There is almost no human situation that cannot be explained with the hermeneutical tools of Winnie the Pooh

Rowan Williams, quoted by Justin Welby, Holy Monday lecture, Canterbury, 3 April

I, as much as anyone, want to live in a safe society. However, as attractive as the new frontiers of surveillance may ultimately prove, they’re only as trustworthy as those whom they serve. The destruction of even one innocent life would be too high a price

Rachel Mann, Thought for the Day, Radio 4, 5 April

For the sake of security, integrity and truth the world needs good news reporters and reporting. Courageous leadership is essential on the part of all who govern. If there’s nothing to hide, there’s nothing to fear

Bev Mason, Bishop of Warrington, Twitter, 8 April, on the detention in Russia of Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal

In a world where duplicity and blame-avoidance seem so often to be to the fore, gratuitous honesty shines out, like pure gold

Philip North, Bishop of Burnley, Thought for the Day, Radio 4, 3 April

There’s a wonderful saying in my mother tongue: the higher the baboon climbs the tree, the more it reveals its less attractive parts. So leaders who try to get to the top of the tree, not to serve, not to care, to be involved in truth, justice, reconciliation or love, end up showing they are ugly side of all of us

John Sentamu, former Archbishop of York, Broadcasting House, BBC Radio 4, 9 April

But in bleak times for the established church, and a Eurocentric presumption that for religion the only way is down, black British Christians are writing a chapter of the national story which suggests that faith has a future

Leader comment, The Guardian, 10 April

Throughout history these buildings have offered their publics ceremony and memorial, peace and meditation, charity and friendship, quite apart from faith. It is wrong that modern communities do not use them for such — or any other — purposes merely because religion has declined. They were built on the tithes of rich and poor alike

Simon Jenkins, The Guardian, 7 April

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