Nicholas Baines

LATEST ARTICLES ( 612 )

• Like a Prayer

  This is the script of this morning’s Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2’s Zoe Ball Show:I am now on my tenth listen of Bob Dylan’s new album Rough and Rowdy Ways. Read more

  Posted on 23 June 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Rough and Rowdy Ways

  This is the script of this morning’s Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2’s Zoe Ball Show:Well, I don’t know what you’re doing today, but I am busy waiting for... Read more

  Posted on 18 June 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Inglorious Empire?

  

  A couple of years ago I did a session at the Bradford Literature Festival with Professor Paul Rogers and Shashi Tharoor. I had never heard of Shashi Tharoor. Read more

  Posted on 15 June 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Trinity and the Rest of Life

  

  Today is Trinity Sunday in the church’s calendar – part of Christians’ journey through the year, giving shape to the narrative of God’s engagement with people. Read more

  Posted on 07 June 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Driven out

  

  It’s been an ‘interesting’ and revealing week.And now in the Christian journey we move on from Ascensiontide to Pentecost.See it from the perspective of... Read more

  Posted on 31 May 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• In-between Again

  

  It feels like we are living between times again. Lockdown is giving way to an easing of restrictions – now thrown into chaos by the hypocritical shambles of... Read more

  Posted on 24 May 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Shadowlands

  

  Lockdown means working back through the films I thought we’d seen often enough. The other impetus is that we have a young Austrian student friend living with... Read more

  Posted on 15 May 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Deep Wells?

  

  Lockdown is a challenge. But, for me it also allows space for some conversations that might usually get squeezed between meetings and then forgotten.Yesterday... Read more

  Posted on 13 May 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• VE Day

  

  This is the text of an article commissioned by the Yorkshire Post for today:Having grown up in a northern city that in my childhood still bore the violent... Read more

  Posted on 08 May 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Liminal Living

  

  When you get a bit Zoomed out (usually during a Zoom meeting, to be honest) distraction comes easily. For me it’s always songs that go around my head. It can... Read more

  Posted on 30 April 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Plucking Flowers

  

  I never met the great Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, but I did go to his funeral in 2003. I had just been ordained as a bishop (of Croydon) in May and he... Read more

  Posted on 27 April 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Light at the End of the Tunnel?

  This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.I was once in the foreign ministry of another country asking hard... Read more

  Posted on 23 April 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Storing up the Stories

  

  They say that if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably isn’t true. In the same way, if a story sounds simple, it probably shouldn’t be trusted. Read more

  Posted on 22 April 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Small Source of Comfort

  

  I have been reading some pieces by famous people about to whom they turn when isolated or stuck. I turn to Bruce Cockburn.In March 2011 he released Small... Read more

  Posted on 21 April 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• You Can’t Have It Both Ways

  In An Introduction to the Political State of Great Britain Samuel Johnson, commenting on the behaviour of British colonists in America, wrote:No people can be... Read more

  Posted on 20 April 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• A Walk in the Park

  

  Navigating our way through this current virus-induced catastrophe is not exactly a walk in the park, is it?I went for an actual walk in an actual park... Read more

  Posted on 19 April 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Never Waste a Crisis

  This the script of a radio Thought for the Day which I didn’t broadcast yesterday:“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it’s just... Read more

  Posted on 18 April 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• Cattle Dip Thinking

  

  This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:“April is the cruellest month” is how TS Eliot began The Wasteland –... Read more

  Posted on 17 April 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• There’s Hardly Time

  According to Emily Dickinson, “to be alive is so amazing, there’s hardly time for anything else.”I think I know what she meant. Read more

  Posted on 16 April 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY

• How Long, O Lord?

  

  It’s at times like this that the Psalms come into their own.The thing about reading the Psalms every day, regardless of how we are feeling, is that the poets... Read more

  Posted on 15 April 2020 RELIGION, SOCIETY, SPIRITUALITY