Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG

The deadliest of them all

Which for you is the deadliest of them all? For me it is not gluttony, which is why I can cradle this enormous chunk of pure chocolate, christened the Absolution Bar, and then give it away to my colleagues and the newsdesk. See our faith page for the latest on the Pope and the Seven Deadly Sins. I agree with Kieran Proffer in today's letters page, that the 'capital vices', as the seven deadlies are known, are actually the root causes of sinful behaviours on which the Pope has now enlarged. 

A measure of God

However God is defined, fewer Americans are believing. The Pew Forum's groundbreaking report, which we cover today, shows a surprising decline in religious affiliation in this most God-fearing nation of all. God is on the public agenda here too. Britain's Charity Commission will tomorrow publish its consultation on religious charities. Religious charities will have to prove public benefit to justify their charitable status. But the Commission is also looking at how to define what followers or adherents of a religion must believe in. Clearly what we need in Britain is a US-style   God-o-Meter that could help the Commission with this eternal problem. The meter is currently looking at how Barack Obama is winning the faith vote. We must get one of these metrical devices for our own faith page! Today, Prince Harry would come out on top. I've no idea what his beliefs are, but he surely is showing 'divine principle' in action in taking on the Taliban in Afghanistan, a story broken today by America's Drudge Report.

For the love of money

As we report, an unfinished community centre for use by Muslims has become a rat-infested eyesore, shunned by the people it was intended to serve because it was funded by a Muslim lottery winner.  This story came to us from a newsagency via the AsianImage website.

The skeletal framework of the community centre in the Bastwell area of Blackburn, Lancashire, has been rotting and abandoned for eight years after a £300,000 donation from Britain’s first lottery millionaire.

Mukhtar Mohidin, from Blackburn, won £17.9 million in 1994. But his attempts to give something back to his community have proved fruitless, after a dispute broke out among local Muslims, who said that the centre had been built using “filthy money” because Islam does not allow gambling.

'The First Supper'

Needing some sustenance for the soul, I decided to hold a dinner party. Somehow, within a few hours I had invited 12, all good friends and true. There was just one problem. I can't cook. I was sitting at my desk, praying about it, as one does, when a pressrelease landed in my inbox. It described how Father Stuart Lee, Vicar of St Matthew's in Raynes Park, Wimbledon had given away £1,600 to his congregation, £20 to each, with a sermon on the Parable of the Talents. Each one had to go forth and multiply the cash. I asked him what he was doing with his £20. He was hiring himself out as a cook. 'Come and do my dinner party,' I begged. And even though this was the busiest time of the liturgical calendar, with his Anglo-Catholic parish just going into Holy Week, he agreed, on condition that he could bring a sous-chef. That was how he and Father Martin Powell, vicar of St Edward's, New Addington in Croydon, ended up in my kitchen on Saturday night. When the guests arrived, each one speechless to find two kosher clergy cooking in my kitchen, I introduced them as 'my trusted servants'. It was such unadulterated fun. Father Stuart is on the right in the picture. Photo by Sylvan Mason.

Times editor speaks on Red Cross appeal

Exclusive interviews with Robert Thomson on the reasons behind The Times' Christmas charity appeal with the  Red Cross.

See more below.

Bid for lunch with Lord Carey in The Times Christmas charity appeal

Lunch with Lord Carey and his wife Eileen, along with the chance to blog as a guest on my blog, is one of the offers up for auction as part of The Times Red Cross Christmas charity appeal. Here, Times editor Robert Thomson explains why he would bid for the chance of an enlightening talk with the former Archbishop of Canterbury on life, death, judgment and other eschatological issues.