The rise of Shia

Military power in Lebanon, clerical power in Iraq and political influence in Syria: the resurgence of the side of Islam subjugated for centuries throughout the Middle East now appears unstoppable...

Soul searching

Europe?s bishops have called for more debate following this week?s EU decision to fund embryonic stem-cell research. But if that debate is to be meaningful, it must include new consideration of the ?ensoulment? of human life...

Lives in the war zones

Civilians caught up in the conflict in Lebanon and Israel are seeing their cities and villages bombed and their worlds turned upside down. Here, the experiences of two families ? one Lebanese, one Israeli ? reveal how ordinary people are struggling to maintain a sort of normality in the recent outbreak of violence...

Our neighbour, Hezbollah

The Stella Maris Carmelite monastery in Haifa is built over Elijah?s cave. Most years, thousands come from inside and outside Israel for the festivities. This month, just four people turned up: Hezbollah?s rocket attacks have brought fear to a place more accustomed to peace...

The agony of Dr Williams

Seen by many as a reformer when he became Archbishop of Canterbury in 2002, Rowan Williams has had to make hard choices between liberalism and authority in striving to hold together the Anglican Communion...

After the pain, justice

The full reports from East Timor?s truth and reconciliation hearings are being released to the public as a spur to ending factional violence in the south-east Asian nation that has suffered nearly 25 years of occupation...

Embrace the new Polonia

They are hard-working, well educated and Catholic, according to a former Minister for Europe, who says that rather than fear immigration we should celebrate the arrival of Poles in Britain as one of the best opportunities the country has ever had...

The Lord is our steersman

The metaphor of God as our guide and rudder in the journey of life appears in the Collect for this Sunday?s Mass, drawing on imagery used since the early days of the Church. Daniel McCarthy examines its sources and how it exemplifies the tradition of the renewal of prayers...

Bid them welcome

Baptism is an important day in a child?s life, but it is more than just a day: the parents and the parish have vital and continuing roles in passing on the living faith...

Let happiness be unconfined

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