Fr Andy Phillips is a Royal Navy chaplain currently serving with Joint Force Harrier at RAF Cottesmore, Rutland
Fr Aidan Nichols OP’s book The Realm will be re-published in 2010 by St Paul’s Publishing
Tom Sutcliffe will become President of the Critics’ Circle this autumn: he was Opera Critic of the London Evening Standard from 1996 to 2002
Fr Ed Tomlinson SSC is the vicar of St Barnabas’ parish in Tunbridge Wells
Fr Robert Van Der Weyer is a priest and also a retired lecturer in economics and philosophy; he is author of The Shared Well: A Concise Guide to Relations Between Islam and the West
Canon Arthur Middleton is a retired priest and lecturer based in Durham; author of Restoring the Anglican Mind
The Revd Christopher Idle is a retired evangelical priest and writer on hymnography, who had a regular column in ND in its early days
Fr Ronald Crane SSC is the Vicar of Emmanuel Parish, Wylde Green and a member of the Forward in Faith Council
Alan Edwards is an established theological book seller in Whistaple, and one-time ND pub critic
The Ven George Austin was formerly the Archdeacon of York
Fr Owen Higgs SSC is the Vicar of St Francis, Petts Wood
The ones that get away
Our investigations into a current court-case in Canada, where Mormons are seeking to get polygamy legalized as a fundamental human right, needed more information: we may return to it next month.
What escaped us completely was the ticking-off of the Reverend Marguerite Rea of St Peter’s Anglican Church, Toronto, who gave communion to a dog. ‘It made everyone smile,’ said the deputy church warden.
Ms Rea said it had been a ‘simple church act of reaching out’ to a new congregation member and his pet. ‘I can see why people would be offended,’ said the Bishop of Toronto, ‘I have never heard of it happening before. I think the reverend was overcome by what I consider a misguided gesture of welcoming.’
The dog’s owner was not so irenic, ‘99% of those in the church love Trapper and the kids play with him. It was just one person who got his nose out of joint.’ ND