Oh,they of little faith

Abstract

There is a story unlikely to appear in print that has been doing the rounds among the few remaining religious affairs correspondents in Britain, writes the religion correspondent of The Times. It is that Andreas Whittam Smith, co-founder of The Independent and now the First Church Estates Commissioner, is persuading the Church of England to relax its ethical stance against investment in the newspaper industry in order to get the Church to buy his old newspaper back for him. There are about five people in Britain who find this amusing - the infamous five who write on religion for the country's national newspapers. One reason we find the story funny is because none of us works for The Independent, which does not have a religious affairs correspondent and could hardly be less interested in the subject. Another reason, and the reason I use the word "infamous", is that our unpopularity among the people we write about is in inverse proportion to our numerical strength and the last thing the Church would ever be interested in buying a national newspaper, unless to close it down. But such ill will is misguided, Gledhill believes. Readers who want information on religions other than their own still turn to the national press. The responsibility on all of us to serve our constituencies with truth and accuracy remains enormous. May we all continue to do it with the enthusiasm and assiduity that to date has kept the religions in the news - even if their leaders often don't like it.