In the @ChurchTimes I am quoted as saying that the three-tier system ‘brought a degree of clarity to regulations’. I did say that, but I now withdraw it. I don’t even know if I can go and see my mum!!

Philip North, Bishop of Burnley, on Twitter

Politics, if it is to draw out the best of us, must be more than just the exercise of binaries, of raw majority power unleashed

Justin Welby, in the House of Lords debate on the Internal Market Bill

God bless the Archbishops, but I wish that they were better advised legally. Now it seems that they have inadvertently sown division where they might have promoted unity. I hope they will apologise

Steve Baker MP, former Brexit minister, on the Primates’ letter warning against the effects of the Internal Market Bill, quoted in The Times

Christians imbibe, without being especially conscious of it, a mentality that shrinks faith’s authority and relevance to the limited domain of its recognised social institutions on the one hand and privatised individual religious practice on the other

Faith and Order Commission, in Kingdom Calling, a new report on lay ministry

If Number 10 wants Sentamu out of the House of Lords, it should have the guts to say so. Pretending the problem is “the size of the House”, when it’s found room for the PM’s drinking buddies, siblings, political allies and favourite cricketers, won’t wash

Robert Saunders on Twitter, 18 October

Somebody said to me the other day, “You’re the most famous person in the world by far.” I said: “No, I’m not. No, I’m not.” They said: “Yes, you are.” I said: “No.” They said: “Who’s more famous?” I said: “Jesus Christ.” [Cheers] I’m not taking any chances. I’m not going have an argument

Donald Trump, at an election rally in Greenville, North Carolina

Religion can be guilty of persuading its adherents that the inevitably rather tender truth about life and death can be corralled by a fretful desire to unify by domination, creating doctrines that brook no opposition, that admit no contradiction. But the best kind of religious practice will always want to say that paradox, creativity, and mystery are the soul’s native language — its mother tongue

Lucy Winkett, Thought for the Day, 15 October 

We invite readers’ contributions to this new column. Quotations have to be from the past few days (or quoted therein), and we needed author, source, and date. Please send promptly to quotes@churchtimes.co.uk

(Our thanks to Michael Slade and Geoff Bamford.)