In recent years I’ve had the pleasure of taking part of one of the annual rituals of British broadcasting – putting together the documentaries that will air in the Easter season. It’s something I enjoy doing – after all, acting as a ‘talking head’ in these productions is not entirely unlike teaching, my chosen vocation – but it always […]
I have been in love with Saint Thecla of Iconium since my student days. How can you not love an ancient legend about a child-bride who runs off to join the circus and grows up to become one of the most popular saints of the early Church? All the more so when the circus in question is […]
Any writer can tell you that a nasty book review is a stab straight to the heart – it’s like someone telling you your child is ugly. Actually, my own mother’s reaction to the first photo of my first daughter – now a legendary beauty as regular readers of this blog already know – was […]
In many parts of the world, religious violence always seems to be just around the corner, and amidst the hearts and flowers of St Valentine’s Day it is worth remembering that the festival seems to have its origins in the religous conflict of early medieval Rome. Valentine himself is remembered as a presbyter living in […]
This will be a historic week for English women thanks to the Church of England’s General Synod (which will run from Monday 10 February to Wednesday 12 February). The most controversial item on the agenda for discussion is a fast-track scheme which could make it possible to begin appointing female bishops as early as November of this […]
Earlier this month, in what I am sure will remain as one of the outstanding whimsical moments of 2014, I found myself wandering around in the dark one evening in the village of Woughton on the Green near Milton Keynes with a group of colleagues. We were trying to find a ‘dark spot’ away from the street-lamps in […]
Blackburn Cathedral and Corpus Christi College, Oxford have many things in common, I’m sure, but the most important thing at the moment is that in January they are both hosting events that will shed light on the distinctiveness of Christian and Muslim approaches to faith, belief, and belonging. First up is Corpus Christi, which is hosting […]
