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
