In a wide-ranging interview in the Irish News, former Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader John Bruton talks to Fr Chris Hayden about the Church-State relationship in Ireland, politics and conscience, constitutional nationalism and violence, and the liberalisation of abortion
Two events of note
Church of England invests in sports outreach in major drive to attract newcomers to church - Norwich diocese in plan to plant 10 new churches in five years - Priest hits out at 'appalling' altar gifts
Short reviews of big events
Official Ireland’s rigid approach to the Brexit backstop shows we are incapable of learning from our Celtic tiger mistakes, David Quinn writes in the Sunday Times
Catholic and Church of Ireland schools have better teacher-student ratios
Pope Francis acknowledges pain of many priests in current environment
Parishes taking the lead on becoming more green
Why do evangelicals support Trump? Blame the suburbs
C of E Pensions fund enters choppy waters
Short reviews of five big events
Claudy IRA attack anniversary: Catholic Church, PSNI and NIO silence over ‘new’ files - Going to church regularly decreases likelihood of depression in older people, new study finds - Organisers criticised for including Dublin's Church of Scientology building in Heritage Week listings - New use for C of I Hilltown Parish Church
Marnus Labuschagne, one of the Australian batsmen in the squad for the Ashes, is a committed Christian, who has an eagle sticker on his bat as a nod to his favourite Bible passage: Isaiah 40.31.
Derry’s Arts Week, Methodist President’s visits, Cancer and the clergy, Connor ordinations, Eco–Congregation Ireland’s latest newsletter
Short reviews of four big events
A ‘Blessing of the Roads’ ceremony will take place in the Cathedral of Saints Peter & Paul in Ennis. Looking forward to the August holiday weekend, Bishop Fintan Monahan, Bishop of Killaloe, asks all road users to take extra care over these three days.
The fact that young people have been sighted all over Garvagh this week – darting about in bright red t–shirts, doing good works in the village – can mean only one thing: this is SPARK Week.