Can we not just feed the children? Why do we keep on having to come back and beg for it?
Jack Monroe interviewed by Zoe Williams in The Guardian, 16 January
Spirituality and solidarity are inseparably linked. Abiding in Christ, we receive the strength and wisdom to act against structures of injustice and oppression, to fully recognise ourselves as brothers and sisters in humanity, and to be creators of a new way of living, with respect for and communion with all of creation
Introduction to the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity booklet
To lead we must live up to our values. Threatening to break international law by going back on a treaty we had just signed and abandoning our position of global moral leadership as the only major economy to meet both the 2 per cent defence spending target and the 0.7 per cent international aid target were not actions which, in my view, raised our credibility in the eyes of the world.
Other countries listen to what we say not simply because of who we are, but because of what we do. The world does not owe us a prominent place on its stage. Whatever the rhetoric we deploy, it is our actions which count. So, we should do nothing which signals a retreat from our global commitments.
Theresa May, Daily Mail, 20 January
He lied, and lied and lied, small lies and big lies, trivial lies and mortal lies. How does anyone doubt this?
Paul Bayes, Bishop of Liverpool, on Donald Trump, 17 January
Traffic control, talking to nervous patients, serving tea/coffee to NHS staff, encouraging folk to come and see us in more normal times, wiping down chairs. Best day’s work I’ve done in ages. Lichfield Cathedral Vaccination Clinic. Beacon of hope.
Jan McFarlane, former Bishop of Repton, 15 January
During the first lockdown, I had an encounter that I’ll never forget. As I was walking down the lane outside the church, a neighbour called Steve stopped me and asked whether or not it was true that we had been closed down for public masses. I replied that it was indeed true. Steve, with the characteristic frankness you would expect of a man who played several times for Millwall in the 1960s, shook his head sadly and said: “Either it matters or it don’t.”
Jonathan Beswick, The Spectator, 16 January
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