大象传媒

Thanks for your e-mails claiming books from the first batch. All the books were claimed within about an hour of the posting. I'll post a batch of books at the start of each month, starting in June. Get your e-mails in fast when you see the posting.

Anthony Lane's review, in The , encompasses all you will ever need to know about either the book or the movie. Ever.

In April, 大象传媒 Radio Ulster dedicated a whole day of broadcasting to the greatest poet writing in English, our own Seamus . You can now listen again to those programmes. Well worth a visit. I had a wonderful time interviewing Heaney about his new collection, .

Queen's University named a library after Heaney when he won the Nobel Prize in 1995; but he deserves far greater recognition in his homeland. And since Heaney is our highest-flying cultural figure, how about re-naming Belfast International Airport in his honour? After all, we now have a Belfast City Airport.

That's 'Listen Again' in Irish. I've been listening to my friend D谩ith铆 脫 Muir铆's Irish-language programme on RT脡 Raidi贸 na Gaeltachta, which is broadcast on Sunday mornings at 9.00 am -- making D谩ith铆 part of Sunday Sequence's competition. I didn't understand a word of it, being linguistically limited to English and a splattering of half-remembered Greek and Hebrew. But I'm so impressed by D谩ith铆's energy and the conversation sounds so engaging that I'll have to sign up for classes.

's account of Ireland's struggle for independence, the Palme d'Or at this year's film festival.

'Our film is a little step in the British confronting their imperialist past,' Loach said following his win. 'Maybe if we tell the truth about the past, we can tell the truth about the present.' The film, and it's 'subjective' approach to the period leading up to the Irish Civil War, is not without its , though. It'll be interesting to see how it plays in Northern Ireland when it's released here.

Another film by a British director looking at war -- in this case, the conflict described by George W Bush as 'the first war of the twenty-first century' -- is Paul 's , the story of the United Airlines flight hijacked on 9/11 that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, when passengers rose up to resist the terrorist plot to use the plane in an attack on the White House.

United 93 opens across the UK on 2 June. I'll be at a press screening of the film tomorrow morning, after which I'll be interviewing Alice Holan, the mother of , one of those heroic passengers who lost his life after trying to storm the plane's cockpit. I'll also be talking to Ben Sliney, the FAA director of operations on September 11, 2001, who plays himself in the film. It was who took the absolutely unprecedented decision -- on what was his first day in a new job -- to shut down American airspace on 9/11. I'll post my review tomorrow night.

I receive a fair number of books from publishers, sometimes more than one copy. I'm currently clearing out my desk area and I thought I'd give some of the books away to you.

The first lot of books are listed below and will be mailed out on a first-come-first-served basis. All you have to do to claim your book is e-mail me your name and address (I won't share your details with anyone else) and promise to write a short comment on this blog telling me what you thought of the book (one book per person only; though you might suggest a second choice in case your first choice has already been taken).

Send your e-mails to: william.crawley@bbc.co.uk with the subject heading "Book Bag".

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Today is the 13th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Russia. But a gay rights rally commemorating the anniversary in Moscow was yesterday because a Russian court feared a possible riot.

When the defied the ruling and went ahead with their event today, a in which police arrest 50 of the gay campaigners and 20 of their opponents from religious and nationalist groups in the city. Trouble was apparently triggered when gay rights campaigners tried to place some flowers on the famous Tomb of the Unknown Soldier -- in what was seen as an effort to link their campaign with the historic battle against fascism. After all, the was a symbol of homosexuality created by the Nazis and attached to the sleeves of those gay men who were sent to concentration camps along with Jews (who wore a yellow Star of David), roma people (who wore a black traingle), Jehovah's Witnesses (a purple triangle), political prisoners (a red triangle) and criminals (a green triangle).

Protestors from the Russian Orthodox Church, according to press reports, chanted abusive anti-gay slogans -- no doubt in an effort to win their gay countrymen for Christ.

Belfast's largest gay venue is called the Kremlin. Time for a name change?

Who's the most magnificent human being you've ever met? I've met and interviewed a few Nobel prize-winners in my time, like the peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, or the Enlgish language's greatest living poet Seamus Heaney, or the medical scientist , one of the movers and shakers behind the human genome project. Then there's the myriad of humanitarian aid workers I've met all over the world, like the young doctors and nurses from working to provide anti-retroviral treatments in the Khayelitsha township just outside Cape Town. I've never personally met Nelson Mandela, but anyone who has would probably place him very high on their list of great human beings, let alone great political leaders.

But what about Fidel Castro? On a visit to Havana this week, George Galloway made an unannounced in the middle of a live programme on the (state-run) Cuban TV channel to offer his personal support to the Cuban dictator. As Mr Castro sat enjoying the moment, Mr Galloway fauned over him, and told the TV audience that 'the Cubans are the only people in the entire world who have a leader who can say that he doesn't possess one dollar to his name.'

This was a reference to Cuban president's robust denials of a recent article in which reported that Mr Castro had amassed a personal fortune of $900m. Forbes is still standing over that article.

In subsequent interviews, Mr Galloway showered praise on Fidel Castro and called him the human being I've ever met'.

Fauning over the magnificent Cuban dictator is a sensible move while in Cuba, especially if you are a journalist. Make a criticism of the Castro regime, or even cover a street demonstration for a news agency, and you risk the fate of the imprisoned there (often without charge) last year alone.

The words of the English playwright come to mind:

A prince is never so magnificent
As when he's sparing to enrich a few
With the injuries of many.

Discuss.

Can a British MP avoid censure from parliament if he argues in public that the assassination of Tony Blair by a suicide bomber would be ""? Even if he quickly adds that he is not personally calling for the Prime Minister's murder?

'A field day for crackpots, a pain in the neck for judges and a gold mine for lawyers' -- Lord McCluskey's pessimistic reception of what would become the of 1998. His comment is the starting point for David Pannick's brilliant in The Times this week. Pannick observes that 'recent events demonstrate that, in truth, the Human Rights Act has become an excuse for the incompetent, a diversion for the ill-informed and a weapon for partisan politicians', and offers some calming measures in response to the surrounding the Act.

Tony Blair says he's considering the Act; and David Cameron has to fix it or scrap it. The Act is hailed by some as a glorious, if long-overdue, , and derided by others as a .

On this week's Sunday Sequence, we'll be putting the Human Rights Act in the dock. The legal academic , a strong defender of the Act, is joined by , who is claiming asylum in Britain because he fears torture in his native Zimbabwe where he is an opposition activist, and David Conway from the think-tank , who challenges the need to enshrine human rights in law.

The clergy of the are permitted to officiate at religious blessing ceremonies for gay and lesbian couples, according to a church spokesperson. Stephen Lynas, the church's press officer, told today's 大象传媒 Radio Ulster Talk Back programme that Irish Presbyterian ministers have the freedom in church law to follow their own conscience when deciding whether to bless same-sex civil partnerships. This will come as a surpise to some of the denomination's more conservative clergy.

He was responding to Tuesday's by the Church of Scotland's General Assembly, meeting in Edinburgh, which declared that no offence is committed by any Church of Scotland minister who offers a blessing for gay couples.

It is likely that the blessing of civil partnerships will now become a major issue of contention at the Irish Presbyterian General Assembly in June. That Assembly will receive a report on the introduction of civil partnership legislation from its Church and Government Committee which, as it currently stands, stops short of addressing the question of clerical blessings for those unions.

Instead, the report restates the denomination's commitment to the institution of heterosexual marriage, condemns homosexuality as and afront to 'God's design for humankind', offers a reminder that homophobia is 'not proper in the Christian Church', gets annoyed that civil partnerships have been 'unhelpfully portrayed' by the media as 'gay marriage', and (in an appended Resolution to the Assembly) expresses concern 'regarding the increasing acceptance of homosexual unions'.

Since there is no explicit prohibition here for civil partnership blessing ceremonies, there appears to be some legal wriggle-room for such blessings as the church's law currently stands.

One way to test this would be for a minister to actually carry out a blessing and face a legal challenge (ultimately before the denomination's Judicial Commission) from one of his or her collegues. A much more likely scenario, I'd suggest, is that an amendment to this Report will be introduced at the Assembly in June which explicitly prohibits blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples.

Canterbury Cathedral isn't happy about being featured in a soon-to-be-relased -- as a location for an animated terrorist attack in the war on terror. Officials from the Cathedral have written to the makers of the game, which also features the Eiffel Tower and the Brandenburg Gate, to ask for the Cathedral segment of the game to be withdrawn.

Great move, that. Now a video game we'd never heard of is getting I bet Monte Cristo, the game's creators, can't believe their luck.

The General Assembly of the has voted, by 372 votes to 240, to permit individual ministers to follow their own conscience in deciding whether to bless . This will make the Church of John Knox the first mainline UK denomination to bless gay unions. The decision has been referred to the denomination's 46 presbyteries for consideration and comment. If a majority of presbyteries disagree, the decision will be re-considered at next year's Assembly. In the interim, the Assembly has declared that ministers and deacons may legally officiate at blessing ceremonies for couples who have entered a civil partnership.

The proposal was brought to the Assembly by the Legal Questions Committee (see section 15 of their Report, and Appendix G, ).

During the debate, the Rev Tom Gordon, a chaplain for Marie Curie Cancer, told the Assembly that he had already blessed a lesbian couple, one of whom was terminally ill, and declared that he would continue to exercise that pastorial role whatever the General Assembly decided about the matter.

The Church of Scotland is the mother church of the . The Irish Moderator, Dr Harry Uprichard is present at this week's Scottish Assembly in Edinburgh, and will welcome his Scottish counterpart, the Revd Alan McDonald, to the Belfast Assembly in June. Notwithstanding the historical connections between the two denominations, this move by the Edinburgh Assembly is yet more proof that the theological distance between the two churches is far wider than the Irish Sea. Will the Irish Presbyterians feel compelled to chide their mother in the faith for its perceived liberalism?

While they are considering that one, they may also give some thought to another significant development in Scotland this week: the launch of , and , new campaign groups made up of gay and straight ministers, elders and church members from the Church of Scotland which aim to work for the of gay and lesbian people within the Kirk.

Since we've been talking about Jean-Claude La Marre's black Jesus, how about a female Jesus? The Women's Ministries department of the Episcopal Church in the United States (ECUSA) have proposed a new liturgy for duscussion which feminises Jesus as "". It includes prayers such as this:

Blessed be the Lady who births, redeems and sanctifies us. And blessed be all of her creation forever. Amen

Loving Lady, have mercy. Mother Jesus, have mercy. Loving Lady, have mercy.

This is certain to raise some theological hackles on both sides of the Atlantic, and will be dismissed, I'm sure, as litugical cross-dressing by conservative critics. But it calls to mind, for me, another example of the feminisation of the male, this time within the Bible itself. Paul, writing to the church in Galatia, embraces the role of a mother figure: "My children, I must go through the pain of giving birth to you all over again, until Christ is formed in you". (Gal. 4:19)

P.S., Duh Vinci Code conspiracists who may take comfort in this liturgy of the sacred feminine should . Just think: what could Dan Brown could do with this one?

In my review of The Duh Vinci Code, I disparaged the cartoonish Opus Dei characters, suggesting they had leapt off the page of a graphic novel. My put-down has returned to haunt me, eliciting this comment from CombineHarvestorofSorrow:

Cheap old stereotype to compare the characters to those from graphic novels. If only Dan Brown's writing was half as good as Alan Moore's or Frank Miller's.

To which I reply: actually, fair comment. and deserve more serious attention, as does the graphic novel as a form. There is vastly more imagination and skill to be found in their work than in The Duh Vinci Code.

And while I'm talking about graphic novels, I recently discovered one I'd never heard of before, when someone drew my attention to the existence of the magazine , the first and only issue of which appeared in May 1937 featuring the eponymous superhero from Long Island with telepathic skills and a penchant for invention. One of the stories in that shortlived issue, written by Paul Chadwick under the pseudonym "Chester Hawks", is , which casts a crime-busting ace reporter by the name of alongside the Captain.

Captain Hazzard and the Python Men of the Lost City has just been revived and re-released by , with an expanded role for my pulp hero namesake. What can I say? O Captain, my Captain!

Holywood's quest for the historical Jesus continues. Without even a decent pause for the snears to die down after Ron Howard's disappointing adaptation of The Da Vinci Code, we are now to be offered another challenge to traditional depictions of Christ. , to be premiered in Cannes this week, tells the story of the last forty-eight hours of Christ's life.

So far, so Passion of the Christ. The twist here, from director Jean-Claude La Marre, is that this film features a dark-skinned messiah, and explores (or exploits, as critics will suggest) some historical speculation that the historical Jesus may have been of African descent. Jean-Claude LaMarre, is a black actor, director, producer and writer -- you may remember his cameo in Malcolm X -- who directed Brothers in Arms, Gang of Roses, and the Go for Broke movies. The picture adorning this post is from (2003), with La Marre as a murdered Baby Face Malone, lying against the body of Lil' Kim. It's not quite , but you get the idea.

Color of the Cross will inevitably become embroiled in America's embattled race politics, but one can hope it will attract a more thoughtful reception in Europe.

Zeffirelli's (1977) is seen by some as the benchmark of the Jesus film genre, but left Jesus looking like in the minds of a generation of filmgoers. Yet even that rather reverential (if technocolor) re-telling of the Gospel story (yes, albeit with the help of Anthony Burgess as a screenwriter) courted controversy at the time. Scorsese's (1988), an adaptation of the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis courted considerably more controversy, but is, for my money, a vastly more interesting film -- in the main because of its willingness to see Jesus as a complex puzzle rather than a simple icon.

La Marre, who plays Jesus in Color of the Cross, says:

[This is] not about dividing Christians, but broadening their perspective. For centuries, Leonardo Da Vinci's portrayal of Jesus has been widely accepted. We are offering an alternative image. There's room for all. We will be seeking the Pope's blessing on this one.

Given La Marre's love of the Western -- another traditionally 'white' film genre -- it'll be interesting to see his treatment of the Jesus story. After all, cinema's Jesus genre is arguably another version of the Western genre: the lone stranger (often wearing a white stetson) who rides into town, an alien of sorts, to comfront the forces of evil (often wearing black stetsons) and, in the final reel, lays down his life to set the townfolk free. Will La Marre's film switch the stetsons and show Golgotha as ?

We broadcast a Da Vinci Code Special on Sunday Sequence yesterday. In fact, I re-named the whole day: Da Vinci Code Sunday. Yes, I am that powerful! We review the movie, report on the controversy at home and abroad, take the theology of Dan Brown way too seriously, and find the UK spokesperson for Opus Dei in fighting form. You can listen to the programme via the website and leave your comments here. Let battle begin.

So, Brian Kennedy, Ireland's angelically voiced Eurovision entry, was defeated last night by , a coven of Finnish Freddie Krugger look-alikes with allegedly Satanic lyrics who never remove their monster masks and hoods -- not even while relaxing at their hotel pool.

Greece, the host country, awarded Finland the full 12 points, which may be their way of making up for a Stop Lordi campaign organised the president of a Greek restaurant and bar owners' union (yeah, I wondered about that myself). 'Mr Lordi', the group's lead singer, denies those rumours of shadowcraft by pointing out how unlikely it would be for a Satanic group to bring out a song titled 'Hard Rock Hallelujah', their Eurovision-winning entry -- or, for that matter, another titled 'The Devil is a Loser'. He could have a point there. In fact, take this stanza from 'Hard Rock Hallelujah' (if, indeed, heavy metal songs have stanzas):

The true believers Thou shall be saved; brothers and sisters keep strong in the faith: on the day of Rockoning, it's who dares, wins. You will see the jokers soon'll be the new kings

Doesn't sound that Satanic to me. Click on the link below for the full lyrics. Haven't the protestors heard of irony or pastiche?

Lordi didn't get my vote on the night, but then I'd personally negotiated 100-1 odds on Brian Kennedy on-air from , so I felt obliged to throw the full weight of a text message behind the Irish entry. Brian performed well (apart from a strange moment when he decided to kneel and transmit a smoldering glance at the 600 million potential voters), but the song seemed a little dated on the night. The less said about Daz Sampson's performance of the better.

It was an evening of curious cultural cross-dressing: Israel entered a black Gospel act, and Germany had a country and western fivesome, Texas Lightning, which I loved. There's a reason why the word is German.

Some things never change, though: with political block voting, you still need your friends to win in Eurovision; and it's still impossible to imagine the competition without Terry's drippingly sarcastic commentary.

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Commercially, the makers of The Da Vinci Code have been treading a fine line lately. On the one hand, the controversy surrounding the film helps to build an audience. On the other hand, they need to be sensitive to America's deeply-held religious views.

Which means, when you're doing live interviews that are televised across the nation, be careful what you say, and -- for heaven's sake -- don't rub it in. You can just imagine the Talking Points handed to the cast and director by their marketing people as they prepared to appear live on NBC's show this week: It's a movie, a story -- not an attack. It asks big questions -- nothing wrong with asking questions. People are clever enough to deal with big questions, aren't they? Nobody should feel threatened by a movie raising important questions. And discussing those questions after the movie is a good thing. After all, it's just a movie. Not an attack. Etc. Etc.

But the British actor Sir Ian McKellen, bless him, is immune to those distinctively American sensitivites. The interviewer, Matt Lauer, mentioned the calls from some religious groups that a disclaimer should be placed at the beginning of this movie saying it is a work of fiction, and asked the cast if they would be comfortable with that. While the American cast members looked nervously at each other, Ian McKellen let rip:

Well, I've often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying this is fiction. I mean, walking on water, it takes an act of faith. And I have faith in this movie.

Then, I think, Sir Ian must have remembered those Talking Points from his press officer, or perhaps he heard Ron Howard gulping just four seats away. He quickly added:

Not that it's true, not that it's factual, but that it's a jolly good story. And I think audiences are clever enough and bright enough to separate out fact and fiction, and discuss the thing after they've seen it.

Needless to say, a website documenting liberal bias in the American media has archived the comments. You can watch the interview .

I've just returned from a press screening of The Da Vinci Code, ahead of the worldwide launch tomorrow. Two categories of people will probably be disappointed by the film: those who have read the book and those who have been looking forward to the movie.

For all its flaws, the book is vastly better than the film. And I say that as one who felt sullied after reading the book, which is art history for those who've never been to an art gallery, theology for those who've never read the Bible, and literature for those who've rarely been to a library. Did that sound patronising? Apologies. Some of Harvard religious symbology professor Robert Langdon's lecture style must be rubbing off on me.

After a year of hype-building by the movie-makers, The Da Vinci Code is an utter anticlimax. A murder mystery which makes fugitives of an attractive couple who are strangers to each other -- nothing new there in movie terms. But, unfortunately for us, this is neither The 39 Steps nor North by Northwest, and Alfred Hitchcock is not the director. In place of gripping suspense, we are offered nearly two and a half hours of lunging melodrama. Where is the sense of fear or anxiety in the film? I'd settle for a vague sense of intimidation, but that was absent too. A film with thriller ambitions should surely unsettle the audience just slightly. Right? But no. Even the baddies -- members of the ultra-conservative Opus Dei group -- look like they've leapt off the page of a graphic novel. Should murderous villains really look as irredeemably silly as this? Then there are the members of the Priory of Sion, the protectors of the royal bloodline of Christ, who turn up at the end of the film looking like the Scottish branch of the Countryside Alliance.

Should you go see it? Only if you doubt me. Should churches be worried about the film's potential to undermine their message? Not in a million years. Though you can be sure that won't stop some church-people over-reacting.

I'm off to a preview screening of tonight. I'll blog a review afterwards. Already, Ron Howard's been taking quite a pasting from the . says, 'You know a movie's a dud when even its self-flagellating albino killer monk isn't any fun.'

Speaking of albino killers: support groups for people with Albinism are outraged that the film is perpetuating the Holywood tradition of casting people with the condition as villains. They may have a point. It turns out that The Da Vinci Code's character of Silas, the Murderous Monk, is the 68th film since 1960 to feature an evil albino, including the twins in The Matrix Reloaded, the hit man in Foul Play, and the evil executioner in the comedy movie The Princess Bride . I'll have a spokesperson from the on tomorrow's Stephen Nolan Show.

She was asleep in her home when they came in the middle of the night. And that was the beginning of a night from hell for the young woman whose story we reported today. Raped repeatedly by one of the six young men -- he was 15 at the time -- and subjected to a brutal assault, involving hammer blows to her head, she was left for dead. But she survived and eventually identified her assailant.

We learned this week that the courts handed down concurrent sentences for rape, burglary, false imprisonment, and grievous bodily harm with intent to kill (a category in law which falls just short of attempted murder).

Her attacker's punishment? Five years in a youth offenders' centre, with the possibility of parole under the 50 per cent remission scheme. Given that this horrific attack took place over a year ago, this young offender could be walking our streets again within the next 18 months.

Listeners contacted our programme to express outrage at the sentence in this case, and to call for the abandonment of the 50 per cent remission policy for crimes of this seriousness. Overwhelmingly, they argued that sex offences of this kind need to be matched by sentences that reasonably reflect our community's sense of outrage, and that the release of this sex offender in such a short period of time, notwithstanding his young age, is an insult to a victim who survived against all the odds.

After the programme, I was contacted by the young woman who escaped death in this attack. She wanted to say how encouraged she was by so many comments from our listeners, and how much support she took from a sense that the community was standing with her and standing up for her. She is an absolutely remarkable person who embodies the difference between being a victim and being a survivor.

It's official. While sitting in for Stephen Nolan today, on of the restored Northern Ireland Assembly, I interviewed the Progressive Unionist Party leader .

For reasons I'm still trying to understand, Mr Ervine suggested that he could be just as good a presenter as any of us journos at the Beeb, myself included, and challenged me to try leading his political party. He warmed to the idea that we might change roles for a day, and I suggested that his people should talk to my people.

But the idea has been taking root since we got off air at half past ten. Some items for my new Alternative PUP Manifesto:

1. Compulsory moustaches for all Ulster males over the age of 16. 2. A complimentary copy of the Oxford English Dictionary for every Ulster home. 3. East Belfast to be exempt from all future water charges. 4. A new political alliance to be announced with Rainbow George named as my spokesman on Foreign Affairs, and May McFettridge as our equality spokeswoman.

Anything else you think we might put in there?

Cardinal , the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, has sacked a press officer, Mr Stephen Noon -- a committed Catholic -- after discovering that the aide is gay.

According to , Mr Noon's long-term partner visited him at work one day and was introduced to the archbishop. Unfortunately, no one had the foresight to take a picture of the Cardinal's face when, mid-hand-clasp, the word 'partner' was uttered. A missed opportunity. It's alleged that the Church has paid the aide 拢20,000 to leave quietly (i.e., say nothing more about it).

Contrast this story with latest difficulties. Ms Kelly, the cabinet minister with responsibilty for equality, is also a committed Catholic -- indeed, she is a member of the controversial conservative group . But in a Five Live interview last week with Nicky Campbell, a straight question about whether she believes homosexuality is a sin. She contends that her personal moral views are not, in any way, inconsistent with her role as a minister within a government that has a commitment to champion the rights of gay and lesbian people.

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor rallied to Ms Kelly's support last Thursday in the Letters page of . This is part of what he said:

St Thomas Aquinas taught that not every sin is necessarily a crime, and not every crime is necessarily a sin. From this stems the Church鈥檚 defence of human rights. Homosexual people are first of all persons, and have the same entitlement to legal rights as anyone else. The Church has consistently spoken out against any discrimination against homosexual persons, and will continue to do so. Every politician needs to balance the demands of his or her conscience with the need for collective responsibility in Government.

On reading those words this week, Stephen Noon may well have thought to himself, 'What's good for the goose is good for the gander.' But that is merely speculation on my part. Mr Noon is not available for interview.

Our coverage on Friday's Talk Back of comments by the DUP councillor Roy Gillespie concerning Michael McIlveen, the 15-year old Catholic Ballymena boy in a sectarian attack, has provoked a pretty heated debate on the site.

The debate concerns both the comments by Councillor Gillespie, widely regarded as distasteful and appallingly insensitive, and the Daily Ireland's of those comments. The Daily Ireland's cover story on Friday featured a quotation from the councillor in large print: 'As a Catholic, he [Michael McIlveen] won鈥檛 get into heaven . Catholics are not accepted into heaven.' The full quotation, which can be found in reporter Ciaran Barnes's article, read: 'As a Catholic, he [Michael McIlveen] won鈥檛 get into heaven unless he has been saved' [emphasis added]. Those additional words clearly make a difference theologically, even if that difference will be understandably lost on a grieving family. In my interview with Councillor Gillespie, he made it clear that precisely the same theological qualification for salvation applies to Protestants too. His point seemed to be that mere membership of a church, whether Catholic or Protestant was in itself insufficent for salvation.

Notwithstanding Mr Gillespie's personal religious beliefs about the after-life and the doctrine of salvation, even many people who agree with his theology have been stunned by the rawness of his outburst just days before the funeral of young Michael McIlveen.

That's the Holyland district of Belfast, not the middle east. On yesterday's Talk Back, the journalist Suzanne Breen talked about what it's like to live in that area of the city, just behind Queen's University. Her comments, as a resident, triggered an avalanche of calls to the programme. Click on the link below to read her comment piece.

Suzanne has been in touch with the programme this morning to say that calm returned to the area last night -- partly due to an increased police presence, which she attributes to the public reaction our programme featured yesterday.

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I've been interviewing Michael Baigent, the co-author of the now (in)famous . His new book, Th, develops similarly fantastic claims about the historical Jesus. Jesus survived the crucifixion, married Mary Magdalene, and established a holy bloodline. You know the sort of thing.

In this book, we learn that Jesus also put pen to paper (or papyrus) during his post-crucifixion marital relationship and wrote to the to deny rumours of his death and claims of his divinity. As you do. Mr Baigent claims to have seen this mysterious letter from Christ, but wasn't prepared to tell me the identity of the collector in whose safe keeping the explosive document now resides.

Two problems (at the very least here). First: why would I believe this story? (Answer: You'll have to trust me.)

Second: even if the anti-gospel of Jesus is handed over for international scrutiny, it could either be a fake or just one of many bizarre ancient documents concerning the story of Jesus. (Answer: Why would anyone make a fake unless they planned to make some money from the document ? And, sure the church cherry-picked its own canon of Scripture anyway.)

I suggested that Mr Baigent's book might make some money and that he was doing some cherry-picking of his own to construct an historical theory the size of the Empire State Building on a speck of speculation the size of a ten pence piece.

Mr Baigent accused me of massive overstatement. I feel suitably chided.

More than a hundred MPs have signed a petition asking Heinz, the new owners of HP Sauce, to reconsider its decision to close HP's factory in Birmingham, with the loss of 125 jobs. Heinz say the UK plant is not financially viable and are planning to relocate production in the Netherlands. Three DUP MPs -- Sammy Wilson, Gregoy Campbell, and William McCrea -- have signed the petition.

I always thought HP stood for Houses of Parliament, since the sauce bottles famously feature the Palace of Westminster. But no. Harry Palmer is the name behind HP. In any case, the Labour MP for Birmingham Erdington, Sion Simon has introduced a motion in Parliament that would require the American firm to remove the image of Parliament from all marketing if they move production out of Britain. To add a further level of political intrigue to this story, Heinz is, of course, also the name of Senator John Kerry's wife, an heir to the Heinz fortune. Sauce anyone?

Today, Robin Eames did what Tony Blair has been avoiding doing all week: of his retirement. The Anglican Primate of All Ireland will step down on December 31. The House of Bishops now need to oversee a stable and orderly transition. There isn't an obvious episcopal equivalent of Gordon Brown waiting in the wings, though the Archibishop of Dublin, John Neill, is at this stage the front-runner. Who would you select as Lord Eame's successor?

I promised you a word about this year's , which were held last night at the Grosvenor House Hotel on London's Park Lane.

It was a terrific night for 大象传媒 Radio Ulster. The Stephen Nolan Show took a Sony Gold in the Speech Programme category. Hats off to Stephen -- a massive achievement. He was seriously merry by the end of the evening. Talk Back took a Sony Silver (beating Radio 4's Today programme) in the News and Current Affairs Programme of the year category. And The Summer Club picked up a Sony Bronze in the Sports Programme category.

The climax of the evening was undoubtedly the entrance by Dame Edna Everage, and the delivery of her paean to Sir Tel, who picked up the Gold Award. Wogan couldn't resist a few sideways swipes at Chris Moyles in his acceptance speech.

After all the speeches, we moved from the Grosvenor's Great Hall to the bar and dancefloor uptairs where much celebrity carrousing could be observed from a tasteful distance. The craic was so mighty that Gerry Anderson even bought a round.

I'm presenting Talk Back for most of this week. Nick Robinson invites questions for the Prime Minister's monthly news conference, and Newsnight have a web page for viewers' programme ideas; how about some ideas for the Talk Back programme? Polticis, culture, arts, religion, ethics ... your chance to be part of the Talk Back team.

Off to the Sony Awards in London tonight -- I'll blog a bit about that tomorrow.

Today's Sunday Times reports that the Metropolitan Police are that John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, allegedly broke the law by having sex with his secretary in his Whitehall Office. The complaint raises the issue of possible double standards in public life by citing the case of a Greater Manchester police officer who was given 200 hours community service after he had sex with a woman three times at her home while he was on duty.

What is Mr Prescott's punishment? He's kept his title as DPM, plus his two state residences, a quarter of a million pounds in salary and expenses -- and his governmental responsibilities have been redistributed to other ministers, leaving John Prescott, in effect, as a minister without portfolio.

I put the moral question of double standards in public service to the political journalist Anthony Howard during today's Sunday Sequence. Why should a senior politician be held to lesser standards than a serving police officer? Anthony Howard wasn't persuaded by the moral analogy: ministers do not serve "under orders", in the manner of military officers or police constables, notwithstanding their obligations to propriety in public office.

This raises the question of the status of the , which begins with the sentence, "Ministers of the Crown are expected to behave according to the highest standards of constitutional and personal conduct in the performance of their duties."

There is much talk now about 'strengthening' this Code, apparently since it would require a massive hermeneutical effort to find a provision of the Code inconsistent with John Prescott's behaviour. Drawing a similarly clear distinction between what is 'private' and what is 'public' in the Prescott Affair will probably require a team of analytic philosophers.

The complexities involved in the international response to HIV and Aids are everywhere to be seen in the news that necessary to treat Aids, apparently because of a foreign currency crisis. About one in five of the population of Zimbabwe is infected with HIV and some 20,000 people depend on those drugs daily. Astonishingly, the country's annual inflation rate averages more than 900%.

Any analysis of the African Aids crisis specifically will have to seriously consider the role played by local political mismanagement and corruption. It can't all be put down to US administrations, pharmaceutical companies, and the religious right.

As we essentially predicted on last week's Sunday Sequence, the Vatician has illegally consecrated by China's -- that's a church that broke away from Vatican authority some fifty years ago.

Excommunication is automatic under for bishops who are illegally consecrated. The relevant law is canon 1382:

A bishop who consecrates some one a bishop without a pontifical mandate and the person who receives the consecration from him incur a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.

The technical term 鈥渓atae sententiae鈥� (which literally means a 鈥榖road sentence鈥� or 鈥榳ide judgment鈥�) here denotes excommunication which is automatic.

I suppose we've an example of that kind of excommunication in Northern Ireland. consecration as a bishop in May 1998 took place in the absence of a Papal Mandate. Perhaps Bishop Buckley may be able to appeal to some other canon or provision I am unaware of to avoid latae sententiae excommunication; or perhaps he is beyond caring about Canon Law provisions.

I've been reading Peter Gill's new book, : How they turned AIDS into a catastrophe. Gill sets out to fix responsibility for the world's most devastating health crisis -- and the result is a compelling moral anaysis.

There has been a lot of coverage in recent days of the apparently impending change in the Vatican's policy over condoms. That policy is clearly part of the problem, in Gill's analysis, alongside right-wing evangelical attitudes in the United States, and breathtakingly irresponsible decisions by political leaders in both the rich and poor worlds.

Perhaps even more frightening than the historical account of the mismanagement and over-moralising of this crisis is the account of the contemporary misjudgments by religious and political leaders and Gill's description of those whose commercial interests have cost countless lives. Peter Gill is one of my guests next Sunday morning.

A remarkable story in today's about a former monk who is working now as a kind of bounty-hunter, travelling the world on behalf of a US law firm seeking out paedophile priests who have gone to ground.

Now we know. The red bracelet Tony Blair was wearing on his right wrist today during Prime Minister's Question Time was the nada-chhadi, a Hindu sacred (or 'auspicious') thread presented to him on a recent visit to a temple.

The Prime Minister isn't the first Western political to be seen wearing the red thread. Here's Bill Clinton wearing the nada-chhadi back in 2001, when it was tied to his wrist in an ancient ceremony of welcome at Akshardham in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. It's essentially a good luck bracelet which is considered a blessing and an honour when offered to a guest. Prince Philip has also been seen wearing the sacred thread.

Tomorrow's is making merry with it all: Labour's future hanging by a thread. A fairly inevitable headline. Surely someone in the Downing Street communications office could have predicted that one?

on the prime-ministerial wrist caused a bit of a fuss almost exactly a year ago. Remember that? Is the Hindu sacred thread the origin of today's charity bracelets?

The Church of Ireland's meets over three days next week (9-11 May) in Armagh. The ecclesiastical gossips are already speculating about whether this will be the Synod at which announces his retirement -- we had the same speculation last year. (His 69th birthday was last week.) The fact that Robin Eames is scheduled to speak at the Synod service in St Patrick's Cathedral on Tuesday evening has added momentum to the now-annual speculation. But the speculation is, I think, pretty unfounded. Church of Ireland law does not require the Archbishop to tender his resignation until the age of 75. Robin Eames is clearly a very fit 69 year-old, he obviously loves the job, and is now a major player within international Anglicanism. I would be very surprised if he steps down before the next Lambeth Conference (2008). Indeed, if I were a betting man, I'd wager a year's subscription to the on it.

A few of interesting debates to look out for:

(1) The Windsor Report. The Synod's Working Group, set up to respond to the 2004 , will be making a "preliminary report" on Wednesday 10 May. How will they interpret the recent developments in the Episcopal Church (USA), which look (to some) like a climb-down over the consecration of gay bishops? Will the apparent divisions in the House of Bishops over same-sex relationships become an issue for the Synod? And what of those critics who suggest that the Church of Ireland's bishops have not done enough to listen and build pastoral relationships with the gay and lesbian community, notwithstanding their commitments at the last )?

(2) The Drogheda Eucharist on isn't mentioned in the business under consideration at this Synod, but I would be surprised if it doesn't get some comment. Perhaps the natural venue would be on Thursday, when the Synod will discuss the Church's response to the document "Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ". Incidentally, the Sunday Sequence team has received an e-mail from the Reverend Michael Graham, the Church of Ireland rector who took part in that controversial Eucharist. He writes:

I simply want to correct one thing William Crawley said during his interview with Messrs Pierce and Coulter. William described me as "Anglican in the catholic tradition". This is not so - I described myself at the Mass and in subsequent items as: 'A catholic in the Anglican tradition', stressing that the Church of Ireland in the creed states that it is part of the 'one, holy, catholic and apostolic church'.

The distinction will be lost on some of our listeners, I'm sure; but we'll happily set the record straight for Mr Graham -- even though he has consistently turned down our requests for an interview.

(3) Here's a curious one. A Bil to "remove the present prohibition on the funeral service being used for those who have committed suicide [amendment of chapter IX of the Constitution]" will be considered on Tuesday 9 May. I imagine that this out-dated prohibition has been ignored for quite some time, and that the bill merely removes from the books an out-of-date law. I can't imagine that any Church of Ireland rector in recent years has refused a funeral service for someone who ended his or her own life. If you know of a case, I'd be interested to hear about it.

The Independent 's headline story today: Lots of whispered Vatican briefings apparently going on ... preparing the world for a change of policy? The paper was careful to draw the distinction I emphasised on 25 April between a change in the church's general strategy (not likely) and a change in the focused scenario of condoms used in a marriage when one or both of the partners is HIV-positive (increasingly likely).