What will you discover today?

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  Friday 15 January

  Bridgerton, Beauty, and #RelationshipGoals

  It was the distraction that the end of 2020 needed: a mash-up of a Jane Austen novel and the noughties teenage drama Gossip Girl. With all eight episodes arriving on Netflix on Christmas Day, Bridgerton was streamed by 63 million households within the first four weeks. Filled with colour, featuring beautiful people in eccentric costumes, and narrated by Julie Andrews, it is delightfully escapist viewing......

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  Friday 8 January

  Not Only in America

  It’s difficult to find the right words in response to recent events in Washington DC. But one phrase that seems apposite is contained in Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella, Heart of Darkness: ‘The horror! The horror.’ ...

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  2020: A Year Like No Other

  Connecting with Culture looks back on the highs and lows of a challenging year...

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  Friday 18 December

  No Lockdown on the Holy Spirit

  There is no lockdown on the Holy Spirit. There is no lockdown on ‘just happening’ to meet the person he’s put on your heart in the grocery aisle, or on him healing a friend sixty miles away, or giving you the right word (you know it was him) for a colleague on a call, or strengthening you for another day in the classroom, the same room, the Zoom room. ...

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  Friday 11 December

  Unexpected Journeys

  One of the most evocative elements of the nativity story is the visit of the Magi described in Matthew’s Gospel. Some people think this episode is an insertion – a purely symbolic event that emphasises Jesus’ royal authority. But I think that if God exists, and his Son was born into his own creation, the story of the Magi makes sense. ...

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  Friday 4 December

  God of Business

  This pandemic proves how much we all need business. Take, for instance, the vaccine. It has not been provided by charity, nor government, nor even the NHS. It has come from business. ...

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  Friday 27 November

  The Hardest Word

  Can we talk about the s-word? Priti Patel said it last week. Elton John tells us that it seems to be hardest word. ...

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  Friday 20 November

  Generation Z and the Search for Hope

  How do you form an identity without a map, or face the future when the ground beneath your feet is turning to mud? Who and what is trustworthy in a ‘post-truth’ world where institutions are distrusted, and where the ‘adults’ often seem impotent or negligent? ...

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  Friday 13 November

  A Saviour from Stateside?

  It dominated every front page and conversation last week. It had people glued to their phones, constantly refreshing feeds to find out any updates. It sidelined all other news, such that a vote in Parliament about a national lockdown barely got mentioned....

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  Friday 6 November

  How Long, Lord?

  Here we go. Again. But it feels different this time. The days are getting darker, that glimpse of a normal summer is a fading memory, and our horizons of Christmas, New Year, and 2021 are all shrouded in uncertainty. How long before this is over? How long, Lord?...

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