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.

Following the 2 October 2006 shooting that killed five Amish girls and wounded five others in the USA, three investigators (Dr Donald B. Kraybill, Elizabethtown College, Pennsylvania, Dr Steven M. Nolt, Goshen College, Indiana, and Dr David Weaver-Zercher, Messiah College, Pennsylvania) explored why and how the Amish expressed forgiveness in the wake of the shooting. The research methods involved face-to-face interviews with Amish people to probe their practice of forgiveness. In addition the researchers pursued Amish writings on forgiveness as well as historical examples when Amish people forgave those who wronged them. The investigators also reviewed hundreds of media stories and editorials on Amish forgiveness at Nickel Mines. Finally, the investigation compared Amish practices of forgiveness with broader studies of forgiveness in American society. The research was conducted from 1 November 2006 through to 1 April 2007. The results are summarised below and have been released in the new book Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy (Jossey-Bass, 2007) - available from the Ekklesia online bookshop.

The Religion and Secularism Network is coordinating a programme of lectures and workshops taking place at the University of Cambridge and elsewhere - aiming to clarify the relationship between the state and religion conceptually and empirically. It is funded under the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Workshop. It is coordinated by David Lehmann, John Barber, Humeira Iqtidar and Emile Perreau-Saussine. This is a project Ekklesia is participating in rather than running. We are endorsing, supporting and collaborating in it as part of our own research/discussion programme on inclusive models of secularity and the challenge of post-Christendom - Reconsidering the Secular.

This paper proposes that the figure of St George should be reclaimed according to his true, hidden story – as a dissenter against the abuse of power, a contrast to religious crusades, a global figure we share with other nations, someone who offered hospitality to the vulnerable, and a champion of right rather than might.

It proposes that St George’s Day should be re-branded as a national day to celebrate an English contribution to the history of dissent – the witness of people like the abolitionists, the suffragettes and those who have sought to combat racism, nationalism, debt, poverty, colonialism and war with the vision of a nation and world open to all.

For the churches, we believe, St George can be a post-Christendom saint. He is a Christian figure, but he does not ‘belong’ to Christians. However, in his faithful nonconformity he invites the churches to become better servants of Jesus by abandoning reliance on a romanticised past and (in the case of the Church of England) a legacy of Establishment privilege – and seeking a better way.

An initial statement from New Generation Network, a non-partisan group of progressive voices, predominantly from Asian backgrounds. It calls for fresh approaches to tackling racism, discrimination and prejudice, and building a plural and multi-ethnic Britain. Ekklesia’s Simon Barrow is among several Christians who have endorsed it. The manifesto first appeared on The Guardian's Comment-is-Free.