Common Decency

A t long last it seems that issues of racism and racial injustice are being addressed properly, or at least being at the centre of an informed and caring response.

I suppose that there is something appropriate about a census discussing religion. It was the Roman demand for a census that led the holy family to travel, even with Mary so pregnant with the baby Jesus. That, at least, is how the story goes.

T he Covid-19 pandemic has led to people considering mortality in a way they’ve seldom done before, which makes the timing of Richard Coles’ recent book, The Madness of Grief: A Memoir of Love and Loss , extraordinarily appropriate.

I ’m not a fan of Jordan Peterson. I’ve always found his views to be surprisingly disappointing and sometimes downright harmful. Put simply, I just couldn’t see this emperor’s new clothes.

I n a way I’ve been working on the front lines of poverty, pain suffering, and deprivation for some five years now. First as someone training for the Anglican priesthood, the last three as a deacon, and then as a priest.

T here’s so very much about the rise of the new right in Canada that is deeply troubling, and should be so to traditional conservatives as well as to liberals and progressives.

M y father’s family were Russian Jews. Most left for Britain at the beginning of the 20th century, but some remained. We kept in contact with part of the clan, and as a child I met my very Russian, very funny, very loud great-uncle.

T here is something grimly predictable about accusations and proven cases of clergy abuse. I say this with a heart lead-heavy because I’m a priest, and each time a cleric is named or shamed I suppose I die a little inside.

T he daughter of the late archbishop Desmond Tutu, a tireless campaigner against apartheid, revered human rights activist, Nobel prizewinner, and once one of the most famous Anglicans in the world, has been barred by the Church of England from offici

T here are many disturbing and bewildering aspects to contemporary conservative Christianity but one of the most troubling is the phenomenon of ersatz martyrdom.