Everyone is focussing on the PM's votes dilemma, says Simon Barrow, but all the parties are suffering from the diminution and regionalisation of their support as people continue to be disillusioned with the system.

The biblical story of creation, echoed in the prologue to John's Gospel, famously contains the divine injunction, "Let there be light." But the Church of England says that in an age of eco-cre, a little less light might be needed.

Christian leaders in Zimbabwe have called on parties to continuing power-sharing talks to shun partisan interests and urgently break the impasse that is holding back the conclusion of negotiations aimed at resolving the country's political and economic crisis.

With Barack Obama and John McCain joining battle for the November US presidential elections, a leading evangelical Christian figure organised a candidates forum refreshingly free of rancour, say observers.

Mercy, not sacrifice, is the Christian keynote when dubious appeals to unity are used in religion and in society to thwart calls for social justice, says Savi Hensman. She cites recent examples in Japan and in world Anglicanism.

The United Kingdom rates committed campaigners such as Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King far more highly than celebrities and more than one in ten would be prepared to break the law to campaign for a cause they believed in.