I have a recurring anxiety dream that I turn up to church and the preacher doesn’t so I have to preach off the cuff. It turns out my anxiety dream wasn’t anxious enough — this morning exactly this happened at St Paul’s Cathedral. . . On the upside I was fully dressed

Paula Gooder, Canon Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral, Twitter, 9 May

All these discussions around how we should and shouldn’t hug each other sound like awkward 1990s evangelical youth group sessions

Kate Wharton, Vicar of St Bart’s, Roby, and assistant national leader of New Wine, 10 May

How can the country “level up” when many people are unable to access the care they need to live fulfilling, independent lives, no one is protected against catastrophic costs, and care workers are underpaid and undervalued?

Natasha Curry, senior fellow in health policy, Nuffield Trust, reacting to lack of detail about social care in the Queen’s Speech, 11 May

It is disappointing that the Government’s narrative has focused, once again, solely on housing numbers. If we are truly committed to building back better, we need the built environment to support communities to thrive

Fiona Howie, chief executive of the Town and Country Planning Association, reacting to planning proposals in the Queen’s Speech, 11 May

Peace is not a thing, but a way of being. Maybe we can understand it best as a verb

Barbara Glasson, president of the Methodist Peace Fellowship, 8 May

Two tombs face each other across the church: those of Prior Rahere, who founded our Priory Church in 1123, and Sir Walter Mildmay, who, as a member of the Court of Augmentations, helped dissolve it. Their views on each other would be unprintable

Marcus Walker, Rector of St Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield, London, on contextualising church monuments, 11 May

When I say something people agree with about how we do that, they say “Bravo, Archbishop, encore!” When I say something they don’t like, I’m told to “stick to religion, stop meddling, mind your own business”

Archbishop of Canterbury, Prospect, 4 May

Those visiting Bishop Alec Graham at Newcastle were sometimes warned that he may sit on the floor while his pet Labrador occupies the episcopal seat

Anonymous recollection of the former Bishop of Newcastle who died this week, quoted in the Church Times, 6 April 2018

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