I have no such desire [to be Archbishop of Canterbury]; and after how we have treated our beloved Archbishop Justin, absolutely not. . . This needs to be of the Spirit, and I hope there is no one sitting down thinking “I might be” or “I should be”
Rose Hudson-Wilkin, Bishop of Dover, Woman’s Hour, Radio 4, 13 January
As an ingenue, I was informed in all seriousness that, when the Lord Speaker stood up, the only option was to sit down immediately: “and if that means sitting on the knee of a bishop, then do that.” So far, it has not proved necessary
Patience Wheatcroft, crossbench peer, The New European, 9 January
Whatever the arguments for or against the £1-million threshold [for inheritance tax], the hope I’m hearing in rural communities is for society at large to understand the symbiotic relationship between generations of families and their land
James Jones, former Bishop of Liverpool, Thought for the Day, Radio 4, 13 January
The choice on my own patch is stark. Do we strip the countryside of resources because there are very few people who go to church there, and favour the city, where lots more people attend church? Or do we strip the city of its resources to better prop up the countryside, where churches are in such obvious decline? There are very few good options
Priest in East Anglia, quoted in article by Rupert Shortt, UnHerd, 9 January
Far fewer strangers would have rung on our . . . door — desperate, lost, poor, cold, or without a passport — if we’d been non-denominational, however much purer in heart and freer of fault we might have been
Anne Atkins, writer and clergy spouse, quoted in the article above
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