Two junior evangelical bishops have attacked a Lent talk to be given tonight on BBC’s Radio 4 by Jeffrey John, the Dean of St Albans cathedral, without reading it.

The image, message and reality of the crucixion of Jesus Christ "calls us [Christians] not to glorify, but to attend to the suffering in the world and to struggle for its elimination," said the participants of a recent theological consultation on cruelty organized by the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).