Nicholas Baines

LATEST ARTICLES ( 612 )

• Debate in Public Life

  This is the text of a speech just given in the House of Lords. I dropped material covered already by others (I was the ninth speaker and there was a speech limi... Read more

  Posted on 09 May 2019 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Tradition

  This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme:When the news of the royal birth was announced yesterday part of the... Read more

  Posted on 07 May 2019 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Dancing in the Dark

  This is the script of this morning’s Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2’s Zoe Ball Show:I’ve just been away for three months on study leave. Read more

  Posted on 25 April 2019 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Maundy Thursday and Vocation

  This is the basic text of my sermon at this morning’s Chrism Eucharist in Ripon Cathedral:Never ever take your vocation – to lay or ordained discipleship and... Read more

  Posted on 18 April 2019 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Sabbatical Stuff

  

  I am currently on my first (and last) sabbatical leave. A week in Sudan was followed by just over two weeks in Jena (Germany) and a week in Basel (Switzerland). Read more

  Posted on 16 March 2019 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• History Repeating

  

  The limits of one’s own horizons and experience always become exposed when seen through the eyes of an outsider. Since being in Jena for the last two weeks, I... Read more

  Posted on 16 February 2019 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Betrayal

  

  This evening I am going to listen to a lecture at the Theologische Fakultät of the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität in Jena where I am staying for two weeks. Read more

  Posted on 07 February 2019 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Out of Time (Remember the USSR?)

  

  Having the gift of space to read and think, it must not be wasted. While in Sudan last week I read Lindsey Hilsum’s biography of murdered journalist Marie... Read more

  Posted on 05 February 2019 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Damned Power

  

  Having returned on Thursday evening from Sudan I left agin in the early hours of Saturday for Jena in Germany. This forms the real beginning of my sabbatical... Read more

  Posted on 03 February 2019 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Sudan Visit

  

  I went with a colleague to Sudan last Saturday for a series of meetings and a day conference on ‘freedom of religion’ in Khartoum. Read more

  Posted on 01 February 2019 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Going Back a Different Way: Being Christian in a Populist World

  This is the basic text of a lecture at Bradford Cathedral today at the launch of the centenary year. It is quite long.Bradford Cathedral is 100 years old in... Read more

  Posted on 06 January 2019 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Happy Christmas!

  This is the script of my address at the BBC Radio Leeds carol service recorded at Halifax Minster (with the same joke as in the Yorkshire Post piece. Sorry. Read more

  Posted on 24 December 2018 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Deal Or No Deal?

  

  This is the text of a commissioned article published in the excellent Yorkshire Post yesterday:A quick story.A little boy sat in his room trying to write his... Read more

  Posted on 23 December 2018 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Jolabokaflod

  This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme:Icelandic isn’t one of my languages, but I learned recently about... Read more

  Posted on 19 December 2018 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• ‘Tis the Season

  

  This is the script of this morning’s Pause for Thought on the Chris Evans Show on BBC Radio 2. In the studio were Lee Mack, Paloma Faith, Tom Kerridge and... Read more

  Posted on 18 December 2018 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Whose Story?

  Ths is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme – delivered five minutes after the announcement that Tory MPs have... Read more

  Posted on 12 December 2018 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Brexit in the Lords

  This is the Hansard transcript of my speech in the House of Lords yesterday (39 out of 180) in the take-note debate on the EU Withdrawal Agreement and... Read more

  Posted on 06 December 2018 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• People, Place and Purpose

  This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4 Today programme:Some years ago a Church of England report confidently asserted that... Read more

  Posted on 05 December 2018 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Brexit Debate (again)

  This is the basic text of my speech in the House of Lords in today’s debate on the Prime Minster’s Statement on Brexit last week. Read more

  Posted on 20 November 2018 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Populism

  I was asked to preach in chapel at St John’s College, Cambridge, on ‘Populism’ in a series of sermons on ‘Thinking Allowed’. The readings were from Exodus 32:1-... Read more

  Posted on 18 November 2018 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY