I can manage only so much spiritual exaltation at a quarter to eight in the morning, so that’s why I needed a second cup of tea before listening to Lucy Winkett deliver her oxymoronically titled Thought for the Day. It began with that infantile pedagogical device, so beloved of theRead More

Harry Roberts, jailed for his part in the murder of three policemen in Shepherd’s Bush in 1966, is to be released. Police unions and some newspapers have expressed their outrage. Others are saying Roberts has “paid his debt to society” and so it is right to free him and they add that heRead More

Renaissance, Reformation, Revolution The philosopher Antony Flew told me an engaging story about Wittgenstein at a meeting of the Moral Science Club in Cambridge in the late 1940s. The speaker began his talk on Descartes: “Cogito ergo sum…” Whereupon Wittgenstein said in a loud stage whisper, “That’s a f****** stupidRead More

Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, (aka Willie Wonga of the Payday Loans Factory) has cancelled or postponed the 2018 Lambeth Conference. This is no small beer. It’s as if the prime minister should cancel budget day. First held in 1867  at Lambeth Palace, the Conferences have gathered the bishops of the Anglican CommunionRead More

This morning’s Sunday Programme on Radio Four offered a rare treat. That nice, matey, Justin Welby, Arch-community Songster of Canterbury, came on to tell us that he says the Creed and believes it – “without having to cross my fingers.” But should we believe him? In a manner of speaking. Or,Read More

“Another fine mess you’ve got us into!” The line comes from a short 1930s film by those slapstick clowns Laurel and Hardy. For Laurel and Hardy, substitute our two modern comedians Cameron and Obama and apply it to their foreign policy. How’s this for joined up thinking? Just a yearRead More

You know all that money which your parish church pays in tax each year through the diocesan quota? Do you ever wonder what they spend it on? Happily, I can enlighten you. I have just read an advertisement, a job description, issued by the Diocese of St Alban’s which spellsRead More

He was crucified also for us. It’s the for us which gives us trouble. Those two words are in a different register from the rest of that sentence. The evangelical missioner turns up on the doorstep and asks the householder if he knows the Lord Jesus Christ. The un-churched householderRead More

Forty-nine Turkish hostages, including diplomats, women and children, have been released by the terrorists of Islamic State. The lavish scenes of jubilation on their safe return were prominent on Turkish TV. But did you see the earlier pictures of the fearless men of the Turks’ secret intelligence service, backed by special forces,Read More

Write this: you can write nothing. No one can, for what is said Is not the thing that is Except in that single case wherein The eternal Word was made flesh And dwelt among us. What is it that the poets are up to then? Only to take us toRead More