Fiddling while Earth burns

Last week it was the G8 environment ministers; this week it’s a UN summit in Rome on the food crisis; next week it’s finance ministers ahead of the G8 summit proper in Japan next month: all producing little more than hot air to add to the greenhouse gases threatening our planet...

Hymns ancient but modern

Poet, ecologist, feminist: a theologian described like this sounds as if he or she would be a product of the twenty-first century. But St Ephrem, born in the third century, was all these things. Today’s Church is beginning to appreciate the wisdom of his words...

A man for all reasons

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The Cross and the wheel

Whether contemplating Christ’s sacrifice or the spinning of a mantra, compassion is at the core of prayer for Christian and Buddhist alike, to the manifest delight of those who met the Dalai Lama at Blackfriars in Oxford last week...

In which we serve

The Prayer Over the Gifts for this Sunday, which is inspired by Solomon’s offering of a prayer at the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem, interprets the Christian liturgy in terms of service that leads to love. Daniel McCarthy examines the subtleties of the translation...

Bless this house

The days when priests were regular visitors to the homes of parishioners are long gone, but the offer of house blessings is likely to be eagerly accepted. They can offer many opportunities for enriching the faith of householders...

River of life

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