Return of the Church Mouse Blog

The Mouse is back. Well the blog is back - The Mouse never went anywhere.

Just thought I’d kick off with some thoughts on what might happen here and some thoughts on why.

The first reason is the selfish one - Mouse just wanted somewhere to share. Social media is fun (some/most of the time at least) but a platform under your own control where you can set out your thinking in long form is different and brings with it other opportunities.

The second reason is that the media environment has changed significantly since this blog was mothballed. At that time, all of the major newspapers had dedicated religion correspondents and each of them had their own ‘blog’ or comment section with a faith focus. Now none of the major newspapers have a dedicated religion role. Kaya Burgess at The Times combines Religious Affairs with Science, while Gabriella Swerling at The Telegraph combines Religious Affairs with Social Affairs. The Guardian and The Independent, meanwhile, have abolished the role entirely. Where religion is covered, the brief has generally expanded from a specialism in the UK church that previous correspondents had to a more global outlook, covering major world events and faiths.

Elsewhere in what we used to call the blogosphere, most of the dedicated faith-based commentary has either disappeared behind paywalled Substacks or retreated into factionalism with the result that there are few outlets providing independent views on matters of faith and the UK church and many news sites now have an excessive focus on either niche theological perspectives or issues of sexuality and gender.

While Mouse has been away podcasts and substacks seem to have taken over from blogs in the commentary business, but some blogs and quality news sites remain. Hopefully I’ll be able to highlight those a little too.

So Mouse thought that his old blog could help fill in the gaps a little. If you are old enough to remember the good old days of The Church Mouse blog, please do jump into the comments and say Hi. If you are a new friend, then you are most welcome to join the conversation.

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