Giles Fraser

Richmond

Vicar of St Anne’s, Kew. Presenter of Beyond Belief @bbcradio4. Moral Maze. Left Cavalier. Smells and bells. Chelsea FC עם ישראל חי

Articles

You won't find God on your iPhone

1 week ago | unherd.com | Giles Fraser

AppsCatholicismdiverseFaithGodHallowprayer “The first consistent way I made money was altar serving,” Alessandro DiSanto has said. At the Holy Name of Jesus parish in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and while still only in eighth grade, he would organise the altar servers for funerals. One funeral home offered $5 a funeral, another $10, another $15. “We were always praying for the $15 home,” he’s joked.
Happy Easter, losers

3 weeks ago | unherd.com | Giles Fraser

ChristianityChurch of EnglanddiverseEasterFaithFriedrich NietzscheJesus Christ I have just been reading my churchâs annual report for the AGM and Iâm feeling just a little too pleased with myself. Our average Sunday attendance has risen steadily over the last few years. During 2022 it was 138; 2023 it was 153; during 2024 it was 170. Other churches have also experienced a bounce back after Covid, though most of them havenât yet returned to pre-Covid levels.
A fearful Christmas in Syria

Dec 24, 2024 | unherd.com | Giles Fraser

ChristianityChristmasFaithrestofworldSyria The small city of Al-Suqaylabiyah has long been an indicator of Christian-Muslim relations in Syria. And two days ago, masked militants doused the northern Syrian city’s Christmas tree in petrol and set it alight. The message is clear: Christians beware. Now, Christians all over Syria are nervously watching what happens next in Al-Suqaylabiyah; among other things, places like this are on the front line between two very different conceptions of God.
Assisted dying ignores what it means to be human

Nov 24, 2024 | unherd.com | Giles Fraser

Assisted Dying BillHumanismPoliticsReligionUK Of all people, you might expect humanists to have protecting human life at the core of their ideological DNA. Instead, they are queuing up to plunge in the needle of death.
Burn down the Church Machine

Nov 20, 2024 | unherd.com | Giles Fraser

ChristianityChurch of EnglandEvangelicalsFaithJustin WelbyThe ChurchUK I love the Church of England. I love its liturgy, I love its glorious parish churches, I love its lack of ideological fervour, I love the gentle and inclusive way that it is porous to those outside of the Church, I love the inheritance of faith that it preserves.
How ‘woke’ Welby was undone

Nov 12, 2024 | aol.co.uk | Giles Fraser

Fat Pope, thin Pope. That is the adage. It means that you choose your next leader on the basis of how they differ from their predecessor. And Justin Welby was certainly very different from the bearded, scholarly Rowan Williams. Rowan was not really a company man. He preferred books to meetings. He led in poetry not in prose. And Welby was something else entirely. A man of God, of course. But a CEO. His God was more earnest, more procedural.
Why Justin Welby must go: The Church's neglect of abused children is a disgrace

Nov 11, 2024 | anglican.ink | Giles Fraser

I can still smell the fog of his disgusting cigars. And the sickly sweet tonic with which he slicked back his hair. I was seven when it started. I am 60 this month. It is more than half a century ago, but that sort of abuse never leaves you. Coming home on the tube the other evening, I picked up a discarded newspaper. “Church’s 40-year abuser cover-up” read the front-page headline.
The shallow triumph of Sinwar's death

Oct 20, 2024 | unherd.com | Giles Fraser

HamasIsraelIsrael Hamas WarPoliticsrestofworldrestofworldYahya Sinwar At dawn on 22 March, 2004, a half-blind paraplegic cleric was returning home after his prayers in the Mosque in Gaza City when he was assassinated by two low flying Israeli helicopters.
The Third Temple movement could doom Israel

Sep 16, 2024 | unherd.com | Giles Fraser

IsraelJerusalemJudaismpalestinerowTemple MountWarzionism The most dangerous piece of real estate on earth can be found in the Old City of Jerusalem. An elevated piazza, looming over the warren of lanes below, itās known as Temple Mount by Jews and the Haram al-Sharif by Muslims.
The Third Temple movement could doom Israel

Sep 16, 2024 | unherd.com | Giles Fraser

IsraelJerusalemJudaismpalestinerowTemple MountWarzionism The most dangerous piece of real estate on earth can be found in the Old City of Jerusalem. An elevated piazza, looming over the warren of lanes below, itâs known as Temple Mount by Jews and the Haram al-Sharif by Muslims.