'Spiritrestoration'

Forgiveness is becoming a live issue in the British media, though sometimes alternating between marvel at the act and ridicule of it.

Jim Houck of Baltimore is a 100 years old. A great achievement. But he is far prouder of another statistic – 71 years without a drink.

At what age do you recognize and accept a calling in life? I have met a man whose experience suggests that you are never too old.

It is one thing – and a good thing – to give your life to God so that your problems can be sorted out. It is quite a different thing, however, to give your life to God to work towards establishing his authority in the power structures of your country.

'Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future' go the words of a song written by an Australian friend of mine, David Mills. They underline the idea that none of us is excluded from a full part in God's plan.

On a grey June day in 1941 the British troopship Anselm set sail from Liverpool en route to the Gold Coast in West Africa . It was at the height of the submarine war. But the Anselm, because of engine trouble, had missed its convoy and was travelling alone. On board were 1300 Allied airmen. At 5 am on July 5th the Anselm was hit by two torpedoes amidships. She sank in 22 minutes. And that might have been the end of the story. Except that in the months and years that followed survivors began to tell of the heroism of an air force chaplain.

Tom Brokaw’s best seller, The Greatest Generation, is about the veterans of World War II. Returning with some of them to the Normandy beaches, the NBC anchor found himself grateful for all they had done and realized he had failed to appreciate what they had been through and accomplished. He describes them as a generation of towering achievement and modest demeanour and says that for many the war years were enough adventure to last a lifetime.

In May 1937 the largest aircraft ever built, the dirigible Hindenburg, collapsed slowly in flames as it was mooring at Lakehurst, NJ. The radio commentator, observing the people below trying to run for their lives, was so moved the only words he could stammer out at one moment were ‘Oh, the humanity’. Thirty-five people died in the flames.

One of the most important issues facing the world could be how the Christian and Muslim worlds can live and work together without compromising the claims of their faith. I notice that the Archbishop of Canterbury is wrestling with this question.

Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia has taken an extraordinary and bold step that is reverberating round his country. It addresses a vital issue, the relations between the churches in his country threatened with division.