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Keith Ward is a former atheist who became convinced of God's existence while lecturing in philosophy. He subsequently became a theologian and an ordained Church of England priest, and eventually served as Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University. He's also a Fellow of the British Academy and a prolific author. Richard Holloway's story moves in the reverse direction. Ordained an Anglican priest, he began his writing life by challenging the liberal theologians of his day, later becoming bishop of Edinburgh and primus (or primate) of the Scottish Episcopal Church. He too is a prolific author, and with each book he has written over the past twenty years, Richard Holloway has abandoned one after another of his previously held beliefs. Now in retirement, he describes himself as an agnostic. I invited Keith Ward and Richard Holloway to talk to each other about God, religion and morality. You can listen again to their encounter on the Sunday Sequence website.

I've just been to the press screening of , the story of Phillippe Petit's wire-walk between the twin towers in 1974. It is an extraordinary film; one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. I'm now in a café with , who's reviewing the film with us tomorrow, and Dáithí Murray, who's reviewing the Sunday papers this week. Gareth is part-way through one of his interminably long anecdotes -- a kind of rhetorical high-wire act -- which gives me a free moment to celebrate a remarkable feat of film-making. Listen for the full review with Gareth and Mike Catto.

Update: Gareth doesn't think the words 'interminably' and 'long' do justice to the story he was telling in the café. He also thinks the phrase 'Northern Ireland's best indigenous ' is merited in this post. I've explained that my earlier account of lunch was intentionally ironic. Anyone know where I can buy 200-feet of wire cable?

Also: in the film, Phillippe Petit is seen wearing a tee-shirt featuring New York's Cathedral of . Philippe, who is also a very accomplished writer, is now artist-in-residence at the cathedral, and has devised plays that are performed on the high wire.

The about Sarah Palin, the more curious of her as his running mate appears. She is a former beauty queen (runner up to Miss Alaska and declared Miss Congeniality in her hometown contest). A former 'Christian athlete', she worked for a time as TV sports reporter, then entered city politics, becoming mayor of a town of 9,000 people, before becoming Governor of Alaska, a state with roughly the same population as Greater Belfast. In other words, Sarah Palin has no foreign policy experience, and very little experience of state-wide leadership.

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-- John McCain's surprise running mate -- is Governor of Alaska and a former TV sports pundit. If elected, she will become the first female vice-president in US history. At 44, she brings the McCain-Palin ticket's total age to 116. The Obama-Biden ticket's total age is 112.

: 'It appears there may be nowhere in Co Donegal where someone who is openly an atheist can be buried.'

That's the title of a public lecture to be given by a Church of Ireland rector next month. The Reverend has doctorates in both theology and geo-science. He'll be giving the lecture at St. Bartholomew's Church, Stranmillis Road, Belfast -- where he is rector -- at 1.15 p.m. on Tuesday September 9. I've been sent a copy of Dr Elsdon's summary of the lecture:

'Huge questions have been raised about how evangelical Christians (and others) should handle the biblical text, and especially the opening chapter of Genesis. Interpreting this text literalistically has led Mervyn Storey, Chairman of the NI Assembly Education Committee, to call for creationism to be taught in school science classes alongside mainstream science. In this lecture, Ron Elsdon will draw on the work of scholars such as Dr. Jim Packer, to show that there is a much more considered and fruitful way of handling these controversial verses.The issue has important implications for science and religion education in schools and elsewhere. There are also important implications for how the bible has to be handled in a scientific age, and for how Christians face up to some of the criticisms thrown at their beliefs by people such as Richard Dawkins.'

Incidentally, there was a time (notably the 19th century) when ordination was almost de rigueur for geology. Okay, a slight overstatement, but only slight. from Oxford University's Museum of natural History on the clergyman-geologist William Buckland. Richard Whatley's Elegy for Buckland, at the end of this piece, is particularly good.

Barack Obama's nomination acceptance speech last night was extraordinary -- his best speech since this long campaign began and perhaps his best ever. Watch the speech (with full text). Look out for the American flag pin in his presidential lapel. Red tie, white shirt, blue suit: he was practically draped in the flag.

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Forget the South Beach Diet, and save yourself a small fortune on expensive teeth-whitening. Here's an evangelist who says people lose weight at his meetings when the power of God moves across the room. And that's not all. People have their teeth whitened too. Some leave with gold fillings in their teeth. The evangelist is also a singer and songwriter and he says that people listening to his CD while driving have had to pull off the highway because they have been spiritually transported to heaven (where, incidentally, they experience weight-loss). At his services, he says, heavenly gold dust and on his hands. And sometimes the spiritual 'anointing' is so palpable that heavenly while he plays piano. Even his gift of playing piano was imparted, he says, by the Holy Spirit after a service he attended and career.

No, I'm not making this up. if you don't believe me. His name is (pictured here with his wife Janet), and he is speaking, and presumably , at Belfast's. The service will be in a few minutes' time. It's easy to reach for the the word 'bizarre' when talking about Joshua Mills's claims. So I will. This is as an account of spiritual revival as one is likely to encounter.

I'll leave you to decide whether there's any truth to the claims, or whether it's merely an American evangelist who's found an original entrance into the expanding markets for weight-loss programmes and cosmetic dental work. Incidentally, Joshua's new praise album is called "".

The Elim Christian Centre, you will recall, is the Belfast church that cancelled all its regular services and events a few months ago in order to run healing services every night of the week. Those healing events -- now in their tenth week -- were inspired by the so-called , which is associated with the work of Todd Bentley and Fresh Fire Ministries. Earlier this month, the board of Fresh Fire Ministries on their website explaining that "we have discovered new information revealing that Todd Bentley has entered into an unhealthy relationship on an emotional level with a female member of his staff. In light of this new information and in consultation with his leaders and advisors, Todd Bentley has agreed to step down from his position on the Board of Directors and to refrain from all public ministry for a season to receive counsel in his personal life."

Stay away from Communion. It's .

An update on the nun's pageant. It's been . No, it wasn't divine intervention. The organiser, Father Antonio Rungi, says he has received 'many abusive e-mails' and has concluded that his 'innocent initiative' has been widely misinterpreted. Surely not?

Joe Biden keeps popping up in my in-box too. And today, I got this from Michelle Obama:

"My mom, the girls, and I left home in Chicago and got to Denver yesterday. What a beautiful city! The convention started this morning, and everyone here is getting ready for the big week. All the work you've done is at the heart of what's happening here, and our team filmed a short video to give you a look behind the scenes at the convention center.

Not long after I got that, Barack was back:

"I am so lucky to be married to the woman who delivered that speech last night. Michelle was electrifying, inspiring, and absolutely magnificent. I get a lot of credit for the speech I gave at the 2004 convention -- but I think she may have me beat. You have to see it to believe it. And make sure to forward this email to your friends and family -- they'll want to see it, too. You really don't want to miss this. And I'm not just saying that because she's my wife -- I truly believe it was the best speech of the campaign so far."

The best speech of the entire campaign so far? Now that's quite a claim. Maybe Michelle should be running for president.

This will teach me to sign up for the 3 a.m. vice-presidential email alert. I could always un-subscribe, but then I might miss out on Michelle's path to the White House.

I meant to clip this piece from Mark Vernon, writing in last . He challenges the simple-minded equation, often drawn, between humanism and atheism, and calls on people of faith to embrace humanism too. Listen out for my interview with Mark about his latest book, coming soon on Sunday Sequence. Money quotes:

"It is hard to define humanism. Throughout the 20th century there have really been humanisms - Marxist, pragmatist and existentialist varieties, alongside the atheistic and religious. What they have in common is their anthropocentrism: the celebration of human science, human scholarship, human sentiments. Surely, people of faith should not shy from them today but continue to embrace them?

"Philip Pullman has called on atheists to "not distort or misrepresent" religion. They should look to the best in the tradition, as they look to the best in science and philosophy. Well, people of faith need to respond to that challenge too, and keep their eyes focused on the best. The word "humanism" captures much of that."

A beauty pageant organised by a Catholic priest. You couldn't make it up. Apparently, the idea was suggested by some nuns themselves, and the priest hopes it will change the image of the female religious. I think there's little doubt about that. But precisely how punters voting on pictures of nuns, in an online competition, will change the image of religious life remains to be seen. Doesn't the whole thing sound Father Ted-ish? Or just a tad desperate?

Jay Bakker is the son of a preacher man. That's also the title of the he published eight years ago, at the young age of twenty-five. There was a time when the most interesting thing about Jay Bakker was the story of his bizarre upbringing: he's the son of the disgraced televangelist duo Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. that's not true anymore. His autobiography was subtitled 'My Search for Grace in the Shadows', and Jay Bakker, now 32, has proven that grace, when it is found, is not .

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Should become an Olympic sport in the 2012 London games?

A eucharistic hat-trick. After the PZ Myers story and the story about Joe Biden's attendance at communion, along comes a third story about Catholic communion. The first story is about desecration, the second is about administration; now comes modification. Fr Sean McDonagh, the well-known green theologian, has argued that genetically-modified wheat ''. Fr McDonagh cites a 1994 statement from the then Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: "Special hosts, quibus glutinum ablatum est (from which gluten has been removed), are invalid matter for the celebration of the Eucharist". Does this statement rule out the use of GM wheat in the eucharist?

Parts 2 and 3 of the interview are below the fold.

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Barack Obama plainly believes his choice of Joe Biden as a running mate will complains by an (including Joe Biden) that he lacks foreign policy experience. As Joe Biden famously put it (and his words are already the subject of a Republican attack-ad), 'The presidency is no place for on-the-job training.' Biden will soon be eating his words, or at least re-interpreting his previous criticisms of the man he has now pledged to work with.

There may be other trouble ahead for the Obama-Biden ticket. If elected, would be the in American history. He also has a career-long record of . Even before his selection as a candidate, some Catholic campaign groups were advising Senator Obama to from his veep wish-list.

It was always extremely unlikely that Senator Obama would select a pro-life running mate, and his campaign team considers that the foreign policy benefits of a Biden candidacy outweigh the likely opposition he will attract from pro-life Catholic groups. What kind of flak is Biden likely to face? One might expect, for example, that his attendance at communion will become a public issue in the next view weeks. Biden's own bishop, Michael Saltarelli of Wilmington, Delaware, is on record with his view that pro-choice Catholic politicians should refrain from receiving the Eucharist.

In an interview published earlier this week, the recently-appointed Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, similarly called on Catholic law-makers to 'until they have reformed their lives'. Archbishop , formerly of the American archdiocese of St Louis, was appointed prefect of the Catholic Church's in June.

Did you get the text? Barack Obama as his running mate. Biden knows a thing or two about presidential campaigns -- he has run twice for his party's nomination -- and is one of the most respected foreign policy commentators in Congress. Unlike Obama, he voted for the war in Iraq, but within a year appears to have regretted his support for President Bush and established himself as a critic of the war (and the subsequent troop surge). I still haven't seen a response from Hillary. Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall of one of the Clinton residences this weekend?

While you're pondering that, how long do you think it will be before the McCain team's trawl through the history of Biden Gaffes produces a TV ad with this : "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."

This is in some ways a bizarre story. To say the least. A university professor has outraged Catholics across the United States by calling on the public to send him consecrated communion wafers -- which he . The professor is PZ Myers, who teaches biology at the University of Minnesota Morris.

This is the same professor who was, last March, excluded from a screening of Ben Stein's film at a Mall in Minneapolis. Oddly enough, Dr Myers's guest that evening was permitted to view the film -- none other than the anti-Creationist campaigner Richard Dawkins, who susequently interviewed Myers about the incident.

Last month, Professor Myers announced that he was planning to desecrate communion wafers in protest at calls from America's Catholic League president Bill Donohue that a university student in Florida should face expulsion for removing a consecrated wafer from a Catholic mass at his college.

The student's behaviour angered many Catholics when it was made public in June. But Professor Myers says he was provoked by the incident into a response which has angered even more people. I interviewed PZ Myers this afternoon, and you can hear his account of this curious episode on Sunday morning. He explains that he is committing acts which some will regard as sacrilege as a protest against what he believes is an attack on free speech -- and as a gesture of opposition to religious ideas which he dismisses as 'silly'.

Plainly many of our listeners will find even Professor Myers's descriptions of his acts of desecration deeply offensive. When I put that point to the professor he was undeterred. He believes the debate that has followed his actions across the United States -- about the limits of free speech and the right of individiuals to perform acts regarded by others as 'offensive' -- has justified his decision to act as he has done. He also confirms that he has received some death threats as a consequence of that decision.

Barack Obama is about to name his vice-presidential running mate. Apparently, the announcement will be made by text message to US Democratic leaders and then to the media. Senator Obama is expected to share a stage with his would-be-veep tomorrow, ahead of the Democratic party convention in Denver, which begins on Monday. Interested supporters have signed up for an email and text alert service on the Obama campaign website. Yes -- I couldn't help myself.

They're apparently called 'Americans'. A new report from the reveals that 21 per cent of US atheists believe in God. You figure it out. The survey polled 35,000 people and is likely to prove useful not only to sociologists and other scientists but also to presidential campaign teams. 92 per cent of the US population say they believe in God. Read the religion findings .

I've been reading some of the accounts of Adrian Sudsbury's passing in today's papers. Quite rightly, there is universal praise for this young jounalist's campaigning spirit and his efforts, in his last months, to provoke a debate about how we can save more lives in the future by moving to an opt-out approach to organ donation. It's unfortunate, however, that The Daily Telegraph chose to run with the headline "Sudders the blogger loses cancer fight". Anyone familiar with Sudders's story must know that the word "lose" does not apply in his case. Nor does it apply, in fact, in the story of anyone who dies following a cancer disgnosis. Like many journalists, I've received e-mails over the years from campaign groups asking us to avoid this kind of language when writing about cancer. This is not merely an example of political correctness on their part; it is an effort to overturn a common perception that some people dealing with a cancer diagnosis are winners and some are losers. That perception can place cancer patients under yet more pressure -- a pressure to 'perform', to meet others' expectations.

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ are re-screening Frozen North tonight at 11 p.m. on ´óÏó´«Ã½1 Northern Ireland. This documentary explores the likely impact of climate change on Northern Ireland and investigates, in particular, what might happen if the 'switched off'. This was the first TV documentary I ever presented, and was produced by Natalie Maynes, who later created and produced the very successful Blueprint natural history series which was screened last year. When Frozen North was first screened, just over two years ago, some local commentators complained that the available science did add up to the kind of environmental threat that the programme explores. A lot has happened since then. If anything, the findings of the Nobel prize-winning suggest that the threat is even greater than we realised in 2005, when we made this documentary. In Frozen North, we visit northern Canada to look at a possible future facing Ireland if we continue our current patterns of consumption. It raises very significant questions for our local policy-makers and for each one of us personally. The programme will also be available on the iPlayer.

Few backbench MPs can claim to have influenced the character of modern British society as much as . By sponsoring private member's bills in the 1960s, Abse's efforts (along with others) led to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales and the liberalisation of the UK's divorce laws. Abse has described some of his parliamentary work on his .

I'm surprised that that Rick Warren, the pastor who chaired last weekend's presidential forum, is a Creationist. in conversation with Sam Harris, discussing science and religion. I am, on the other hand, surprised that Rick Warren didn't ask the candidates a question about evolution, given that the subject is so politicised in the US. He asked about abortion, stem cell research, and gay marriage -- all evangelical hot topics -- but he didn't ask the candidates how old they believe the world is or whether they believe intelligent design should have a hearing in the science classrooms of America. We might, more interestingly, ask why this topic did not come up.

Adrian Sudbury, the blogging journalist who campaigned for greater awareness of the vital need for more bone marrow donations during the last months of his life, at his family home. His parents Keith and Kay Sudbury were with him when he died. throughout his treatment for leukaemia and, after that treatment proved unsuccessful, he kept writing the blog until he was unable to write. His friend Liam posted the sad news this morning on Adrian's blog. I've been reading the blog and Keith and Kay are right to feel extraordinarily proud of their young son. Adrian campaigned for greater awareness of blood disease, and called on the government to work harder in schools to recruit more bone marrow donors. A has been opened by Adrian's paper, the Huddersfield Daily Examiner. Perhaps the best way we can all honour Adrian's campaigning spirit is to r, and to begin a serious national debate about whether it is now time to move to an ' scheme across the UK.

Commentators and pundits in the US continue to pick over the performance of both presidential candidates at Saddleback Church. Some view the entire episode as extraordinarily weird. Given that this is the first time the American public got to see both candidates facing the same questions in a live television event, why was the venue a church and why was the moderator a pastor? It perhaps says much about the continuing role of religion in American political life that Pastor Rick Warren is taken so seriously by both campaign teams. Justin Webb wonders why the candidates felt the need to enter the 'evangelical bear-pit' at a time when 'evangelical Christians are a fading force in US politics'.

One possible answer to that question is that the candidates recognise the growing influence of Rick Warren. Warren is no ordinary evangelical. He is the author of one of the world's best-selling books, The Purpose Driven Life, and he has built not only one of America's biggest churches, but is already building a global social justice ministry that has won support from the Bono, Bill Clinton, Billy Graham and many others. (See TIME profile .)

Rick Warren's interviewing style has itself become an issue since the event. Were the questions too spiritual? (An odd question given that he's a pastor, surely?) Did he press Obama more than he pressed McCain? Why didn't he follow-up when the candidates revealed something personal (e.g., McCain's admission that his greatest personal 'moral failing' was his first marriage -- what did he mean by that?) And some Obama supporters now wonder if John McCain was able to hear questions being put to Barack Obama before it was his turn to answer the same questions, since his subsequent answers were punchier, more concise, more interesting, more structured, more colourful, and more illustrated with anecdotes. Few doubt that John McCain had a very good evening at an event that may be seen as the start of the general election campaign after a seemingly endless primary process. Barack Obama's performance was, by comparison, less than inspiring and oddly less confident given that he probably has more reason to feel comfortable a church than John McCain.

, [former] editor of the Catholic magazine 'America', wonders if a Catholic equivalent of the event is even conceivable:

'As a Catholic priest I found the Civic Forum at Saddleback Church a bit weird. I kept wondering what would have been the response if the event had been hosted by Cardinal Francis George in his cathedral in Chicago. (Jewish and Muslim believers might ask the same question about a similar event in their houses of worship.) The public and the media more easily accept political activity by Evangelical clergy than by Catholic clergy. Catholic clergy are held to a higher standard. For example, Pat Robertson and Jesse Jackson can run for president, but imagine what would happen if a Catholic cardinal ran for president. Don't get me wrong. I do not want Catholic clergy publicly getting involved in partisan politics. I am happy that church law and tradition restrict political activity by Catholic clergy. I am happy that we do not let politicians speak in our churches. I just wonder if there is a double standard here.'

How significant is the evangelical Christian vote in this year's US presidential election?

Watch and see. There can be no greater proof of the importance attached to that religious constituency by both Republican and Democratic (presumptive) presidential candidates than the meeting tonight at the Saddleback evangelical megachurch in California. This may be the most influential evangelical church in the United States, and with more than 22,000 attendees every Sunday it is the fourth largest local church of any kind in the US. In tonight's Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency, the church's pastor, Rick Warren, interviews both presidential candidates, individually, in a chat show format, and it's all broadcast live on network television and webcast live. The pastor even cues in TV ad breaks, chat show style, with, "And we'll be right back with Senator John McCain ..."

It's a measure of my commitment to this blog (okay, obsessiveness about US politics) that am now blogging live too while watching John McCain answer questions about his views on the issues that matter to evangelicals: abortion, gay rights, his personal experience of God, what salvation means, whether 'evil' exists and can be defeated, and whether taxes are going to rise.

Senator McCain has now been asked which current Supreme Court justices he would not have nominated if he were president. He has named four out of the current nine justices (including the two justices nominated by President Clinton). We're also hearing his views on home-schooling, faith-based initiatives, and a host of evangelical hot topics. McCain is doing well with this audience, winning a lot of applause, even though he has often seemed to struggle to express his views on faith. In this venue, his answers are speckled with faith terms and he is unafraid to describe himself as a 'Christian' and repeatedly speaks of the 'Judeo-Christian' foundations of America. I haven't seen McCain look this comfortable in quite some time. In fact, one gets a sense from his performance tonight of the task that will face Barack Obama in trying to wrench the evangelical Christian vote from Republican hands.

I missed Senator Obama's interview earlier; but my guess is that he played extremely well in this venue as well. .

Irish folk singer Drew dies at 73:

Singer Ronnie Drew dies after long illness:

I've just returned from a screening of Errol Morris's new documentary , at the Queen's Film Theatre.

Morris's previous documentaries include the Oscar-winning The Fog of War, 'the story of America as seen through the eyes of the former Secretary of Defense, Robert S. McNamara'. Standard Operating Procedure might best be viewed in conversation with that earlier documentary. In this case, the war is not Vietnam, but the second Iraq War. Morris takes us inside Abu Ghraib prison, formerly a centre for the torture and murder of dissidents under Saddam Hussein's regime, and, after the US-led invasion of Iraq, a detention centre in which torture and murder continued to take place.

We've all seen the photographs from Abu Ghraib, which emerged in 2004 -- images that have stained the reputation of the United States. This film tells the story of the photographs: how they were taken, who took them, who was in them, what they depict, how they may be interpreted, and how they have changed the world. It includes explicit images of real torture and graphic re-enactments of prisoners being harshly mistreated. (An irony worth noting: the film features the use by soldiers of Sony cameras in documenting their own crimes, and is distributed by Sony Pictures.)

Why would American military personnel -- some as young as twenty, others in their mid-thirties -- engage in acts of brutality, torture, sexual humiliation and sometimes murder? Why did they believe what they were doing was, in some sense, 'justified' by the context in which they operated? Morris does not mention the , but the parallels with that psychological experiment and Abu Ghraib have already been much explored. The film permits us to 'meet' many of those who tortured Iraqi detainees: we hear them describe what they did, and why they did it. To that extent alone, this film is of enormous historical value. It is valuable for other reasons as well. It throws more light, as it were, on the shadowy corners of intelligence-gathering operations and raises questions about the supposed efficacy of torture -- or even 'softening-up techniques' -- as a means to an end. In one scene, a US general argues that Abu Ghraib produced no useful intelligence at all. The arrest of Saddam Hussein, for example, came as a result of intelligence gathering by ordinary soldiers on the ground.

The film includes previously unseen, and deeply disturbing, footage from the prison, and invites the viewer to make various connections that explain -- without justifying -- the behaviour of US soldiers. Factors such as gender play a very significant role, as female soldiers try to prove to their male counterparts that they are their equal, and some male soldiers use sexual humiliation to flirt and seduce female soldiers. Age is also significant, as older and more experienced soldiers exploit the ignorance and nervousness of younger soldiers. Social class membership, too, is everywhere evident as a factor uniting the soldiers in the prison. These are not highly-educated soldiers: even when they write abusive slogans on the bodies of prisoners, they misspell words like 'rapist'. We also witness the exploitation of cultural and religious sensitivities, with Iraqi prisoners stripped naked before being 'interrogated' by female soldiers.

What seems to me a missing link in an otherwise extraordinary film is the connection between those low-rank soldiers subsequently prosecuted for abuses and higher-rank military and political leaders. The film does not follow the to the Pentagon or the White House. Which directives from Donald Rumsfeld and other senior Bush Administration officials ultimately created the conditions that made Abu Ghraib possible? How were government law officers involved in legitimizing the use of torture techniques as a means to an end in the context of war?

On tomorrow's Sunday Sequence, I'll be discussing Standard Operating Procedure with a human rights campaigner, a theologian, and a lawyer: Fiona Smith from Amnesty International, Dr David Tombs from Trinity College Dublin, and John Larkin QC.

The Catholic archdiocese of Chicago has agreed to sixteen victims and survivors of sexual abuse by eleven priests, and the Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago, Francis George, has made public the text of his sworn deposition. (Full text .)The Chicago Tribune story begins bluntly, but accurately: 'The sexual abuse of children happened on his watch.' To date, the archdiocese of Chicago has paid our more than $77 million in settlements to more than 250 victims and survivors.

Last November, Cardinal George was elected president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, so the disclosure of a sworn deposition by so senior a prelate represents a very significant gesture towards the kind of openness many victims groups have been calling for. The details of previous settlements have been sealed.

Nevertheless, what emerges in this 305-page transcript is a pattern of crisis mismanagement, failure to act and sometimes an attempted cover-up. The archdiocese's vicar for priests, Fr Edward Grace, a qualified lawyer, even coached clergy to deny allegations.

At 84 years old, Mohammed Bello Abubakar has finally given up on the marrying business. The Nigerian former teacher has 86 wives and 170 children. The wives, many of them younger than his children, believe their husband has miraculous healing powers and is next in line to the Prophet Mohammed. Their local imam regards the 'prophet' as a 'heretic' because he claims to converse -- 'in the Spirit', as it were -- with Mohammed. There's something of a mystery here, beyond the theological dimensions to this story. As s, no-one is quite sure how Mr Bello Abubakar is able to afford so many wives.

Polygamy remains a controversial issue within Islam. Some ultra-Orthodox Islamic teachers claim that a man is permitted up to four wives; others argue that polygamy made sense only in the tribal-world of 1400 years ago. Some point to the Prophet Mohammed's wives as a defense of polygamy. Even this is disputed, though. Some Koranic scholars today point out that the Prophet Mohammed only married Aishah after the death of his first wife Khadijah, and his other wives were either divorcees or widows and these marriages had more to do with establishing political and tribal alliances (or, arguably, offering refuge in a world that would have abandoned those women) rather than fulfilling sexual needs.

On today's Sunday Sequence, I talked to Daniel Schweimler, our Latin America correspondent, about an adventurous new experiment in prison reform. Christ the Only Hope Prison in Argentina is populated entirely by evangelical Christian inmates who say they have experienced a religious conversion within the Argentine prison service. You can see Daniel's news report . My guests were the Bristol University Law lecturer , who has researched faith-based prison units, and Keith Porteous Wood from the National Secular Society who is opposed to any effort to advance the place of religion in prisons. In the Argentine experiment, child sex offenders are housed as part of the general prison population, because the other prisoners are considered unlikely to target them. Would the idea work in Britain or Ireland?

"It's ridiculous. I must be a heck of a writer to produce a pornographic book without sex scenes. My book is as realistic a portrayal as I could muster of the prophet Muhammed's harem and his domestic life. Of course it has sexuality, but there is no sex."

Sherry Jones, whose first book The Jewel of the Medina, was to have been released on Monday. But her publishers have withdrawn the book -- a romantic novel based on the life Hazrat Aisha, the child bride of the prophet Muhammed -- has been withdrawn because its publisher, a division of Random House, feared the book

We can now expect some debate in the media about the age of Aisha (sometimes known as Aishah or ) when she married the Prophet. One theory is that Mohammed became betrothed to Aisha when she was nine or ten years old but their wedding did not take place until she was fourteen or fifteen years old.

Letters written by Rowan Williams in the year 2000, three years before he became Archbishop of Canterbury, have emerged to throw more light on the ABC's views on homosexuality. They tell us precisely what we already knew: that Rowan Williams, prior to the beginning of his tenure as head of the Anglican Communion, had moved away from the traditional condemnatory position on same-sex relationships. Ruth Gledhill has written a nice piece placing the letters in context ( and ) and you can see scanned copies of the letters themselves .

All would-be presidents try to court the Irish-American vote, and being able to provide evidence of Irish roots is de rigueur in that campaign. But few could have expected that America's first black (presumptive) presidential candidate .

At the West Belfast Talks Back event tonight, which I chaired, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness revealed that it was he who proposed to the DUP that both parties should not nominate a justice minister, and that the post should be filled by the Assembly on a cross-community basis. He also explained that it was his idea that there should be one combined policing and justice portfolio, rather than two new departments.

Following that the British and Irish governments have requested an assessment from the IMC on the status of the IRA Army Council, Nelson McCausland of the DUP told the meeting he believed the IRA Army Council was still in existence.

Following my interview with Richard Dawkins on yesterday's Talk Back, the chairman of the Northern Ireland Assembly's Education Committee has called for biblical creationism to be taught in schools here. that he would personally favour the removal of evolution from the curriculum altogether. Yet, when the Talk Back programme contacted Mr Storey today, he declined our invitation to be interviewed about his views on-air. Instead, Paul Taylor, from the creationist organisation Answers in Genesis, defended creationism in Mr Storey's absence. On the other hand, Paul Taylor did tell me that he couldn't agree with banning evolution in schools; he argues that evolution should be taught but that creationism should also be explained to children alongside the consensus science position on human origins. Our phone lines were again buzzing with controversy for the entirety of the programme.

Marking the launch, last night, of his new series, The Genius of Charles Darwin, Richard Dawkins was my guest at the top of the programme today. We were inundated with callers, text messages and emails in response to his visit. And Richard was very generous with his time, talking to our callers for about 20 minutes, answering questions on everything from the mars mission to the myth of Darwin's death-bed conversion. A surprising number of people simply wanted to call and say how much they enjoyed his new series. Quite a few texters wanted to know where the 'primordial soup' came from. Or, more accurately, 'who made the soup?' By this point, Richard Dawkins was so into his flow that I fully expected him to give out the recipe live on-air.

I arrived back in Belfast last night, after a delayed flight from Gatwick, in time to present Talk Back today (I'll be sitting in for David Dunlseith all week). Phone-in shows are always unpredictable. You start with a story that ticks all the journalistic boxes -- it's a live, of-the-moment story that's developing and has, prima facie, great public interest. Then you watch while another story, lower down the running order, triggers a small avalanche of calls and comments from listeners. This is what happened today. We began with a debate about the Beijing Games, then I interviewed a caller about his frustration with postmen who drop red rubber bands in his garden. We couldn't keep up with the reaction to the rubber band story.

Then, since it was the Monday following this year's Pride parade, we interviewed a Christian minister who marched on the parade in support of gay rights. The Rev Chris Hudson is minister of in south Belfast. He came into the news studio to speak passionately about his support for Northern Ireland's LGBT community, and to respond to criticism from more conservative Christians. One text to the programme read: 'I don't go to church, but I'd go to Chris Hudson's church.' Other texts and calls challenges his Christian credentials on the basis of his stand on gay rights. We reported on the unprecedented attendance at this year's Pride parade of local politicians, including Basil McCrea of the Ulster Unionist Party. The only party not respresented on the parade was the DUP. Has Northern Ireland politics just reached a tipping point on the issue of gay rights, with local politicians now willing to walk in a gay pride procession? Will we see more politicians on the parade next year? And what of church leaders: will they join the ranks of politicians and human rights groups -- such as Amnesty International, which brought a very large group of supporters and well-wishers to the parade -- in walking next year? Needless to say, our phone-in audience was divided on these and other questions.

My favourite moment in the debate was when we had a call from one of the conservative protestors who demonstrate each year outside City Hall during the parade. The lady explained why she felt it was important to join the religious protest, and another caller challenged her claim that 'homosexuality is a abomination'. The caller mentioned the Old Testament's ban on the eating of shellfish (also an 'abomination' according to the text), and the conservative protestor replied, 'The shellfish is a red herring'. Priceless.

I fully expect to get through tomorrow's programme without any items dealing with sexuality -- or crustaceans. I can't promise that red rubber bands won't make an appearance, though.

My colleague John Benson has kindly provided me with this picture of the Big Top, where all the Lambeth plenary sessions were held in secret. We broadcast our special edition of Sunday Sequence from Canterbury this morning, and we're just about to leave for the airport. The programme went pretty well, with some excellent contributors. The final 'bishop count': 11 bishops on the programme!

At previous Lambeth Conferences, the plenary sessions were held in public and the press were permitted to enter and report. Most of the press at this Lambeth are reporting the reporting restrictions. Frankly, it was easier to report on the progess of the Northern Ireland peace negotiations.

Ruth Gledhill, religion correspondent for The Times, was one of my guests on today's Sunday Sequence and made the observation that each Lambeth Conference seems to reflect the personality of the presiding Archbishop of Canterbury. This Lambeth was characterised by worship, prayer, spirituality, quietness, careful exposition and patient listening -- much like Rowan Williams's personality. George Carey's 1998 Conference was characterised by evangelical gusto, and the 1988 Conference was 'middle of the fence', just like Robert Runcie.

It's the penultimate evening of Lambeth 2008, and I can report that I nearly made it inside the Big Top. The Big Top, for those unfamiliar with the architecture of this Lambeth Conference, is the enormous blue circus tent that houses the main meetings. (I know, you couldn't make it up.)

My colleague Bert Tosh told me he had seen inside the tent, in the company of a primate who shall remain anonymous, so I chanced my hand again. Evening worship had just finished, and the tent was empty except for a few technical staff. So I walked inside the security barrier which surrounds the big circus tent, in the company of the good Dr Tosh, and casually dandered towards the open door. I got within thirty feet of the front door when security pounced. I suggested to the two security officers (suitably gender-balanced) that I might be escorted by them to the edge of the open tent door, just to have a quick ("10-second") look inside the Big Top. Alas, security staff told me there could be "no exceptions" and escorted me back to the temporary security barrier.

As we walked away, Bert Tosh lit his pipe and appeared to grin with some satisfaction. "I did tell you you wouldn't be allowed in," he said. "How did you get in?" I asked. His smile widened and the smoke plumed behind his head.

Afterwards, Bert and I had a very pleasant drink in the company of five Irish bishops and their spouses (and, yes, it's all off the record), and then returned to meet the indispensable John Benson who was finishing last-minute edits for tomorrow's programme. It's past 8 o'clock now and I think we're in pretty good shape for our special edition of Sunday Sequence at 8.30 am tomorrow. Our studio is in The Missing Link building, adjacent to Darwin College (our media base, pictured), which is about a hundred yards from the elusive Big Top.

In an interview published yesterday on his diocesan website, Bishop Harold Miller speaks about the Anglican Communion's need to weather the storm over divisive issues such as homosexuality. 'Our situation is that we either face the storm here, addressing the difficulties in the next two days or find the storm ahead when we have returned home. I don't think the difficulties will go away.' Full interview .

Harold Miller is a well-known evangelical bishop within the Church of Ireland. He has emerged in recent months as perhaps the best-known conservative voice (on the current crisis facing Anglicanism) within the Church of Ireland's House of Bishops. Bishop Ken Clarke and Bishop Ken Good appear to share Harold Miller's conservative position on 'Windsor issues', but they have been less vocal, as yet, in public debates. Ken Good has won plaudits from some secular gay campaign groups for his willingness to meet and talk about his personal views on homosexuality.

While the Archbishop of Armagh has been meeting with his fellow bishops in Canterbury, some of his own clergy have gone into bring back in Northern Ireland to question the leadership he has offered on the issue of homosexuality that is dividing the Anglican Communion. The Evangelical Fellowship of Irish Clergy say they are 'saddened that one who is to protect the faith . . . should so confuse, hurt and divide the people of God.' The criticism is contained in a letter published . The group is concerned about the primate's recent speech to a mission society in which he said that new scientific evidence about human sexuality may, in the future, require the church to revise its traditional understanding of same-sex relationships. It would have to be said, from the vantage point of this Lambeth Conference, that the archbishop's rather carefully-delivered (and sometimes inaccurately-reported) comments would not cause much commotion amongst his episcopal colleagues here, but they have prompted what may be an unprecedented public attack from some conservative Anglican clergy in Ireland.

Archbishop Harper has, today, released this 'response to criticism':

In response to the letter from the Evangelical Fellowship of Irish Clergy (EFIC) carried in today's Newsletter (2/8/08) and its accompanying article in the same newspaper, the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, the Most Revd Alan Harper, refers to the Pastoral Letter from the House of Bishops of the Church of Ireland (September 2003). It both affirms the centrality and authority of the Scriptures for all Christian discourse and sets out the range of views on human sexuality held within the Church of Ireland. The Archbishop absolutely affirms that the Scriptures contain all things necessary for salvation. The bishops' letter also encourages an attitude of respect for one another and indicates that the Church is in a period of active listening on the issue of human sexuality. The Church of Ireland is an autonomous Province of the Anglican Communion and has established and official channels through which clergy and laity can communicate their views, which are equally open to the members of the EFIC. The Church encourages open dialogue.

The Archbishop recognizes that the views expressed in the published letter represent a stance amongst some clergy of the Church of Ireland; however, reminds church members of the spectrum of positions held on same-sex relationships. The Archbishop's address to the USPG Conference on 4 July sought to draw attention to the established principles within Anglicanism of using scripture, tradition and reason in coming to agreed understandings. The Church of Ireland does not have any provision for the blessing of same-sex relationships and it defines marriage as between one man and one woman.

The Archbishop regrets the absence of a significant number of bishops who attended the GAFCON conference from the current Lambeth Conference and assures them that their views have been considered there and that they are remembered in prayer daily.

Archbishop Paul Kwong has asked for 'sacrifice'. was ordained in 1942, the first women priest in the Anglican Communion, but her ordination in Hong Kong was later revoked because other provinces had not moved as speedily to the ordination of women. He says other provinces in the communion today need to be willing to sacrifice for the sake of the communion as a whole. He doesn't specifically mention the American Episcopal Church, but that's clearly in his mind. He is essentially suggesting that though the American church has the 'right' to do what it wants in its own jurisdiction (he accepts this point explicitly), the American province might consider it appropriate to set aside their rights, in the matter of gay consecrations, in order to maintain the unity of the communion. This would mean accepting a moratorium on such consecrations, perhaps in the context of a new covenant specifying that commitment.

Bishop Jenkins: 'It is possible to make a sacrifice without selling out.'

Archbishop Paul has been asked by an Integrity reporter if his proposal amounts to the sacrificing of LGBT Christians. He says more conversations will need to happen. Bishop Jenkins says he is greatly perplexed by finding a path for Communion to progress without others being hurt.

Philip Aspinall says that some people may be more prepared to accept the idea of a moratorium on gay consecrations if a communion-wide theological commission was established to pursue the key theological questions about sexuality. In other words, a moratorium would not represent the end of the journey. He says the greatest area of disagreement in respect of the covenant process has to do with the procedural appendix (in other words, legislative implications).

I'm blogging live again from the mid-day press conference at Lambeth. The chair is the Lambeth Conference official spokesperson, the Archbishop of Brisbane, Dr Philip Aspinall. Also on stage is Archbishop Paul of Hong Kong, Bishop Charles of Louisiana, and Margaret Sentamu, wife of the Archbishop of York.

The bishops have spent the day exploring the Windsor process. Proposals from the Windsor Continuation Group about moratoria (on gay consecrations, same-sex blessings, and cross-jurisdictional incursions), the pastoral forum, and the future development of the Windsor instruments of communion, have all been discussed. Widely different views were expressed on all these issues within indaba groups. "How it all shakes down remains to be seen". At 5pm today, a draft of the final reflection document will be released.

Archbishop Paul Kwong is plainly frustrated by some of this process. He says he wishes there was more time to speak directly about the actions that have caused concern to many bishops. 'We've been beating about the bush', he said. He would like to see concrete proposals and suggestions cming out of this conference rather than merely 'talking about things we've been talking about for years'. 'We need something concrete -- some action -- to be taken.'

Bishop Jenkins says the Pentecostal miracle of universal intelligibility is being witnessed through the indaba process. People are listening to each other. 'There is a commitment to share a common faith even with those with whom we disagree. That's a New Testament value and something of a miracle.'

An early start today. We recorded a conversation about Anglican identity with two bishops: Archbishop Ian Ernest, chair of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa, and Bishop Colin Johnson form the Diocese of Toronto. Henry Orombi's broadside against the Archbishop of Canterbury was also on the agenda. A key question for the future of Anglicanism is whether the See of Canterbury will continue to have its current defining role. What would a post-Canterbury Anglicanism look like?

After recording the discussion, I had breakfast with producer Bert Tosh and John Benson, our sound supervisor, in the Origins cafe at Darwin College. Add 'Origins' to the growing list of buildings and locations in need of hermeneutical analysis as key clues to the Anglican debate. And while you're at it, I note here the presence on campus of a building named after , who helped to lead the British forces in the American War of Independence. Cornwallis was a future Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and governor-general of India.

Back to the programme. We've been here since Wednesday recording packages, doing interviews, and setting up guests for tomorrow's special edition of Sunday Sequence. My interview with Gene Robinson will lead after the 9 o'clock news, and at this stage we're planning to open the programme in the open air outside a significant building. That may be Canterbury Cathedral, in which case we may even be able to hear some bells. We'll have reports from the marketplace, meet some of the bloggers who have been writing up their experiences online, and narrate the key events that have brought the Anglican Communion to this Lambeth Conference. We've also planned a big discussion featuring some key players in the debate, both from the United States and Ireland. Bert and John are in the other room, making final edits of reports for tomorrow.

The Conference officially ends tomorrow. Rowan Williams will give his final presidential address at 3.30 pm, followed by a short press conference, then participants will make there way to the Cathedral for the final service.

As I mentioned in an earlier post from a press conference, the Archbishop of Uganda, Henry Orombi, writing in today's Times, accused the Archbishop of Canterbury of betrayal and suggested that the pivotal role of the See of Canterbury is a remnant of colonialism.

Money quote (1): 'Anglicans may say there are four "Instruments of Communion," (the Archbishop of Canterbury; the Lambeth Conference; the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates' Meeting). But de facto, there is only one - the Archbishop of Canterbury. The peculiar thing is that this one man, who is at the centre of the communion's structures, is not even elected by his peers. Even the Pope is elected by his peers, but what Anglicans have is a man appointed by a secular government. Over the past five years, we have come to see this as a remnant of British colonialism, and it is not serving us well. The spiritual leadership of a global communion of independent and autonomous provinces should not be reduced to one man appointed by a secular government.

Money quote (2): 'How can we go to Holy Communion, sit in Bible study groups, and share meals together, pretending that everything is OK?, that we are still in fellowship with the persistent violators of biblical teaching and of Lambeth resolutions? The Bible says: "Can two walk together unless they are agreed?" The Archbishop of Canterbury has asked us to "wait for each other". But how is it possible when we are not travelling in the same direction?'

Full text of article .

An English translation of Cardinal Walter Kasper's address this Lambeth Conference is included below the fold. The cardinal, who is president of the pontifical council for promoting Christian unity, spoke of widening divisions between the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church following the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate, and the ordination of a partnered gay bishop. Full text .

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In short, there wasn't one. Those expecting this Lambeth Conference to be the ecclesiastical equivalent of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corall will have to revise their historical analogies. It's a long way from Tombstone in Arizona, to Canterbury in Kent. Instead, many bishops have talked about a sense of purposeful peace as they have met in groups for Bible study, conversation and exploration. A cynic might point out that more than 200 bishops have boycotted the conference, and that's why there's an atmosphere of peace: if they were here, they would be expressing anger at recent developments in Anglicanism. There are, of course, conservative bishops in attendance at Lambeth, including traditionalist bishops such as Ian Ernest, who is Bishop of Mauritius, Archbishop of the Indian Ocean, and chairman of CAPA (the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa), and other leaders from the Anglican grouping. Walking around the campus, I've noticed many of the most famous figures in the Anglican culture war having coffee and walking to one gathering or another. Today I saw Gregory Venables in a coffee shop, and walked past a smiling Katherine Jefferts Shori on her way to the Big Top (the circus tent that is housing the main worship sessions and plenary events). Is it just a calm before the next storm?

That's the name of a beer in these parts. It's also the name of the pub next door to the hotel Gene Robinson stayed in before he left Canterbury this afternoon. I met him in the courtyard of the hotel and found he had quite an entourage, including an American camera crew who are following him for a year while filming a long-format documentary about his life for network television in the US. They even filmed my interview with the bishop, which turned out to be the very last interview he gave before leaving the Lambeth Conference. Terry, the bishop's bodyguard, was also there, but I think he worked out fairly quickly that I wasn't too much of a threat. I asked Bishop Gene if he'd any regrets about visiting the conference from which he had been excluded, and he was absolutely convinced it was the right thing to do. Print journalists have been telling me how relieved they were that the bishop attended because, first, he was a great story to report, and, second, he was one of the few bishops prepared to talk to the media. At the end of the interview, the bishop gave me a Diocese of New Hampshire pencil, which I will add to my Sunday Sequence trophy wall.

Before the interview, while seated in the courtyard, I noticed a ring on the wedding finger of the bishop's left hand. 'Is that your wedding ring?' I asked. 'That's my civil partnership ring,' he replied. 'We'd call it a wedding ring if they'd let us have a wedding.'