Rowan Williams clarified the nub of his thinking and showed contrition for clumsiness, but he declined to apologise and is not off the hook, say commentators and other public figures today, amid calls for disestablishment.

The Philippines Catholic Bishops' Conference has described the sale and trade of human organs, and issue of increasing concern across South East Asia as "morally unacceptable" and as a violating the dignity of a human person.

Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has said that those close to the Bush administration in the USA who want military action against Syria and Iran are guilty of “criminal, ignorant and potentially murderous folly”. He urged peaceful stabilisation in Iraq.

An appeal to supermarket bosses backed by churches and parents appears to could lead to a significant shift in the way Halloween is marketed in the UK - with an emphasis on giving more than tricking for treats.

These days, it can so easily feel as if religion is an anti-democratic force in our polity, writes Giles Fraser. No one votes for Bishops in the House of Lords, for example. So it's worth remembering that in this country, as indeed in many others too, religion was the nursemaid of democracy.

Senior church leaders in Britain have joined their counterparts in Europe and Africa in urging the UK government to play its part in seeking to make trade negotiations between the EU and some of the world’s poorest countries about justice not greed.

Church of England bishops in the House of Lords have joined other penal reformers in highlighting the conditions of Britain’s child prisons in a debate following the coroner’s report into the death of a 15-year-old boy.

Simon Barrow charts the struggle for an elected second chamber, the anomaly of Lords Spiritual, and a lurking theological question