*** DEBUG START ***
*** DEBUG END ***

Quotes of the fortnight

by
05 January 2024

istock

What we need to get through is this idea of revenge. What we need to get to is an understanding that somebody else’s pain is also justified, it just might not be the same pain. One day maybe they will even share in the pain as something in common, not something that sets them apart

Layla Moran, British-Palestinian MP, interview, The Times, 23 December


It’s just so morbid but the conversation is not “Where do we go to be safe?” It is “Where do we want to be and who do we want to be with if we die?” . . . There is no safe place in Gaza

ibid.


Churches do not only exist for those who are pious or those who know themselves to be saved. Churches exist for those who do not go to them at all, or who do not go very often. And this is what is surely so beautiful about the Midnight Mass, or the Christmas morning service in which the pews are filled by those who would not necessarily know how to define their religious position

A. N. Wilson, The Times, 23 December


Reason has its uses — it is a gift we are given, and we should wield it, like technology, as wisely as we can. But at root, humans are fundamentally spiritual animals. The future is not atheists in space. The future, like the past, will be religious

Paul Kingsnorth, UnHerd, 25 December


Religion is not, as atheists often assume and I once assumed too, a set of beliefs to be adhered to, or arguments to be made and defended. It is an experience to be immersed in. The orthopraxy reveals the orthodoxy. Fasting makes no sense until you fast. Praying is meaningless, even embarrassing, until you start to pray. . . God makes no sense until you start to talk to him. Then, strangely enough, all sorts of other things start to make sense too

ibid.


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

Browse Church and Charity jobs on the Church Times jobsite

@churchtimes

Thu 20 Apr @ 16:08
The Archbishop of Canterbury has received the specially commissioned King James Bible that will be presented to Kin… https://t.co/u8LMnSFcfV

Welcome to the Church Times

 

To explore the Church Times website fully, please sign in or subscribe.

Non-subscribers can read four articles for free each month. (You will need to register.)