The world misses out when society or the Church sets barriers in our way. I pray for, and do my best to work for, a Church and a world where every woman and every girl lives in a safe and stable community, free of violence and fear, able to be herself, uniquely reflecting God’s image in creation
Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London, message to mark International Women’s Day, 8 March
So when we hear politicians . . . appealing to the imperative of growth, we should be asking insistently what the word means, what we are supposed to be growing into or towards. So far, we have heard dismayingly little from government about how we are to develop towards a genuinely resilient society — resilient in the sense of being able to cope with unprecedented challenge without losing our commitment to one another’s wellbeing and safety
Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, The Guardian, 8 March
When Catholics speak of dogma, they are talking about what they regard as truth. This is not so in the world of Donald Trump. What we see in the White House is neither dogmatic truth, nor truth without dogmatism, but dogmatism without truth. Trump is a vulgar Nietzschean for whom truth is whatever promotes his own or his nation’s interests; but since the things that do this aren’t always compatible with each other, or don’t stay the same from one moment to the next, the President tends to hold mutually contradictory positions, and holds each of them in dogmatic style. He moves in a relativist way from one absolute to another
Terry Eagleton, UnHerd, 11 March
As the vicar dipped his finger in the ash of last year’s palm crosses on Wednesday evening, drew a new one on my forehead and invited me to remember that I am dust and will return to dust, I knew immediately what I was giving up for Lent this year. Atheism. It won’t be hard because my atheism has waned in recent years anyway. I gave up not going to church some time ago. Most Sundays I am there, praying and singing — another lapsed atheist hoping that the non-existent God he was brought up not to believe in doesn’t see
Giles Coren, The Times, 8 March
Which is where the Church of England comes in. That’s my language in that prayer book, my tradition, my education, my country, my poetry. And there is a building for it, usually a pretty one, on every street corner, opposite the pub, and any Englishman or woman can go in (to either) and take succour
ibid.
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