Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh observed that "Christianity is part of our national heritage" when general secretary of the World Council of Churches Dr Samuel Kobia called on him on at his residence in New Delhi.
Mercy, not sacrifice, is the Christian keynote when dubious appeals to unity are used in religion and in society to thwart calls for social justice, says Savi Hensman. She cites recent examples in Japan and in world Anglicanism.
Much religion is dripping in sacrificial language, says Keith Walton. The appeasement of the gods is a common theme in many traditions. But in the biblical tradition, love that does justice becomes the core of a new perspective, based on a different understanding of who God is.
Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, who earlier caused anger by suggesting some Muslim communities were ‘no go areas’ has created a fresh argument by claiming that the collapse of a ‘Christian nation’ has left Britain in a moral vacuum.
The Christian Research organisation, whose latest data survey on the decline of UK church attendance has annoyed the Church of England, has defended its work against accusations of being misleading.
Constant Christian claims of discrimination don't hold water, says Jonathan Bartley. They are used to excuse privilege, and evade the more demanding self-giving dynamic of the Gospel.
The Rev Philip Potter, a former general secretary of the World Council of Churches, has been honoured by the South African government for his determined commitment to combatting racism and apartheid in the 1970s and 1980s.
Does the Universal Declaration of Human Rights represent a triumph of the Enlightenment over superstition? Or has it sidelined religion and sought to impose monolithic norms on diverse communities and cultures? Savi Hensman says the reality is more complex than these popular antitheses suggest.
Britain counts itself as a mature democracy. But what really guarantees freedom and fairness, asks Simon Barrow, and how does the church relate to the will of the people in wider society?
The current media-propelled debates about God are mostly hopelessly out of touch with their own intense fallibility, says Simon Barrow. He tries to explain why God-talk will always be helpfully elusive if it is faithful to what it seeks to point to.