 25 May 2025
Churches and mission partners have sprung into action to support the relief effort in Myanmar following the catastrophic earthquake which shook the nation last month. However, military control and violence still persists amid stories of gospel opportunity.
The southeast Asian country was devastated by the 7.7 magnitude quake which has killed more than 3,600, and the nation’s church community has crossed denominational divides to support the relief effort.
Ministry to farmers: sowing and growing
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 24 May 2025
A Christian association is seeking to fill a reported gospel need in farming communities.
Tony Baskerville, Cheshire-based tenant farmer on the Rode Estate, Scholar Green, and elder at Grace Church, Sandbach, says that farmers are feeling increasingly marginalised. “There is a tremendous opportunity to reach out to them in genuine Christian love,” said Baskerville.
New college with Christian aims and ethos launches
Lydia Houghton
Date posted: 23 May 2025
In response to the increasingly prevalent liberal and progressive ideologies appearing in universities, a “new and unique” Christian college has been launched.
Selden College will be based in Oxford and has a twofold vision: to recover the heritage of Christian higher education, and to glorify God in this arena.
Is this the biggest threat to evangelicalism today?
Russell Moore
Date posted: 23 May 2025
Any organisation— business, ministry, school, whatever —typically asks what the biggest threats are to its mission. The assumption behind that exercise is that the most dangerous obstacles are those that one never sees coming.
Consider for a moment that the biggest threat to evangelical Christianity might not be any of those about which we argue and strategise — not secularisation or sexuality debates or political captivity, or institutional collapse or perpetual scandals or fragmentation and polarisation.
How to make training available for all church members
Date posted: 23 May 2025
Dear Editor,
An en reader wrote recently: “I’m interested to know why there is very little training of Christians in general,” (en letters, March 2025). Great question! It hasn’t always been thus; in the church’s history there have been times when intensive training for all believers – not just for pastors and leaders – has been a high priority. Knowing God is an eternal and joyful task, and being learners and lovers of God is core to our identity as His people.
Victims in US shooting 'were Messianic believers'
en staff
Date posted: 22 May 2025
The two victims of the antisemitic shooting in the US were Messianic believers, reports state.
Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim have been named as the victims of the Wednesday night shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC.
Nigeria: More than 3,000 killed
Luke Randall
Date posted: 22 May 2025
Over a hundred Christians have been murdered in a series of brutal attacks by Fulani herdsmen in Plateau State, Nigeria in recent weeks, with Open Doors conservatively estimating that across northern Nigeria more than 3,100 have been slaughtered in the last year.
Alongside those murdered, thousands of Christians have been left displaced, which Henrietta Blyth, CEO of Open Doors UK and Ireland, explained is problematic during the current rainy season, as many will have no way to care for their families or provide food.
Is singleness undervalued?
Date posted: 16 Apr 2025
Dear Editor,
How I appreciated the article sent in by Rani Joshi on being single (March en). I am a retired, female, missionary who was (I think) well cared for by my church while serving overseas. Since I have returned it’s been quite different.
The faith of Pol Pot's chief executioner
Julia Cameron
Date posted: 13 Apr 2025
Next week sees the 50th anniversary of the fall of its capital Phnom Penh on 17th April 1975, setting the stage for one of the most barbaric regimes in modern history.
By mid-afternoon on that fateful day the whole population of this elegant city was being forced into the countryside by Cambodian rebel leader Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge army. Sidney Schanberg of the New York Times captured the brutality of those hours as patients in hospital, some still with saline drips attached to their arms, were pulled from their beds and thrust into the melée. There was no mercy.
We're no schismatics, declare conservative Anglicans
en staff
Date posted: 17 Mar 2025
Conservative Anglicans say they are in neither schismatic nor sectarian, but are wanting to renew the denomination with the Bible at the centre.
In a statement at the end of G25 - a conference for leaders of the Biblically orthodox GAFCON (Global Anglican Future Conference) movement which had "a special focus on the next generation of global bishop" - they reject accusations that they undermine unity in the denomination globally.
The lifesaving flights battling sorcery and snakebites
Gary Clayton
Date posted: 5 Apr 2025
Whether it’s snakebite or sorcery, Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) flights are making all the difference to the people of Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Growing up in Dodomona, in the Middle Fly District of Western Province, PNG, Titus Yabua witnessed many members of his community dying from treatable illnesses, accidents, snakebites and pig bites.
letter from Russia
Gospel hope melts Siberian hearts
Mark Foster
Date posted: 7 May 2025
In Far East Russia, believers endeavouring to share the truth of the gospel face problems which are peculiar to the context in which they work. Harsh wintry conditions, isolated scattered communities, impassible roads and, most critical of all, strong resistance to Christian truth and a suspicion of believers, must all be overcome if the gospel is to take root and conquer hearts.
One approach has been proving encouraging and effective – the building of “Hope Centres” in communities where there is resistance to gospel witness, and no ready acceptance of evangelists from “outside”.
The UK isolation crisis: what can we do?
The recent news about the tragic deaths of actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, has deeply affected me.
Arakawa died from hantavirus, probably one week before Hackman, whose Alzheimer's meant he probably didn't even realise his wife had passed away. The thought of this elderly couple spending their final days alone, unknown, undiscovered deeply troubled me - echoing my own experiences of grief. Last year, my father passed away, and I wasn't able to be there with him at the end. Since then, I've wondered many times what those final moments were like for him. Did he feel alone? Was he afraid? Did he know how much he was loved? It's a pain that never really leaves you — the questions, the regrets, and the longing to have done things differently.