In this talk, first given at the annual Orthodox pilgrimage to the monastery of Barking, England, Fr Alexander Tefft examines the long history of Barking Abbey, a monastery that played an important role in the life of the English Church. He describes the saints connected with the abbey, and poses the question: for Orthodox Christians, living in an increasingly multi-ethnic society, what is the real England?

This book is the first exploration of the remarkable odyssey of Thomas Aquinas in the Orthodox Christian world, from the Byzantine to the modern era. Aquinas was received with astonishing enthusiasm across the Byzantine theological spectrum. By contrast, modern Orthodox readings of Aquinas have been resoundingly negative, routinely presenting Aquinas as the archetype of as a specifically Western form of theology against which the Orthodox East must set its face. Basing itself primarily on a close study of the Byzantine reception of Thomas, this study rejects such hackneyed dichotomies, arguing instead for a properly catholic or universal construal of Orthodoxy – one in which Thomas might once again find a place.

In this essay, written as a submission to the Theological Committee of the Episcopal Assembly of Orthodox Bishops for Great Britain and Ireland, Fr Gregory Hallam examines the role of the diaconate in the Orthodox Church today in the light of its historical development, and calls for its renewal for the benefit of the Church and the world. Fr Gregory is Dean of the Antiochian Orthodox Deanery of the United Kingdom and Ireland.

SYRIA: Sustaining faith amid the fighting

The Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, has sent a congratulatory message to Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, spiritual father of the Community of St. Egidio, on the occasion of his appointment as President of the Pontifical Council for the Family and elevation to the rank of archbishop. Below is the text of the message.

BEAUTY IN THE WORD, published by Angelico Press, offers a new Catholic philosophy of education, completing the retrieval of the seven liberal arts begun in Beauty for Truth's Sake by examining the language arts, the "Trivium", which Dorothy L. Sayers made the basis of Classical Education in her famous essay, "The Lost Tools of Learning". But this book tries to go further than Sayers.

Taking the theme of learning as central to the responsible practice of interfaith dialogue, Michael Barnes discusses a Christian spirituality which builds on virtues of hospitality and the welcoming of other traditions, whilst maintaining the importance of difference and particularity in the search for meaning. Each chapter explores how faith grows as a person crosses a threshold into another religious world and learns sensitivity to echoes of the known in the unknown.

A series of books by Cardinal Aloys Grillmeier, “Christ in Christian Tradition” is a classic of patrology without which work on sources from the 2nd - 6th centuries would be inconceivable today.The tasks of the research project are discussed by its current head, Theresia Hainthaler, Honorary Professor at the Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology (Frankfurt am Main, Germany).

The well-known Spanish theologian and historian, Juan Jose Tamayo, has published a new study containing his views on the place of religion in the context of contemporary culture, writes ReligionDigital.com.

The well-known Spanish theologian and historian, Juan Jose Tamayo, has published a new study containing his views on the place of religion in the context of contemporary culture, writes ReligionDigital.com.