Encouraging people to commit to social justice, human dignity, equality, civic participation and peace-building is the way to create good citizens, says the religion and society think-tank Ekklesia, not attempts to impose symbols of state allegiance and inflated rhetoric about ‘national pride’.

An opportunity to hear Professor Good, from the Episcopal Church's prestigious General Theological Seminary, at Ste Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace (78 Bishopsgate, EC2N 4AG) at 11am on Thursday 31 May 2007.

In the light of current arguments within church and state over the definitions of marriage, civil partnerships and other live-in relationships, the Christian think-tank Ekklesia is suggesting that “serious consideration” should be given to the abolition of legal ‘marriage' and its replacement by a variety of civil partnerships through which couples could specify the type of legal commitment they wished to make to one another.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has been challenged about his view that the extension of legal rights to cohabiting couples may undermine the institution of marriage.