Written by Catherine Beaumont  The best things in life are free,   but you can give them to the birds and bees,   I need money (that’s what I want).   These are the opening lyrics of an early Motown hit, subsequently covered by the Beatles in 1963 and the Flying Lizards in 1979.   Anyone trying to run

Written by Roger Quick Network Leeds changed my life.  In 2013, leaving parish ministry in the Scottish Highlands, I was on my way to Canada, and called in to Leeds to visit family and sort out my visa.  The very day I arrived I got an email about a job being advertised through Network Leeds. 

Written by Catherine Beaumont  So the Coronavirus legislation allows 'commemorative events celebrating the life of someone who has died' to take place in church buildings. Does this include the Eucharist? Or does the Resurrection rule it out?  (Bishop of Burnley on Twitter 3rd November 2020) A few years ago, a friend of mine attended a seminar

Written by Haddon Willmer Being  ‘sent’ (mitto, missio, Latin) and having a mission is not restricted to a limited number of religious, or military personnel.   All human beings, in one humanity are sent by God. Our mission is co-extensive with our whole life. The human mission is summarised in three pictures in Genesis 1.26-31. Being

Written by Haddon Willmer Our way of navigating life today is vulnerable to Isaiah’s vision of a people who ‘have made a covenant with Death’  so that when the ‘overwhelming scourge passes through it will not touch us’?  We are confident we have the resources to get through any difficulty.     Or might it be true that,  behind all our Dunkirk-spirit and

Written by Catherine Beaumont Last night Steve and I finished watching season 1 of Secret City. Described as a political thriller, Secret City tells the story of journalist Harriet Dunkley’s fight for the truth against a web of corruption and lies involving the governments of Australia, the US, and China. Against impossible odds, and at

By Philip Le Masurier There has been a lot in the media about Biodiversity and the failure to meet the targets set out by the UK government in recent years.  In fact, by most measures, the amount of wildlife and its diversity continue to decline and probably as quickly as before. And God said, “let the

Written by Mike Love I read an article a few months ago by Catherine Keller and John J. Thatamanil, theology professors in the U.S., entitled ‘Is this an apocalypse? We hope so – you should too’. The old name for the book of Revelation was The Apocalypse of St. John but the word has come to

Written by Haddon Willmer In accepting the leadership of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer said the pandemic had “brought out the resilience and human spirit in all of us”  and he envisions a better society ‘built on that human spirit’.  What is that spirit?  Does it have anything better than those ‘British values’ which were compatible with creating a

Written by Catherine Beaumont A charity I am involved with has been exploring its equality and diversity policies and practices in the light of the Black Lives Matter movement and the tragic events that have returned the movement to prominence in our newsfeeds and our conversations. As part of this process our, mostly white, Board