So Scotland has voted to remain part of the United Kingdom; the Union is saved, or (depending on your point of view) it has escaped intact for a time. There will not — not yet at least — be any [...]

Augustine said our God is out of time As I am nearly, but I do not think I am turning into a god. The gods are ephemeral anyhow Except unto themselves (And that's what makes them seem eternal) Atheism is [...]

ST MICHAEL, DUNTISBORNE ROUS, GLOS As you drive down the little by-road through Duntisbourne Rous, blink at the wrong moment, and you will miss this exquisite little church. End-on to the road, it lies down a slope leading to the [...]

VICTORIAN WORTHIES Vanity Fair's Leaders of Church and State Malcolm Johnson DLT, 128pp, hbk 978 0232531107, £14.99 Malcolm Johnson possesses 110 cartoons from the original pages of Vanity Fair magazine, depicting an array of leaders of church and state from [...]

Fr Christopher Smith remains unimpressed by Thought for the Day, and offers an antidote I mentioned a few months ago my love-hate relationship with the Today programme on Radio 4, but there is one segment which almost always has me [...]

History with hostility Tom Sutcliffe looks back at the Edinburgh International Festival, and ENO's Otello It was the last of Sir Jonathan Millss eight Edinburgh International Festivals, and the best. A main theme was the World War anniversary. But the [...]

Spiritual direction Andy Hawes is Warden of Edenham Regional Retreat House Most people involved in Spiritual Direction will admit that they find themselves, from time to time, completely out of their depth! They find themselves confronted with the experience of [...]

An extract from a sermon preached by Blessed John Henry Newman The Feast Day of Blessed John Henry Newman occurs on 9 October. In this extract from one of his Parochial and Plain Sermons, Newman preaches on the Resurrection of [...]

FIRST WORLD WAR GALLERIES Imperial War Museum Open daily with holiday exceptions, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. You first become aware of the popularity of the Imperial War Museum when directions to the museum are announced in the lift at Lambeth North [...]

J. Alan Smith looks at the place of humankind in the Great Chain of Being Movements for 'animal rights' question our assumptions about humans and non-human animals. The environmental movement questions our relationship with the Earth: indeed, one extreme, the [...]