Normal for Norfolk

Racial justice in the Diocese of Norwich might be a little out of date, abortion buffer zones continue to nibble away at religious liberties, and can the C of E escape its canon law straitjacket?

Hello! There isn’t really one big church news story to get our teeth into this week, so today’s newsletter will instead try to rattle through a series of shorter tales.

First up is a mildly confected story about anti-racist efforts in the Diocese of Norwich, which is most interesting for what it reveals about the struggles to persuade comfortable middle-class white rural Anglicans of the need for diversity.

Then, did JD Vance actually have a point about abortion buffer zones and freedom of speech for Christians?!

We then return to the story of the Christian would-be Lib Dem candidate who continues his lonely battle for justice after his deselection, and might be roping in some unwitting gender critical feminists to help.

And finally, a Critical Friend reader has some new insight into last week’s story about the C of E’s rules on fonts kiboshing a rural dying church’s last throw of the dice to spark revival. (For clarity, that’s fonts the thing you baptise kids in, not fonts as in typef…