Just as they do in England, Gaza’s Christians normally celebrate Christmas with a special meal. It might be stuffed lamb or chicken, with a rich array of salads, vegetable stews, flatbreads and fragrant rice. Their traditional dessert is burbara, a …
Notre-Dame won’t redeem Macron
Who, save for the most embittered cynic or those who ritually deprecate Western culture, could do anything other than raise a cap, beret or biretta, metaphorical or real, to those who have rebuilt Notre-Dame? Who is unable to salute the …
Donald Trump: crypto president
What is the underlying value of a clam? In short, nothing. But the clamshell was the world’s longest-lasting reserve currency, recognised globally for thousands of years as a store of value and a medium of exchange. The clamshell was the …
How Orthodoxy can save Russia’s soul
When Lucy Ash was escorted round the vast and numinous island monastery of Valaam, located in Lake Ladoga near St. Petersburg, she had an intriguing guide: a monk who introduced himself as Father Iosif but spoke fluent English in the …
Stonewall and the search for meaning
Is Trans Day of Remembrance being dropped down the memory hole? This time last year, Stonewall was urging followers to observe November 20 as an “important day to honour the lives of our trans siblings who have been taken from …
Burn down the Church Machine
I love the Church of England. I love its liturgy, I love its glorious parish churches, I love its lack of ideological fervour, I love the gentle and inclusive way that it is porous to those outside of the Church, …
Why Justin Welby had to go
I can still smell the fog of his disgusting cigars. And the sickly sweet tonic with which he slicked back his hair. I was seven when it started. I am 60 this month. It is more than half a century …
Will an Etsy witch find you true love?
Something wicked this way comes. Across the land, jilted maidens are engaging in digital necromancy, wreaking revenge on past lovers and using £5 spells to bewitch Hinge situationships into confessing true love. Welcome to the coven of the Etsy witch. …
It’s time to re-enchant the world
The meaning of the leaf is the leaf, as I once heard Roger Scruton say. Perhaps it was an original coinage from the Sage of Sundey Hill Farm, but it has the slight feel of a Zen koan: a …
The allure of American mysticism
American politics has given the wilder forms of American religion bad press lately. Senator J.D. Vance’s critics often identify his conversion to Roman Catholicism in 2019 as contributing to his lurch to pro-natalism and nativism. The journalist Kathryn Joyce recently …
Why Israel deserves our support
New York. London. Paris. Madrid. Over the past three decades, at various times, these cities have been yoked together under a pall of terror that has spread right across the West. It has set populations against each other, leaving everyone …
The genesis of the MAGA Bible
It has been more than two decades since I walked away from the evangelical Christian faith in which I was raised as a preacher’s son, but I still know blasphemy when I see it. In an ad for his God …
Meet the alt-Right Crunchy Mums
If you were lucky enough to have a mother growing up, there are a few moments you’ll probably remember. In the middle of the night, stumping over from your bedroom to admit “I frew up”. The ceremonial bringing out of …
Macho Christianity is flexing its muscles
Is he the messiah? Or just a very naughty boy? Since Russell Brand found Jesus he hasn’t stopped talking about it, whether on TikTok, or Tucker Carlson’s live show, or while baptising other men in a lake while clad only …
The cult of kindness
Last June, I walked down to our local public school here in the foothills of Los Angeles to pick up my son from his last day of kindergarten. As we were leaving, I snapped a picture of a sign on …