The Equality Bill 2008-2009, which will extend both to England and Wales, and to Scotland, covers age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. It also requires public authorities to do more to tackle the effects of socio-economic disadvantage. The Bill has received a hostile response among some religious groups, while the response of the large churches (including the Church of England) has been to welcome its principal aims while contesting aspects of its detail - particularly in terms of lobbying for opt-outs and provisions which would allow continued discrimination on grounds of sexuality and gender by faith bodies on grounds of 'upholding beliefs'. In this paper, Savitri Hensman assesses the issues and suggests that the churches need to move forward positively, on theological and practical grounds, in affirming comprehensive equalities in the public sphere. She also tackles the harm that discrimination and inequality causes, not least to the most vulnerable and those suffering prejudice.

As part of the 'listening process' in the Anglican Communion over the extensive disagreements about human sexuality, Ekklesia associate Savitri Hensman has prepared a paper on Learning, Listening, Scripture and Sexuality which seeks both to take the conversation forward and to affirm the role of lesbian and gay Christians as active and baptised members in the church, in accordance with a faithful and interpretatively sensitive reading of its the texts and tradition.

In recent years the Christian churches have set great stall by ‘family values’ and the institution of marriage. Yet the form of marriage we know as such today is a relatively late invention out of something that once had much more to do with solidifying dynastic power. And most commentators agree that it is going through a tough time – with more people choosing not to marry, opting to forge different (often informal) partnerships, and getting divorced in increasing numbers. This paper sets out a new approach, which proposes abolishing legal marriage in its current form.

This book examines the changing relationship between faith and politics. For the best part of 1700 years, the institutional church has enjoyed a hand-in-hand relationship with government. Indeed, the church has often been seen as the glue that has stopped political systems from disintegrating into anarchy. But in this post-Christendom era the relation of Church and State has weakened to the point where the church can no longer claim to play any significant part in Government. What does the future hold? Where is it all heading? What should be done in the face of radicalised religion?