PHOTO: ALAMY/DPA, MARWAN NAAMANI

Civilians run for cover after gunmen open fire during a protest in Beirut 26

COLUMNS

Christopher Howse’s Notebook ‘There are enough of us to make a noise, and that might smother the still small voice’ / 7

Sara Maitland ‘Our system bears particularly heavily on Catholic women, because we cannot be ordained’ / 9

REGULARS Word from the Cloisters 15 Puzzles 15 Letters 16 The Living Spirit 17

CONTENTS 23 OCTOBER 2021 // VOL 275 NO. 9424

COP26: SPECIAL REPORT

4 / Good grief

Amid the existential threat posed by climate breakdown can we lament without falling into despair in a collapsing world? / BY HANNAH MALCOLM

6 / The courage to act

Only fundamental changes to the way we relate to one another, to our past and to the planet will be enough to avert a climate catastrophe / BY JOSIANNE GAUTHIER

8 / Hanging on for dear life Soane Patita Paini Mafi has become an eloquent spokesman for the South Pacific’s vulnerable communities threatened with devastation / BY MICHAEL McGIRR

10 / Lord of the wild The owner of one of the oldest estates in Ireland talks about his pioneering rewilding project and how nature heals itself / BY JOANNA MOORHEAD

13 / The gifts beyond the pale The synodal process is neither a managerial exercise nor an in-house conversation under the control of its leadership / BY CLARE WATKINS

14 / Once as wide as it was long The third extract from the author’s book on sacred spaces visits All Saints Church in the village of Brixworth, Northamptonshire / BY PETER STANFORD

NEWS

25 / The Church in the World / News briefing 26 / Bloodshed returns to the streets of Beirut

28 / View from Rome 29 / News from Britain and Ireland / News briefing 30 / Tributes in abundance following MP’s murder

COVER IMAGE: AL LAPKOVSKY

BOOKS / PAGE 19

Simon Scott Plummer The Gate to China MICHAEL SHERIDAN Morag MacInnes Larger than an Orange LUCY BURNS Fred Kelly Black Gold: The History of How Coal Made Britain JEREMY PAXMAN Christopher Bray Silverview JOHN LE CARRÉ

ARTS / PAGE 22

Exhibition Bishop Auckland’s Spanish Gallery LAURA GASCOIGNE Theatre The Normal Heart; A Splinter Of Ice MARK LAWSON Opera Satyagraha ALEXANDRA COGHLAN Television Impeachment LUCY LETHBRIDGE

23 OCTOBER 2021 | THE TABLET | 3