‘Mothering’ referred to the mother Church in Jerusalem and returning to the church after breaking fast in Lent. But nowhere did it mean biological mothers, says Maggi Dawn. She suggests that the alternative idea of refreshment could be brought back into play.

Exorcism and 'deliverance ministries' targeted at gay people and others are on the rise in sections of the church, says Joseph Laycock. But perhaps it is the exchange in which both responsibility and autonomy are forfeited in favour of superstition which is the true “deal with devil.”

How can women most powerfully embody their vocational calling when also attending to the care of their own bodies? Courtney Wilder looks at a blog that probes this question in a highly amusing but also pastoral and insightful way.

‘Men-women’ have become the criminalized ‘homosexuals’ of Senegal, a ‘gay’ man is left unburied, and the transsexual teenager lives with the medical diagnosis of ‘psychosis’, writesMelissa Conroy. So what is 'normal' and what part does religion play in defining it?

For half a century, says Savi Hensman, theologians have vigorously debated lesbian and gay love and the response of society and the Church. Yet theological reflection on these issues, for instance in literature, dates back further.