Easter
There was Easter but no truce on Ukraine’s frontline
Kramatorsk, Donetsk region In a wooden Greek-Catholic church on the frontline of a warzone, encircled by red tulips and military…
Francis and the Vatican reckoning
Modern popes, for better or for worse, tend to be defined in soundbites. John Paul II’s clarion call of ‘Be…
Lamb is for life, not just for Easter
Roast lamb is as expected on the Easter table as turkey is at Christmas. But as a nation, we are…
Spare us from performative piety
Lent did not, I confess, start well. Cheltenham fell in its first week, and the Gold Cup is hardly the…
The Easter story reminds us of the importance of truth
Live not by lies, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn warned the West half a century ago, but we have hardly heeded him since.…
The world reveres British music
I have just returned from the lovely Italian city of Rimini, where 300 local singers had gathered for a weekend…
High life
I celebrate two Easters every year, the Catholic one and the Orthodox one, which means I get very drunk on…
Diary
This week has been Passiontide, which means lots of wonderful plainsong in the choir of Canterbury Cathedral as my predecessors…
Easter traditions from around the world
You know where you are with Christmas. Trees, carols, nativity plays, holly and ivy, presents, mince pies, crackers, Dickens, It’s…
A creature of habits
Along with many other people, I gave up drinking for the month of January and then resumed with gusto on…
Physicist’s notebook
Spring is coming. There was snow in the garden till last week, here in Canada, where I have been spending…
Barometer
Mounting losses The England football team beat San Marino 5-0, taking to 56 the number of competitive games that the…
Sacrifice and resurrection
I cannot remember a prettier Easter, or a more frustrating one. This was no time to be in town. But…
Letters
Divine works Sir: Luke Coppen writes that livestreamed services ‘lack the vital communal dimension of worship’ and ‘are, at times,…
Like a prayer
In the autumn of 1632, a man called Kaspar Schisler returned home to the small Bavarian town of Oberammergau. He…
Letters
Is ‘the Science’ scientific? Sir: I hope that those in the highest places will have read and will act upon…
Eating Easter
Stop the clocks: Fortnum & Mason is still delivering hampers. I am not surprised, because this shop — or rather…
My friend’s death taught me what Easter really means
The bravest thing I’ve ever seen was 93-year-old Albert’s decision to die and the days after in which he stuck…
Whitby Abbey is at the heart of Britain’s spiritual and literary history
The 199 steps up to the ruins of Whitby Abbey are a pilgrimage; they always have been. And any good…
The loveliest episode of Holy Week – Christ rises from the potting shed
In Nicolas Poussin’s ‘Noli Me Tangere’ (1653) Christ stands with his heel on a spade. He appears, in his rough…
Spectator’s Notes
Why have David Cameron and George Osborne overreached? Why are so many in their own party no longer disposed to…
Diary
Quarrelling about the date of Easter has been a Christian pastime for centuries. The chief bone of contention is whether…
