What have you read in 2025?
- Anglican Futures
- 10 minutes ago
- 5 min read
For the past few years Anglican Futures has published a list of the most-read blogs of the year - and this year is no different - the top ten most read blogs (based on the number of views on our website alone) are published at the end of this piece. These blogs are for the most part 'news-orientated', including reports from General Synod, the appointment of the new Archbishop of Canterbury and the response from the wider Anglican Communion.
Yet, after five years of writing, it is only now becoming evident that earlier blogs are also being viewed hundreds of times, and it is those blogs that are the main focus of this review. It is perhaps unsurprising that the blogs that have enduring significance are more analytical; events are placed in context, cultures are examined, questions are asked and help is offered.
This is blog #252 and if it receives more than 85 views it will bring the grand total of views of Anglican Future blogs (on this site and Anglican Ink) to 350,000.
God willing, in 2026, the Anglican Futures bloggers will continue to offer readers news updates, careful analysis and practical help. Yet, as these well-read blogs reveal, much of what has already been written will sadly remain relevant, because unless heterodox bishops and leaders of toxic church cultures repent, it will always be the lay people, the ordinands and the 'ordinary' clergy who bare the brunt of the problems and who will turn to the Anglican Futures blog for help.
Top Ten 'Legacy' Blogs read in 2025
First published 06/09/2024
"The Church Growth Modelling website predicts that it might be close to extinction in less than fifteen years, with just a few large urban congregations surviving."
First published 20/11/2024
"An inability to distinguish between their work and God’s work, the assumption being that the two are always and absolutely coterminous is, perhaps the defining mark of Iwerne culture."
First published 31/12/2022
"Thank you to all our blog writers - whether you made it into the Top-6 or not. You help us all think about the future."
First published19/04/2024
"To sum it all up, I believe that most clergy are overworked, disconnected from their Bishop, stressed, uncertain about the future, which causes unnecessary concern, and have low morale."
First published 04/10/2024
"When will the Church accept that the problem isn't just the 'machinery', whether legal or procedural, but the people charged with operating it and the culture that surrounds them?"
First published 17/05/2024
"How can an orthodox ordinand presume to reject the ministry of someone who an orthodox bishop has demonstrated they would be happy to consecrate?"
First published 02/02/2024
"Cranmer's intention when drafting Article 26 was to recognise both that the church is a mixture of wheat and tares and that appropriately motivated discipline is needed for those who continue to teach and live contrary to Scripture."
First published 24/07/24
"Just as a Jenga tower can remain upright on just two, or even one, block, too many bishops are content if the Church stands on the, albeit unstable footings of reason and tradition, or even just one of them."
First published 27/01/2023
"Not a single bishop has said they are not 'walking together' and so not even one bishop is prepared to be a true focus of unity."
First published 24/07/2023
"These points indicate that clergy should be helped to 'leave well'. That is to say, with the minimum pain to the vicar, their family and the church. Neither throwing the vicar out nor making them stay is likely, in the long run, to help anyone."
Top Ten Blogs from 2025
"Thank you to all who took part and to all those who stopped by - it was good to bring smiles to the faces of most Synod members - even if your enthusiam necessitated the purchase of a second blackboard."
"Bishop Mullally may, as many say, be “really kind”. She may, as she says, “… intend to be a shepherd who enables everyone’s ministry and vocation to flourish, whatever our tradition…”, but the thing about shepherds is they have to know both where the good pasture is and where the wolves are."
"Justin Welby has laid it on the line - the only reason that he once held a traditional view of marriage and sexuality was that he was “being thick”. Brainless, dopey, moronic (choose your word), this is an extraordinary insult to millions of Anglican believers who hold on to that traditional understanding."
"Reflecting on the recent conduct of the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, leads to a similar process of analysis. He doesn't claim to be divine but is he merely a madman or actually something worse?"
"As these two archbishops described their churches and their priorities, a great gulf opened up and it was as if the leaders of the Church of England were presented with a choice as to which future they would pursue."
"That being said, the now longstanding issues set out in this piece, complex, yet practical, as they are, must be resolved if complementarian integrity is to be upheld."
"Today, while the House of Bishops of the Church of England continue to vacillate, the Primates of the Global Anglican Futures Conference (Gafcon) have taken decisive action and planted a flag on that shore."
"Synod members have received thousands of pages of reports to read in advance of this week's meeting of the Church of England's General Synod and millions of words will, I am sure be written, over the coming days. But for those who have other things to think about - here is a quick summary of what to look out for (Feb 25)"
"I am grateful to Anglican Futures for reviewing my booklet, 'Can we Imagine a Future Together? Intercultural Lessons for Living in Love and Faith'. The review is thoughtful and constructive, and they are kind enough to offer words of personal encouragement to me - I have indeed spent many hours on Living in Love and Faith (LLF) and heard much pain and anger!"
"In a very informal consultation, Anglican Futures will be asking Synod members to vote IN PERSON (a booth will be outside the chamber after each session) and others to vote ONLINE using the poll below and we will compare the results on Tuesday."
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