Dancing in Millbank
Chris Howson reflects on the growing resistance to the cutbacks in society. How might churches respond in solidarity with students, workers, those on benefits and anyone else struggling under the...
Friendship, the Forgotten Gift
The best friendships are kind, intimate, loving, affectionate and fun. If they offer so much, why are they often so low on our list of priorities? Clare Catford argues that as we learn to befriend...
Selling Your Soul for a Pair of Flip Flops
Christian Aid believes we are sorely lacking a critical theology of capitalism, and especially a Christian understanding of taxation. What are taxes? Why are they important? How are the poor hurt by...
Speaker(s): Brian McLarenHow My Faith Took Me to Prison
As the prophet Isaiah said around 2,750 years ago, “Integrity will bring peace, justice give everlasting security”. In January this year Chris Cole was sentenced to a month's imprisonment in...
Britain and the Arab Spring: A chance for an historic new relationship
A look at how these seismic events will force Britain to re-evaluate its entire relationship with the region. The old cosy relationship with dictators will have to end. Chris Doyle is the director...
Christian Identity in a Multi-faith Context
They're all going to hell unless they convert... It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere... We're God's children, they're children of the devil... all religions are...
Speaker(s): Brian McLarenHow Christians Could Destroy the World in Five Minutes (And How to be Sure we Don’t)
When we strip away distractions, we often find some simple patterns at work in life, including the spiritual life. Brian McLaren talks about a four-season pattern he has observed widely – a pattern...
Speaker(s): Brian McLarenNaked Spirituality: Four stages in the spiritual life
Imagine a single political domino that, if pushed, would create a chain reaction leading to global nuclear war. Now imagine that this political domino is actually a matter of (evangelical and...
Speaker(s): Brian McLarenChristians and Inequality
In 2009, the 1,000 richest people became 30% richer. The difference between rich and poor is now at Victorian levels. Yet God created people of equal value: Old Testament prophets condemned the rich...
Speaker(s): Bob HolmanOne every five minutes
100,000 children in the UK under the age of 16 run away from home each year. About 20 per cent put themselves at serious risk of harm. But it's not just other people's children, it can affect us...
Big Society: Big state, big deal, big con?
Does the Big Society abandon justice in favour of charity? Or does welfare state thinking detract from love of neighbour, making us too dependent on the government? A discussion chaired by Simon...
Speaker(s): Niall CooperThe Rich get Richer and the Poor Get Prison
Billy Bragg, in conversation about his work with his Jail Guitar Doors charity – putting guitars into prisons – and about arts, rehabilitation and criminal justice more generally. Billy Bragg...
Theodora
Stella Duffy reads and talks about her work, in particular Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore. Theodora rose from abject poverty to become the comedy star of the Constantinople hippodrome at the age...
Reclaim the Spaces: rediscovering and enjoying wasted land
This summer Nicky Getgood staged a series of Reclaim The Spaces guerilla picnics in Digbeth to rediscover and enjoy some of its many wasted spaces and help local people get beyond feeling powerless...
Poetry as a dream of peace
The Corrymeela Community tells a story of a woman who came to its house for refuge. In her luggage she brought a small hatchet. She was ready to believe they were people of peace, but just in case,...