| Let Chinese Christians be free Free The Beijing Olympic Games symbolise China's arrival in the front rank of the international community. Barring a major mishap, the Games are set to be an impressive organisational triumph as well as a shop window for China's own sporting prowess ... | No laurels yet for Cameron |
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Features
 ‘Perhaps … it would be possible … to think of a new Oxford Movement, a retrieval of riches … within your own household’ Walter KasperThe president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity last week told Anglican bishops at the Lambeth Conference that the “ordination of women bishops effectively and definitively blocks a possible recognition of Anglican orders by the Catholic Church”. In this edited extract from his address he sets out the thinking behind his statement ... | Bishops by any other nameGary MacyAnglican interest in ordaining women as bishops has gravely concerned the Vatican, with Cardinal Walter Kasper warning the Lambeth Conference that it could harm ecumenical relations. But there is clear evidence that women with episcopal powers have served the Church, argues a professor of theology...
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 A year of living dangerouslyTim HamesGordon Brown’s one hope for survival at least until next spring if not the next general election is to come back from his holiday in Suffolk with some eye-catching moves and hope against hope that economic events out of his control get better not worse... |  Lambeth: covenant, crisis – and wit and charmVictoria CombeAnglican bishops left Canterbury after the Lambeth Conference last weekend convinced that they can unite around a new covenant that will spell out commitments and beliefs held in common. Obstacles remain but there was a clear will to stay together... |
Let the Spirit move youAnthony GrimleyIn the past four decades the notion of spirituality has changed fundamentally from merely describing that which is not temporal to covering all aspects of Christian witness. Developing people’s prayer life means helping them to have access to spiritual direction...
| Gifts given and receivedDaniel McCarthyAt the heart of this week’s prayer lies the powerful, redemptive effect of gifts. So powerful indeed that God himself gave his only begotten Son in order that we may be saved. And, as Daniel McCarthy explains, we in turn give ourselves in gratitude back to God...
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Voice of the GulagMichael BourdeauxA literary genius and a key element in the collapse of Soviet Communism, Alexander Solzhenitsyn was also a man of profound moral integrity, drawn from a Christian faith that came to him during the worst days of atheist persecution of the Church in Russia...
| Christ’s star rises again in the EastAbigail FrymannChina wants to be seen as an open and generous host of the Olympic Games but its attitude to the rapidly growing Christian population shows its determination to control faith groups. Members of ‘unregistered’ churches can still expect harsh treatment...
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 Little Ireland on the sandsRichard AbbottThe next stop in our summer series on seaside parishes is St Patrick’s, Southport, and the story of a once struggling church built by Irish immigrants in the nineteenth century that has blossomed into a flourishing community... |
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Columnists
 Peter Stanford‘This crazed man moved with us and was blocking our way’  Laurence Freeman‘There are flashes of divine goodness in places the world punitively labels bad’
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Books and arts
Merriment, prayer and learning Free
A Daughter’s Love: Thomas and Margaret More
John Guy
Everybody lays claim to Thomas More. For Catholics, he is a saint, who made his stand against Henry VIII, understanding what so many of his contemporaries failed to realise, that ... |
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Is the Church too slow in recognising that academies are the future for Catholic schools?
Christopher Lamb
According to the chairman of governors at the Cardinal Vaughan School, west London, one ... Goodwin the scapegoat
Elena Curti
There was an old Sixties TV series, Branded, about a disgraced soldier that always began ... The pain of being a coeliac Catholic
Sr M, guest contributor
"Whoever comes to me, I shall not turn (him) her away" (John 6:37). Many readers will recognise ...
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