Prayer opens windows I was standing on the train to London packed with commuters when a signal problem stopped us in our tracks. The carriage steamed up and we opened the windows. Things got that bit more bearable. It got [...]

In a passage in the second book of the Kings Jezebel tells the gathered band to cheer up r This time of year and in our ecclesiastical situation it can seem difficult to be of good cheer. And yet we [...]

ST MARY THE VIRGIN, ASTLEY, WARKS Astley is a small settlement, with just a few houses — and the former castle — around the church. At one's first sight of the church, the exterior has the typical sequence of west [...]

Ian McCormack welcomes two volumes of local history which brought back memories of his youth ANGLICANS ON HIGH The Anglo-Catholic Revival in Suffolk and the Surrounding Area Roy TrickerThe Fitzwalter Press, 232pp, pbk 978 1901470210, £30 + £5 p&p; available [...]

Christopher Smith considers the Holy Spirit I have something of a love-hate relationship with the Today programme which fills the Radio 4 schedule on weekday mornings. It is a convenient way to ingest the news at the beginning of the [...]

Python at the ENO Tom Sutcliffe praises a new production of Benvenuto Cellini, directed by Terry Gilliam Almost everybody, even his fellow French, can now recognize the genius of Berlioz as a composer. But of course as an opera composer, [...]

The Trinity Michael Ramsey The God to whom we pray is the Triune God, the blessed Trinity, the Three in One and One in Three, not because theologians have invented a kind of mathematical puzzle to entertain us — because [...]

A learning heart Andy Hawes is Warden of Edenham Regional Retreat House I recently contributed to a conference exploring the Church's ministry to those with learning difficulties or other additional needs in our church communities. The delegates included medical, educational [...]

KENNETH CLARK Looking for Civilisation Tate Britain 20 May-10 August Admission £10, concessions available Kenneth Clark once featured in a Monty Python album. At the time he was a posh man in late middle age and so ripe for satire. [...]

Marrakech is a place to drink in the sights, sounds and smells of North Africa, writes Richard Norman The mosques are fewer, but the singing is poorer: however, Marrakech is just as interesting a holiday destination as Istanbul. It is [...]