The fascination of a hidden and secret gospel leads easily into a dark world of conspiracy and male repression. Simon Heans has been reading earlier versions of Dan Brown's thriller Rarely do I board a train into or out of [...]

There are spiritual lessons to be gained even from mental illness and even when the church itself seems to be going mad. A parish priest shares his painful experience I am a parish priest who endures mental illness. I suffer [...]

The rise and fall of Anglo-Catholicism is a well known story, but the noted Roman Catholic scholar, Aidan Nichols OP offers a new and sensitive perspective on its past history and current crisis Whatever the fairest view of the English [...]

To celebrate its first hundred years the forward-looking diocese of Southwark has published a slim volume, Diocese of Southwark 1905-2005: A Centennial Celebration, by ‘Revd Antony Hurst’ (who he, and why no definite article?) Shrouded in a thin veil of [...]

No one wants a new province. And yet as David Nicholl explains, it will be the proponents of women bishops who will vote in favour of it, as the best available option for them to get what they want Let [...]

I don’t question Evangelicals’ earnestness, but I can’t share it when it comes to their responses to gay marriage and civil partnerships. I fall back on the line used by Rhett Butler to Scarlett O’Hara, ‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t [...]

The late Sixties saw much debate on the subject of divorce and re-marriage. George Austin explains the repercussions of a misguided attempt to deal with the pastoral problems created by broken marriages In the spring of 1968, a Commission was [...]

We do not expect fair treatment for women from male Victorian leaders. Margaret Laird reminds us that Archbishop Benson, for all his establishment background, had a proper regard for the place of women That a Victorian archbishop instinctively reached a [...]

Gerry O'Brien was not happy with the House of Bishops' statement on Civil Partnerships, viewing it as too subtle and convoluted by half. He preferred the more forthright response of Archbishop Akinola At the end of July the House of [...]

Why is it not permitted to give a formal church blessing to a civil partnership? Nicholas Turner offers and answer as to why such a service would be not merely illegal or inappropriate but impossible In 25 July the House [...]