Bishops of the Anglican Communion were fortunate in their choice of speaker on Monday, because talking about the big picture is one of the things the Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, does best. He has an acute understanding of the role of religion in society, and an ability to use an attractive narrative style that those not of his persuasion can easily follow. Religion is important to the health and sustainability of societies not just because it can serve as a channel whereby one generation passes on its values to the next. That issue, for instance in the battle to defend faith schools against secular attack, is the more obvious one. But Sir Jonathan concentrated on another role of religion, what he called its "covenantal" aspect, which provides a moral framework to encourage building up the common good (an expression common to Jewish as well as to Catholic social teaching). Societies are an expression of a covenant, a voluntary mutual commitment between each member, and a commitment from each of them to the good of the whole. Maintaining and strengthening that covenant, he said, is the business of religion. 

His description of the prospects for a society that has lost touch with its religious beliefs, and the social covenant they sustain, was bleak. "Relationships break down," he declared. "Marriage grows weak. Families become fragile. Communities atrophy. And the result is that people feel vulnerable and alone. If they turn those feelings outward, the result is often anger turning to violence. If they turn them inward, the result is depression, stress-related syndromes, eating disorders, drug and alcohol abuse." It is a picture so sweeping that it might be criticised for claiming more for religion than religion can deliver. Jewish marriages break down, Christians suffer from depression, religion and violence are sometimes linked. But his broad point is that religion supplies a vital ingredient that is easily missed when society is examined ...

In his memoir, A Crown of Thorns, Cardinal John Heenan of Westminster called the crisis that overtook global Catholicism in the summer of 1968 "the greatest shock the Church has suffered since the Reformation". He was referring of course to the publication of the papal encyclical, Humanae Vitae, at the end of July in that tumultuous year, and its painful and divisive aftermath. Forty years on, the most striking ...

Bishops of the Anglican Communion have gathered for the Lambeth Conference, which has begun with a retreat. But the calm atmosphere of prayer and contemplation evoked by the word seems to be in strong contrast with the rancorous character of the preliminaries so far. There does not seem to be much grace about the place, and with grace comes respect. Perhaps the retreat will go some way towards repairing that, although ...

The Church of England is groping towards a harmonious solution of its internal crisis over the ordination of women bishops, but with no guarantee that such a solution exists. The crisis reveals much about the nature of Anglicanism itself. The Anglican claim to be both Catholic and Reformed is a challenging one, for it sets up a tension at the heart of the Church between two tendencies which sometimes point in opposite ...

Forward in Faith, which represents traditionalist Anglo-Catholics in the Church of England, has written to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York warning them that many of its members could "defect" if women bishops were introduced without adequate safeguards. The letter was signed by 1,333 clergy, and the issue comes before the General Synod later this month. ...