Other religions may have retained the fiery naivety of youth, but the Anglican Church has the mild and tolerant befuddlement of experience, which is the closest thing to wisdom that I’ll ever believe in

David Mitchell, The Observer, 6 February

In politics, in opinion, in controversy, the Queen’s discretion is absolute. But on one thing she is absolutely clear. She is a woman of faith. In a nation where faith is often contended and sometimes despised, she makes no excuse for her own faith, and she does not hide it. On the contrary, it is giving to God the things that are God’s which constitute the engine of her devotion to service

Paul Bayes, Bishop of Liverpool, sermon preached in Liverpool Cathedral on 6 February, the 70th anniversary of the Queen’s Accession

The Church has certainly included wise social thinkers such as William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1942 to 1944, whose writings did much to stimulate postwar thinking on the welfare state. But a pluralist society such as Britain in the 21st century does not yield an obviously Christian approach to Brexit or other contentious matters, and it would be futile to try to fashion one

Leader, The Times, 7 February

Christ Church has been around for nearly 500 years and I sincerely hope it flourishes for many centuries to come. . . I sincerely hope that the same standards in public life we have come to expect of our most cherished national institutions — including integrity, transparency and accountability — will flourish and bear fruit here

Martin Percy, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, after the settling of his four-year dispute with the college authorities, 4 February

Lord Hailsham, after his sojourn in the House of Commons, returned to sit on the Woolsack and gave audible asides to the Bishops, saying nothing complimentary about anybody. When the Bishops went on, on the Bench beside him, he turned to his left, to the Liberals, and gave the same asides to them

Lord Hacking, aside during the debate on the Judicial Review and Courts Bill, House of Lords, 7 February

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