Editorial Matters: civil partnerships and the common life

The introduction of civil partnerships has given the church a set of practical questions it cannot avoid. Ministers will be asked to bless, to counsel, to house, to employ and to befriend, and they will do so in a society that has already decided the legal question.

Holding conviction and care together

The discipline of the church is not in doubt in this journal, and neither is the duty of pastoral care. The difficulty is that the two are often set against one another in public argument, as though firmness ruled out kindness or kindness ruled out firmness. Both are required.

The articles in this issue

A study of a large youth mission event asks whether mission has borrowed the habits of the tourist industry. A further article brings lessons from mission overseas to a post Christian Britain. A biography recovers the influence of the Countess of Huntingdon, and a liturgical study asks where confirmation is going.

A church with a memory

Taken together these pieces suggest a church that is neither nostalgic nor weightless. It can learn from its past, think about its present and still speak with conviction, provided it is willing to argue in the open rather than retreat into slogans.