Image manipulation, trivia and opportunist deceit have brought our politics low, says Jill Segger. She suggests we all need to examine our attitudes and loyalties if the decline is to be arrested.

Economic inequality is growing in the UK. The government is slashing the welfare state, while parts of the media demonise disabled people, benefit recipients and the working class generally. Since the 1990s, churches in the UK have spoken out strongly about global inequality. Are we now prepared to speak up just as strongly about inequality in the UK, and to make the links with the global situation?

Families and communities may be made up of single people, couples and smaller sub-groups or networks, differing in sexual orientation, gender identity and many other ways, says Savi Hensman. In the Christian vision, and especially in the community of Christ, all may make a unique contribution, and grow in unique ways while drawing closer to the One whose love sustains the universe, brings abundant blessings and satisfies the deepest thirst.

Almost ten years ago, one of the survivors of a horrific massacre set about trying to win justice for her murdered husband and scores of others, writes Savi Hensman. This brought her up against some of the most powerful – and ruthless – people in the state of Gujarat in India. But she persisted.

The competitive nature of the top-down, corporate capitalist system means we can never truly be 'all in this together', says Jonathan Bartley. All we do is sacrifice the most vulnerable for the sake of maintaining an unjust order. Economic alternatives are essential, and go well beyond statism.

The Church of England’s decisions about women bishops are likely to have a major impact on its mission as well as its ministry, says Savi Hensman. If the church appears to be reluctant to accept and fully use women’s gifts, attempts to attract and involve more people across a wide age-range may be undermined.

Successive UK governments, and their media allies, have been vigorous in smearing benefit claimants. To achieve this, politicians and their propagandists have played on popular stereotypes, stoking up prejudice against ‘scroungers’ while lavishly rewarding members of their own class at taxpayers’ expense. Savi Hensman looks at the reality behind the rhetoric, especially in relation to assessment.