I might just be silent for the next 20 minutes, which would improve the service and your lives

Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, sermon in St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town, 24 November

The Census figures do show a challenge for churches in a changing cultural landscape. But the reality of people of faith’s commitment to praying, serving, and building community together is no less impressive because fewer people ticked a box

Joanne Woolway Grenfell, Bishop of Stepney, Twitter, 29 November

A lot of kids, you know, don’t find nothing in church. I remember when I got thrown out of church because I had improper clothes on. I had tennis shoes and a suit and they said, “Well, that’s not proper.” I said, “Well, I have no money to get anything else.” So I just got thrown out of church anyway

Jimi Hendrix, archive recording in Hendrix: Everything but the Guitar, BBC Radio 4, 19 November

I summoned up my nerve and I telephoned one of the Oxford colleges, Christ Church. “Me and a friend would like to come to your open day,” I started, rather tremulously. And the admissions lady responded by correcting me: “My friend and I,” she said emphatically. Did she not know how difficult it had been to make that phone call? I had nobody else to make that call for me, please try and make me feel like I might be welcome there! So anyway, I didn’t apply to Christ Church, I applied for New College because they didn’t correct my grammar on the phone

Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chancellor, Daily Telegraph, 26 November

This illness was not raising the question whether I would be the Bishop of Sheffield; it was raising the question, what sort of bishop I would be

Pete Wilcox, Bishop of Sheffield, on his diagnosis of colon cancer, diocesan synod address, 26 November

My illness has been good for me

Ibid.

Each of us is an imperfect, broken human being. We all have our crosses to bear. Those of us who are ordained and who also happen to have a disability of some sort have a particular vocation to witness in a public way to the transformative potential of whatever personal pain we experience. For me, the struggle to hear and the reliance on others is no longer something to be ashamed of. My public ministry is enhanced by showing people that I need the help and support of my brothers and sisters in Christ in a way which cannot be hidden away or minimised

Chris Philips, Vicar of St Mary’s, Willesden, diocese of London blog post, 25 November

Incredible the way so many nice English middle class people think that Jesus was just a nice chap doing nice things and that the Bible can be occasionally helpful when we happen to agree with it. If this were Christianity, I’d be uninterested in it

John Milbank, Twitter, 23 November

I choose people out of, for instance, on one exhibition 820 applicants, we were trying to choose the best two. And we found that the things we were looking for, if they had a faith of some sort, they could deal with . . . the weak and pathetic ideas that come into your head about giving up. And we choose people whose motivation is strong enough that they’re not going to give up even when they’re under great stress — they’re hurting like hell, they’ve bruised and bloody bits and they know that it’s going to go on and on, day after day, mile after mile

Ranulph Fiennes, Moira Stuart Meets. . . Classic FM, 27 November

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