John 20:22

This Pentecost, we are reminded that our dependence on the Holy Spirit is more important than ever. Just as risen Christ invited the apostles to “receive the Holy Spirit”, so He asks us again now - in an age of rapid technological change. This is no abstract invitation. It is a practical command for our time. The Spirit is the one who gives the gift of conscience and leads us into the light of the moral order.

We are living through a period of unravelling – the consequences of an era shaped by hyper-liberal individualism. For decades, a culture of self has affected our social, economic, political and spiritual life: eroding the bonds of belonging, prioritising personal autonomy over mutual responsibility, and undermining human worth. The damage is visible - in fragmented communities, strained families, declining trust, and a widespread crisis of meaning. Into this already weakened social fabric now comes a new and powerful force: a new industrial revolution.

The disruption is already underway and moving faster than most predicted. Generative AI has achieved mass adoption in a fraction of the time it took the smartphone. Agentic systems are automating complex professional work. The trajectory points toward profound displacement across white-collar and, increasingly, manual sectors, where one person may do the work of five, ten, or far more. The transition is likely to be rough.

We must take this seriously. It is no longer viable to regard this as a specialist interest for science or tech experts. We are all called — across our traditions — to play our part, both in resisting what dehumanises, and in engaging wisely to ensure that the technology upholds the person, the family and community.

This sobering reality sharpens everything we at Together for the Common Good have long argued for: the urgent need for spiritual and civic renewal rooted in a coherent Christian witness. At the heart of that witness is an authentic Christian anthropology: the conviction that human beings are relational beings made in the image of God. We are not designed to be isolated individuals defined by category. We are called to work together, with God, in His creation, to take responsibility, to build relationships, and to exercise moral agency.

AI excels at the objective dimension of work — the tasks, outputs, and efficiencies. But it cannot fulfil the subjective dimension: it cannot exercise conscience, hear God, provide human warmth, shape conscience and character through years of struggle, or generate the embodied mutuality of real community. These realms are our responsibility.

This is why reliance on the Holy Spirit is not pious sentiment but practical necessity. Where human conscience is pressured by artificial systems, the Spirit helps us hold the line. We are being offered increasingly powerful tools, but we must not outsource our role in discerning the voice of the Spirit - vital for truly human decision-making.

The challenge before us is sobering. A society already hollowed out by individualism, deindustrialisation and globalisation now faces mass displacement of jobs - roles that have historically formed people in judgement, responsibility, and neighbourliness. An inadequate response to this new, epochal change risks deeper disorientation, anger, and unrest.

Yet this same pressure reveals the profound relevance of what the Church is uniquely equipped to offer: local, embodied, relational communities that ground people in a meaning that is deeper than economic function. The Spirit reorients us toward vocation — to contribute, to tend, to build together.

As Christian leaders — ordained and lay — we must lean into our calling with the renewed clarity that this context demands. What does it mean to be a Christian in this new time? Our churches, groups, charities, church schools, and organisations are well-placed to be vital neighbourhood anchors. Not fading institutions managing decline, but living centres of formation, belonging, and common life.

We can help people to understand the deeper purpose of human life. Our gatherings, our local relationships, our discipleship, our worship, preaching, mentoring, and leadership must prioritise the subjective: discernment, moral clarity, attentive presence, conscience shaped by Scripture and prayer, and the habits of mutuality and community. Our countercultural witness must be rooted in an authentic Christian anthropology, where we devote ourselves to relationship, and to making and doing, rather than consuming.

Our congregations must be places where meaning is found. When familiar structures of work change, something fulfilling must provide motivation. An outward-facing local church community, living out subsidiarity in practice, can help to organise local life around shared purpose, mutual obligation, and the dignity of contribution. We can partner with neighbours through forms of co-ownership to manage local energy and food supply and develop new local economies. Our institutions are uniquely placed to play a key role. The times call for a new, Spirit-led imagination.

We must engage the wider conversation with moral clarity. We need informed Christian voices who insist that inherent human dignity does not depend on economic output, and who can discern how technology should serve the person rather than redefine them. This requires both resistance to AI overreach and wise engagement with the technology in ways that uphold and enhance our common life.

The AI revolution sharpens our long-held vision. The new pressures now arriving, on top of the unravelling we are already witnessing, call us back to the heart of the Gospel: Christ is King, the one who restores communion through the gift of the Spirit. In receiving that Spirit, we become better able to uphold conscience and embody hope.

When Rerum Novarum — the first encyclical in the modern era of Catholic Social Teaching — was published, it represented a historic intervention to defend the human person in the face of the Industrial Revolution. Now, we anticipate that the next encyclical will continue that tradition. Magnifica Humanitas (Magnificent Humanity), will address the AI revolution. To be published next week, it will provide valuable gospel-rooted guidance as we discern our response to the challenges of our time.

Wishing you every blessing this Pentecost. May you receive the Holy Spirit afresh, and with your neighbours, step forward together for the common good.

Jenny Sinclair

Together for the Common Good

In this edition

• Matthew Sanders Staying Human: AI, the Future of Work and Christian Discernment (lecture)

• Jide Ehizele Sharing a Life Together

• Jenny Sinclair The New Industrial Revolution, Catholic Social Teaching & Political Unravelling

• Leaving Egypt episodes Melanie Rieback, Mgr John Armitage & Sophie Taylor

• Jo Stow Common Good Schools: Pentecost update

• Jenny Sinclair Caritas, People and Place

• Signs of the Times selected articles

• Jenny Sinclair Christian Witness in the Unravelling

• Dates for your diary Staying Human series continues

Discover all these pieces below

Staying Human: AI, the Future of Work and Christian Discernment

Earlier this week, Matthew Harvey Sanders gave the 5th in our Staying Human series of lectures. Sanders helps us confront the realities of the new industrial revolution now unfolding through artificial intelligence: its rapid timeline, its profound effects on work, livelihoods, and meaning. Drawing on his experience of the industry and on a deep understanding of the Catholic Social Teaching tradition, he shows what must be done to uphold human agency and mitigate the risk of social unrest. As a leading thinker and practitioner in ethical AI, Sanders sees the local church not as a fading institution but as the essential bulwark to preserve conscience, vocation and belonging. This is a sobering lecture that reveals the vital need for formation in authentic anthropology - and the deeper purpose of Christian witness in our time.

Video coming soon.

Read Matthew’s lecture here

Sharing a Life Together

Jide Ehizele reflects on modern Britain’s drift into a culture of parallel lives, where diverse identities exist on the same street — like a Black London barbershop and a young professionals’ artisan café — yet rarely interact. Standing in the breach, he calls for a shift from liberalism’s ethic of “non-interference” to a richer, genuinely shared life. He envisages a vital role for the local church in bridging these estranged spaces, enabling connection, mutual support, and contribution to the common good. He explores the imagination required to enable encounter between people who occupy “different moral worlds”, and situates this within a vision of restored belonging, bringing heaven to his corner of southeast London.

Read the story

The New Industrial Revolution, Catholic Social Teaching & Political Unravelling

What does Catholic Social Teaching have to say about AI, capitalism, work, family and the future of society? Jenny Sinclair, appearing on the Into the Truth podcast, talks Pope Leo XIV, Rerum Novarum, the new industrial revolution and why Catholic Social Teaching is more relevant now than ever before. As artificial intelligence transforms work, relationships, politics, and even our understanding of what it means to be human, the Church’s social teaching offers a powerful framework rooted in human dignity, the common good, subsidiarity, solidarity and the vocation of work.

Watch the interview

Being God’s People in Times of Unravelling

Listen to three new exciting episodes on the Leaving Egypt podcast:

• Stewarding a Christian Imagination for a Just World with Melanie Rieback

• A Priest to the People with Fr John Armitage

• A New Generation Finds Home with Sophie Taylor

Join us to explore what it means to be God’s people in an age of unravelling. Guests from across the Christian traditions meet with Leaving Egypt co-hosts Jenny Sinclair and Al Roxburgh to read the signs of the times and share stories of hope from the grassroots.

More wonderful guests to come soon, including Tim Soerens, Bishop Guli Francis-Deqhani, Justin Gill, Ian Williamson - and more.

Join the Leaving Egypt community and invest in this work - take out a paid subscription from only £5 a month!

Common Good Schools - Pentecost update

In this update for Pentecost, our schools Project Leader, Jo Stow reports on new strategic relationships with multi academy trusts, new partner schools joining the programme, as well as news of upcoming activities and the next deadline for schools wishing to join. She acknowledges the generosity of donors – in particular those who have supported the Bursary Fund, and her gratitude for a grant enabling our Common Good Schools team to enable more schools to play their part in their local communities.

Find out more here

Caritas, People and Place

In this talk for Caritas, Diocese of Brentwood, Jenny Sinclair urges local leaders to confront today’s “change of era” and the meta-crisis we face by recovering the relational heart of Catholic Social Teaching. She calls for practical but decisive shifts, prioritising the strengthening of families, the reimagining of parishes as outward-facing centres of civic life, and for a rooted relationship with place. Moving beyond providing services, the people of the churches are called to become a rehumanising force for civic friendship, embodying confident Christian witness in everyday life.

Watch or read the talk

Signs of the Times and Recommended books

Discover our latest collections of articles to help you navigate this time of great volatility. We’ve assembled articles from both the legacy media and from new and independent media under the headings of UK, International, Islamism, Antisemitism, Iran war, Humanity, Changing Church. You will also find a short list of books.

Explore here.

Christian Witness in the Unravelling

In this talk for Churches Together Horsforth, Jenny Sinclair explores how Christians can offer faithful witness when familiar social structures are coming apart. Drawing on stories of joint leadership, she shows what becomes possible when church leaders step into the civic life of a troubled city and stand in solidarity with local communities. Demonstrating how the Catholic Social Teaching tradition equips us, she calls churches to move beyond partisan loyalties and the dynamics of service-provider charity and shift to building local friendships and speaking truth. This is an unflinching yet hopeful challenge to become a people of the common good at a time of deep unravelling.

Watch and read the talk

Date for your diary

13 October 2026, 6.30pm

Online lecture | #6 in the Staying Human series | Staying Human in the Margins: Finding Christ in Places Written Out of the Future with Captain Dr John Clifton Divisional Commander/North East Division, Salvation Army.

Booking opens nearer the time.

Catch up on the series so far here

Join us

Over the last 15 years, thousands of people have engaged with Together for the Common Good. It is thanks to their energy, prayer, encouragement, and support that this work has borne so much fruit.

Working across denominations, we engage churches, charities, leaders and schools through online resources, in-person talks, the Leaving Egypt podcast and the Common Good Schools programme, helping people read the signs of the times and fulfil their unique role for the common good.

If you believe this work matters — equipping God’s people to respond in this volatile moment — please join us.

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Join us today and become part of this growing network of faithful people dedicated to civic and spiritual renewal.

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Header image: The Descent of the Holy Spirit by Kateryna Kuziv (Ukrainian: b. 1993) Tempera on gessoed wood. Courtesy of Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection ©2023 John Kohan

Luke 15:1-2

There was some excitement in recent months about a so-called “quiet revival.” Visions of a renewed Christian country emerging from this time of crisis were enthusiastically discussed.

The data turned out to be flawed and was withdrawn, yet the discussion it provoked was revealing. Hopes focused largely on numbers and a return to traditional, polite churchgoing, perhaps out of a desire for comfort, possibly also a need for control.

But the spiritual landscape in England is more complex. We are undergoing profound change. As Mary Harrington recently put it, we are “Disenchanted spiritually. Disembedded domestically. Dispossessed by our own government. Disaffected, disbelieving.”

This Easter, as we enter into the life of the risen Christ, who in His very person is the model of unity, Christians here are divided on questions of identity. So even before we speak of Christian renewal, we must ask a prior question: Whose Christianity?

The resurrection reminds us of the pattern of new life constantly breaking through: the Christian tradition is a living dynamic. Yet we see that pattern resisted in the muttering of leaders seeking to distance themselves from less polite forms of Christianity. While caution is wise, there is a risk of alienating those who are trying to enter the kingdom (Matthew 23:13). Something deeper may be stirring beneath the radar, something that growth-focused data cannot capture.

The idea that revival will come only from within the institutional churches is unrealistic. Many are fragile: ideologically confused, estranged from their neighbourhoods, with ageing congregations, overstretched clergy, burned-out volunteers, and dioceses close to bankruptcy. Notwithstanding some thriving metropolitan parishes, often thanks to migrant arrivals and Gen Z seekers looking for meaning, much of the infrastructure continues to decline.

Meanwhile, in post-industrial towns and outer estates, small fellowships are quietly appearing: some non-denominational, some Pentecostal, some Orthodox, sometimes no more than a Bible study above a shop or around a kitchen table. They offer informality, moral seriousness, straight talking, and an encounter with the Holy Spirit.

That this is happening precisely in communities most affected by deindustrialisation, globalisation and mass immigration is no accident. The rupture ran deeper than is often appreciated. It may be generating a stirring of what might be called the primal imagination.

That this yearning is sometimes expressed through flags or assertions of Christian identity is not surprising, given the vacuum of moral leadership where the mainstream churches should have been. The moral clarity of many of these fellowships is often sharpened by a shared loss of trust in those churches, particularly because of their silence around the rape gang scandals.

Yet these groups are not necessarily the ethno-nationalist caricatures their critics claim. Many are strikingly multi-ethnic, sometimes co-led by refugees and immigrants who have themselves fled Islamist regimes. What unites them is not ethnicity but a shared search for meaning, moral clarity and the presence of God.

Catholic tradition has long insisted that the poor often know their need for God more readily than the affluent and the busy, that they are less likely to have been educated out of their instinct for the transcendent. If Christian renewal is coming to England, it may not look like the restoration of an old ecclesiastical settlement. It may look more plural, grassroots and unpredictable, which should make us cautious about attempts at renewal being shaped from above.

The crisis we are living through is rooted in the false anthropology of the unencumbered self, which has colonised our culture and produced profound social, moral and political dislocation. If Christianity is to be an antidote to that crisis, it cannot be built on the same individualist foundations.

Christian anthropology is relational, so we need a relational Christianity, relational all the way down: in our theology, our practices, our political economy and our institutional life. That is why the principle of subsidiarity, at the heart of Catholic social teaching, matters so much.

Subsidiarity recognises that authentic social life grows through relationships and institutions that arise from below, through families, schools, churches, charities, businesses, clubs and associations, each playing a vital part in fostering meaning, responsibility and solidarity. This architecture of civic friendship has a cosmic dimension because this is where human beings connect. Government can enable such life; it cannot manufacture it.

A truly Christian identity is generous and capacious. It does not fear or reject a multi-faith society, but seeks to live with integrity and neighbourly respect toward people of other faiths while remaining firmly rooted in the truth of Christ. Churches have a vital role here.

We have seen it before. In the 1889 Great Dock Strike, Cardinal Manning and General Booth forged a civic friendship that strengthened solidarity among East End workers. A century later in Liverpool, Bishops Worlock and Sheppard helped a city in crisis not through state programmes but by supporting local people of all faiths and none to build their own institutions: educational, sporting, legal, business and housing. That is subsidiarity in action.

England does not need a triumphalist, integralist Christianity that would provoke blowback. Rather, our story has been one of quiet enculturation and Spirit-led change, from the re-assimilation of Catholic tradition, to the historic visit of Pope John Paul II, to the profound changes brought by the gifts and challenges of migration.

Which brings us to a mysterious part of the English Christian story. England has long been called the Dowry of Our Lady. That ancient title, rooted in Walsingham, suggests that renewal here may not come through state sponsorship or ecclesiastical restoration alone. It may also come through a spirituality that surrenders to God’s will and carries the experience of His agency into ordinary life. The Catholic tradition, despite its imperfections, has a rich treasure to offer here - its spiritual, moral and social wisdom is universal and intended for all.

This Easter season, therefore, we must pay attention to where the Holy Spirit is actually moving, not only in thriving parishes but also in the estates and informal fellowships across the country, in a variety of Christian forms.

***

Wishing you a blessed Easter

Jenny Sinclair and all the team at Together for the Common Good

IN THIS EDITION

• David Ranson A Service Shaped by Christian Identity

• Jide Ehizele Beyond Zero-Sum Thinking: Recovering a Christian Moral Imagination

• Jenny Sinclair Whose Side is the Church On

• Jo Stow From Hidden Need to Shared Life

• Staying Human series new dates for your diary

• Jo Stow Common Good Schools Easter update

• Leaving Egypt podcast latest episodes

• Jenny Sinclair Christian Calling and the Relational Imperative

Discover all these pieces below

A Service Shaped by Christian Identity

What does it mean for a charity, an organisation or a church, to be truly Christian in a time when Christian identity is contested? David Ranson suggests that identity cannot be separated from mission - that it emerges through engagement, dialogue, and service. He explores four dimensions - imagination, commitment, tension, and strategy - of a Christian consciousness capable of responding to a changing, pluralist world while remaining rooted in tradition. David is writing from a Catholic social teaching perspective but these insights are equally relevant for Christians of all traditions, especially leaders and volunteers involved with charities, churches and other public facing organisations.

Read the article

Beyond Zero-Sum Thinking: Recovering a Christian Moral Imagination

Today’s fractious politics increasingly frame society as a zero-sum competition in which one group’s flourishing must come at another’s expense, a mindset now evident across both progressive and ethnonationalist movements. Drawing on the biblical vision of divine abundance, Jide Ehizele calls Christians to resist these mutually hostile rivalries and recover confidence in the Christian moral imagination.

Read the story

Being God’s People in Times of Unravelling

We’re delighted to share the latest episodes from the Leaving Egypt podcast where we read the signs of the times and share stories of hope from the grassroots. Guests from across the Christian traditions meet with co-hosts Jenny Sinclair and Al Roxburgh to explore what it means to be a Christian at this time, and how the Holy Spirit is at work in people’s lives.

Listen now:

• Luigini Bruni Beyond Business: the Church’s Response to Crisis

• Rob Stewart An Economy of the People

• Mark Lau Branson Embracing the Charism of Shared Leadership

More exciting guests coming soon including Melanie Rieback, Bishop Guli Francis-Deqhani, Mgr John Armitage.

The Leaving Egypt audience is growing - join the community here

Whose Side is the Church On

This article by Jenny Sinclair was first published as a chapter in a new book of essays marking the anniversary of the Faith in the City report. But this is no celebration: Jenny sees the report as very much of its time. She challenges Christians to leave behind the assumptions of the 1980s and engage honestly with the realities of our new era.

Reflecting on the deepening estrangement with poor communities, she urges churches and Christian charities to shift from top-down, welfare-dependent models of “social justice” and managerial service provision, towards a ground-up, common good approach rooted in solidarity, subsidiarity and the dignity of work - a relational dynamic infused with the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

Read Jenny’s chapter here.

From Hidden Need to Shared Life

In this article, Jo Stow invites schools to look beyond management and service delivery to something deeper: a relational culture where hidden needs can surface without shame. Drawing on real experiences from Common Good Schools, she explores what it really means to live the option for the poor, not just by providing support, but by creating a climate of trust where children and families feel safe to come forward. This is a gentle but powerful call to shift from projects and data to genuine noticing, relationship, and solidarity.

Read the article here

Staying Human: AI, the Future of Work and Christian Discernment

Join us ONLINE for the fifth lecture in our Staying Human series coming soon

6.30pm Wednesday 20 May 2026

Staying Human: AI, the Future of Work and Christian Discernment

Examining the impact of the AI and Robotics revolution on work, livelihoods and purpose, Matthew Sanders - CEO of Longbeard and Founder of Magisterium.com - draws on Catholic Social Teaching to explore what must remain human and what can be outsourced if we are to uphold agency and relationality and mitigate the potential for social unrest.

Book your place to join the livestream HERE

Date for your diary - the sixth lecture in the Staying Human series coming in the autumn

6.30pm Tuesday 13 October 2026

Staying Human in the Margins: Finding Christ in Places Written Out of the Future

Drawing on encounters in deindustrialised communities and signs of spiritual hunger in places where institutional Christianity has thinned, John Clifton - Divisional Commander, Salvation Army, North East Division - explores how globalisation has changed not only our economy, but how we treat people and places. In this, the sixth in our Staying Human series, John argues for a return to proximity alongside forgotten communities—and for a way of following Christ that recognises His presence in the margins, chooses humanising solidarity instead.

Livestream booking opens nearer the time.

Explore all the talks in the Staying Human series HERE

Common Good Schools Easter Update

Jo Stow, our Common Good Schools Project Leader, shares her excitement about new primary schools joining our KS2 programme and reveals the 1st July deadline for schools to join in the next cohort. She also shares news on two new secondary schools joining our KS3 / KS4 programme, previews our upcoming activities and speaking engagements, and invites you to get involved.

Find out more here

Christian Calling and the Relational Imperative

In this lecture for the Dominican Family Seminar, Jenny Sinclair examines Christian vocation amid today’s cultural unravelling. Using Catholic Social Teaching, she reads the signs of the times — from community breakdown and the “unencumbered self” to loneliness, polarisation, and a technocratic economy that fractures relationships. She presents vocation as outward-facing and relational, calling Christians to an everyday witness that rebuilds a shared life through civic friendship, subsidiarity, and solidarity. The common good, she argues, emerges only through reciprocal relationships - and offers a hopeful path for the Church to become part of the antidote at this hinge moment in our history.

You can read it and find the audio from the lecture here.

Join us

Over the last 15 years, thousands of people have engaged with Together for the Common Good. It is thanks to their energy, prayer, encouragement, and support that this work has flourished. Join today and become part of this growing network of faithful people dedicated to civic and spiritual renewal.

Subscribe now

Header image: The Resurrection of Jesus, Khora Fresco, Istanbul, 14th Century

We find ourselves living in a time when many certainties are collapsing. False securities are being stripped away, and it is no longer possible to complacently enjoy the illusions of the old era. It may no longer even be credible to assume that governments can adequately represent us, or that our systems can uphold the common good.

Corruption and deceptions once concealed are now coming into the open. Institutions and elites once trusted can no longer depend on entitlement. Scrutiny is more intense, and painful realities—the betrayal of the weak, the manipulation of truth, the misuse of power, and the violence that is enabled wherever conscience is silenced—are now impossible to ignore. This is an age of exposure.

Such exposure is unsettling. It provokes anger, confusion, and anxiety. Yet Christians cannot approach this moment merely as a social or political crisis. We must ask a theological question: What if this unveiling is also a summons? What if, amidst the disorientation, God is calling us to look more honestly at reality?

The Christian tradition has the resources to interpret such a time. The forty days of Lent invite us to engage with the mystery of Jesus in the desert. The desert is not a place of escape but of confrontation. There, Christ refuses three temptations that remain perennial: comfort, distraction, and power. Each is an invitation to turn away from God by turning away from truth.

These same temptations pervade our culture. When truth is painful, we reach for comfort—habits or beliefs that shield us from responsibility. The ancient practice of fasting emerged precisely to break that illusion. Aquinas teaches that fasting restrains disordered desire so that the mind may rise to contemplate divine truth. Fasting clears away the sedation of comfort so that we can see reality.

If comfort numbs us, distraction fragments our attention. We inhabit an age of incessant noise, where we are continually diverted, and moral clarity becomes difficult to sustain. As Augustine warned, we turn to externalities to flee from what we would prefer to avoid. Without interiority, we lose the capacity to recognise either sin or grace. Teresa of Ávila regarded distraction as spiritually lethal. Dialogue with God is not withdrawal; it allows us to see the world as it truly is.

The most subtle temptation, however, is power: the desire to control reality rather than be converted by it. Faced with disorder, we grasp for domination, ideological certainty, or the silencing of opposing voices. But this need to control can inhibit the ability to receive truth. Catherine of Siena taught that truth is revealed not to those bent on dominion, but to those with the humility to listen.

The squeamish may question whether it is necessary to confront such unpleasant things. But a society that refuses to face its wounds cannot heal them. Benedict XVI wisely observed that it is “falsehood that poisons humanity.” And as St Paul reminds us, when one member suffers, all suffer. Turning away from painful realities does not protect the body; it makes the whole body sick.

Many are overwhelmed by what is being revealed and seek refuge in forms of avoidance—anxiety, busyness, digital immersion, the indifference of the echo chamber, the somnolence of consumer culture. To resist this drift, we must keep the mystery of God at the centre of our lives by immersing ourselves in the Word. Only then do we develop the courage and confidence to face reality without fear. Truth, when approached in faith, is not a threat—it sets us free.

This perspective guards against grave errors: naïve nostalgia for a supposedly simpler past, cynical despair about the present, denial of politically incorrect truths. The past was never as innocent as we imagine; injustice often persisted precisely because it was hidden; our desires may not align with reality. Exposure—painful though it is—can lead to purification. The recognition of suffering can enlarge our capacity for compassion—and enable reconciliation with parts of the body from which we have been estranged.

The Christian response to this time of exposure is not withdrawal but renewed encounter. The disciplines of Lent train us to listen more deeply—to God, to one another, and especially to those who have been wronged. They free us from superficiality and complacency and bring us back to our senses. A moment of reckoning can awaken responsibility and lead to repentance. The collapse of blind trust may become the beginning of moral maturity.

After decades of what Pope Francis called an “economy that kills” and as the digital revolution unfolds, this moment of crisis offers an opportunity. One by one, we can resist the forces that dehumanise and divide. Every person has a face, a story, and a vocation. Through listening and truthful speech, we can and must build trust through bonds of friendship. If we are detached from the realities of our country, the common good cannot flourish. We have to confront what’s going on. This is our summons.

And here we touch the deepest hope. The exposure of evil does not mean that darkness is winning. It may mean that what was hidden must come into the light where it can be judged and healed—a process that may be difficult. But cultures that lose the ability to distinguish good from evil cannot hold. Lent strengthens us to scrutinise the signs of the times without illusion and without fear.

We may be entering a harsher, more brutally honest world. The question is whether we will meet it with courage or with evasion. The desert shows us the way—where rejecting comfort, distraction, and the lure of power, Christ confronts reality in radical trust in the Father. To follow Him into the desert is not to abandon the world, but to learn how to love it truthfully.

*

Wishing you a good Lent

Jenny Sinclair and all the team at Together for the Common Good

In this edition

• Luigino Bruni Charism vs. Business

• Jenny Sinclair Catholic Schools and the Common Good

• Leaving Egypt podcast latest episodes with John Clifton, Anne Snyder, Harvey Kwiyani and Jide Ehizele, Andrew Willard Jones, Cam Roxburgh

• Daisy Inglese The Dignity of Waiting: Mary, Motherhood and NaPro Technology

• Jo Stow Common Good Schools - Lent Update

• Signs of the Times - our latest collection of articles from across the media - in this edition, under the headings Humanity, Changing Church, UK News and International News. You will also find a list of Recommended Books.

• Staying Human series continues: dates for your diary

Discover all these pieces below.

Subscribe now

Charism vs Business: How Should Christian Organisations Respond to Crisis?

Luigino Bruni cautions Christian communities facing crisis against outsourcing too hastily to the influence of leadership theory, consultants, and facilitation techniques. He argues that models that have developed in corporate contexts risk obscuring the distinctive logic of religious charisms and forms of communal governance. Drawing on Scripture and Catholic tradition, he counsels organisations and communities to dig deeper into the heart of their charism. Read the article here.

Catholic Schools and the Common Good

Jenny Sinclair diagnoses the roots of our fractured age, revealing how hyper-individualism and consumerism have fuelled today’s social and spiritual crisis. Addressing Catholic schools, she proposes that by forming students in the common good—shaped by Catholic Social Teaching, rooted in Christian anthropology, and guided by relational spirituality—they can become part of the antidote to the malaise, and, in relationship with their local communities, participate in God’s mission to transform the world. Read the essay here.

Leaving Egypt podcast

Discover the latest episodes of the Leaving Egypt podcast where co-hosts Jenny Sinclair and Alan Roxburgh explore what it means to be God’s people in an age of unravelling. Guests from across the Christian traditions meet with Jenny and Al to read the signs of the times and share stories of hope from the grassroots.

• Andrew Willard Jones This Cosmic Life

• Harvey Kwyiani and Jide Ehizele African Experience and a Changing West

• Anne Snyder Wrestling with Hope in a Fractured Age: The Understory

• Cam Roxburgh Do Not Move Around From Place to Place

Join the Leaving Egypt community and listen to the podcast here.

More wonderful guests coming up include Luigino Bruni, Rob Stewart, Melanie Rieback, Mark Lau Branson, Bishop Guli Francis-Dehqani, and many more.

The Dignity of Waiting

In a culture inclined to manage or bypass fertility, Daisy Inglese explores a more restorative vision rooted in Christian anthropology, attentiveness to the body, and a hope that refuses to be rushed. In doing so, she reflects on Mary’s motherhood and the dignity of waiting, drawing together faith, fertility, and healthcare through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching. Read the article here.

Common Good Schools - Lent update

Jo Stow, our Common Good Schools Project Leader, shares her excitement about the launch of the KS2 programme on 26 February, and welcomes new schools to our secondary programme. Jo also previews our upcoming activities and speaking engagements, and invites you to get involved—whether by joining in or praying for this vital work. Find out more here.

Signs of the Times and Recommended books

Discover our latest collections of articles to help you navigate this time of upheaval. We’ve assembled articles on Humanity, Bondi Beach, Islamism, Antisemitism, Changing Church, UK and International news - from across the media. You will also find our latest Recommended Books. Explore the collection here.

Staying Human talks series continues

Dates for your diary - our Staying Human series of lectures public talks later this year. Booking opens nearer the time.

• 21 May 2026: Matthew Sanders - Staying Human: AI and the Future of Work

• 6 October 2026: John Clifton - Staying Human: Christ in the Abandoned Zone

To catch up on the series so far, click here

Thank you

Header image: Duccio di Buoninsegna: The Temptation of Christ on the Mountain (1308-1311) Frick Collection (Wikimedia Commons)

Welcome to the T4CG Newsletter for the Christmas-New Year season.

The Waiting

Luke 19:41-44

Dear Friends,

This waiting in late Advent is bittersweet. The tensions of our time interweave and demand our attention.

I was on Bondi Beach four months ago, on a cold and blustery August afternoon. It was smaller than I’d imagined - intimate, well-loved, familiar. Soft sand beneath a darkening sky. Surfers riding waves in the fading light. A family in wetsuits packing up, happy and tired. A place of unspoken trust.

Now that trust is shattered. People said ‘never again’, yet here was another Islamist pogrom - this time at Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights. Men, women and children brutally murdered. Our Jewish brothers and sisters are once again forced to bear the unbearable. This violence is rightly named antisemitic, but the terror is aimed at us all.

How do we comprehend such darkness?

“When Jesus came near and saw the city, he wept over it.”

At home, the UK is in the midst of a deep crisis. Trust in the State is collapsing; people are angry and communities are fragmented. A profound disconnect has developed between the political class and the demos. After decades of moral relativism, belief systems are contested and confused. The renewal of our dear country now requires decisive action - spiritual as much as political.

Our lost society needs Christ. The deep resources of our spiritual and intellectual traditions are urgently needed. Yet too much of the Christian family has lost confidence and drifted from its mission. Too many people have unknowingly internalised secular assumptions or have been misled, some by the progressive left and others by the nationalist right.

The prayer of St John Paul II speaks powerfully into this moment:

“Lord, restore your church on earth with the gifts of penance and reconciliation.”

This call for the restoration of the ‘church’ is not limited to institutions – it’s an invitation for God’s people to come home. Penance is an invitation to recognise how far we have strayed.

There is also a disconnect between parts of the church and the country. Too many Christian institutions have failed to engage with the issues of greatest concern – especially to poorer communities: the offshoring of jobs and loss of livelihoods, the erosion of cultural inheritance, the gross mismanagement of mass migration, and the lack of moral leadership regarding the mass rape of young girls.

Instead, the churches’ response, though well-meaning, has mostly been narrowly focused on welfare expansion and the creation of a vast food-bank network. Conceived through the lens of poverty-alleviation rather than to empower economic independence, these efforts have inadvertently propped up the neoliberal high-welfare, low-wage economy and encouraged dependency, alienating the very communities they sought to help.

“If you, even you, had only recognised on this day the things that make for peace.”

This has been a tragic story of estrangement. But we can, and we must, tell a better story - a covenantal story of love, solidarity, justice, reciprocity, the dignity of work, good citizenship and meaning. Such a story begins with repentance, followed by humble listening, and then action - action that must be both spiritual and political.

Politically, decisive steps are needed to restore public trust. A devout Muslim, the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has courageously declared that it is her “moral mission to fix this broken [immigration] system so that it stops creating division.” Clear that this is not a matter of religious prejudice, racism or xenophobia, she is “not scared of calling out Islamism.” She knows that avoiding the truth about this dangerous ideology harms everyone - not least ordinary Muslims and refugees.

Spiritually, action is already underway. A great shaking is taking place. The movements of the Holy Spirit are mysterious, but we know they often begin at the peripheries. The first public witnesses to the incarnation were shepherds.

“But now it is hidden from your eyes.”

There has been some excitement across the churches about a so-called ‘quiet revival’. Yet some grassroots expressions - particularly those explicitly linked with concerns around Islamism and identity - have been condemned by establishment church leaders. But as Jason Clark observes, “revivals have always been dirty - never hygienic.”

It is too early to judge. But the call to penance must follow the way of Jesus, who welcomes sinners and eats with them. The incarnational God ‘touches grass’ he enters history vulnerably; he deliberately risks rejection to be with those on the outside. If we do not question our assumptions, if we never touch grass, we may miss what God is doing.

For decades, life in the UK, along with all of the West, has been shaped by an elite-driven, technocratic political settlement rooted in a cult of individualism. This settlement amounts to a rejection of our shared spiritual inheritance. Its transactional logic infected the whole culture, including our churches. Managerial approaches exhausted too many of our church leaders, turned believers into consumers, and reduced neighbours in need from friends to recipients.

Jesus himself is peace (Eph 2:14)

The restoration of trust requires spiritual as well as social and political interventions. As God’s people we are called to be the handmaid of the Lord, not of the State. This is the time to live out a generous and capacious story, one that is grounded in an authentic Christian anthropology.

As Andrew Willard Jones writes in The Church Against the State, we must now “cultivate and expand structures of friendship that still exist…. Ultimately, the only solution to our political problems is Christian love of neighbour and love of God...”

This is the vision of the common good which T4CG is promoting. Its outward facing, relational instinct is to join with God to re-weave the bonds of family and community. Rooted in the gospel and Catholic Social Thought, its pillars are solidarity, subsidiarity, and the transcendent nature of the human person. It balances rights with responsibilities, calls for contribution at every level of society and accommodates people of all faiths and none. It brings light into darkness, can tell right from wrong, and speaks the truth in love.

We have strayed far.

In this pregnant moment, we are being called home.

We may be waiting for Christ; but in truth, he is waiting for us.

*

Wishing you the peace of Christ this Christmas

Jenny Sinclair and all the team at Together for the Common Good

In this edition

• Jean Flood Neighbourhood Nativity

• Andrew Willard Jones Church Against the State

• Leaving Egypt podcast latest episodes

• Angie Allgood If I disappeared, would anyone care?

• Matthew Sanders The Church’s Mission in the Age of AI

• Jo Stow Common Good Schools - Advent Update

• Susannah Black Roberts Staying Human: Being Human in the Age of AI

• Dan Hitchens Staying Human: Useful Lives

• Signs of the Times - our latest collection of articles from across the media - in this edition, under the headings Humanity, Bondi Beach/Islamism/Antisemitism, Changing Church [including blogs on revival and Christian nationalism), UK news and International news. You will also find a list of Recommended Books.

Discover all these pieces below.

We need your help

Together for the Common Good equips churches, schools and leaders for the common good. Get a picture of what we do in A Better Story - our latest impact report.

Our small band of loyal supporters are the lifeline of this mission. However, to sustain this work we need to encourage more people to contribute.

Can you help? The easiest way to lend a hand is to become a paid subscriber from £5/month or £50/year, or a Founding Member at £150/year. Alternatively you can make a donation or give a gift subscription as a Christmas present! Thank you ❤️

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A Neighbourhood Nativity

While some churches sense symptoms of revival, many more are struggling with signs of decline. Yet there is life in the old bones yet. The flesh may be weak but there is a quiet determination among some of the most senior faithful. A deep dedication and love of place and an attentiveness to the Holy Spirit is moving them to beautiful works of grace.

In this story, the Rev Jean Flood writes about some remarkable octogenarians, a school, and the community at the heart of Walton in Liverpool - the most deprived constituency in the country. Read Jean’s story.

Church Against the State

Exploring what comes after the failures of liberalism, Andrew Willard Jones proposes subsidiarity as a key for rebuilding our political economy. Andrew argues against tweaking our centralized, social-engineering, late-modern administrative states. Rather, he suggests that we identify, cultivate and expand structures of friendship that still exist. Ultimately, the only solution to our political problems is Christian love of neighbour and love of God - all other efforts will necessarily fail.

Andrew is a leading Catholic political theologian and historian and Provost of The College of St. Joseph the Worker in Steubenville, Ohio. Read the essay.

Leaving Egypt podcast

Discover the Leaving Egypt podcast with co-hosts Jenny Sinclair and Alan Roxburgh and explore what it means to be God’s people in an age of unravelling. Guests from across the Christian traditions meet with Jenny and Al to read the signs of the times and share stories of hope from the grassroots. Listen to the podcast here.

• John Clifton With Christ in the Margins

• Tim Dickau Building God’s Kingdom in the City

• Sarah Small Listening with God in the Forgotten Places

Listen to Al and Jenny’s personal faith journeys as our co-hosts interview each other:

• Alan Roxburgh Reimagining the Purposes of God

• Jenny Sinclair A Passion for God’s Justice

In the new year we’ll welcome more wonderful guests including Anne Snyder, Andrew Willard Jones, Cam Roxburgh, Luigino Bruni, a joint episode with Jide Ehizele and Harvey Kwiyani - and many more.

If I Disappear, Would Anyone Care?

Angie Allgood is a social worker from London’s East End whose vocation has been shaped by a deep faith and extended family living. In this moving story, she relates vital lessons about belonging and connection learned through her friendship with homeless people. As well as a powerful testimony about how the Spirit shapes us, this is a reminder of the infinite value of every human life.

Angie is the fourth of six generations to live in the same few streets and is the Director of NEWway Project, a small local charity that supports single adults affected by homelessness. Read Angie’s story.

The Church’s Mission in the Age of AI

The implications of the new AI Industrial Revolution are still regarded as rather vague for most people. But what does it mean for human integrity, for families, communities, the dignity of work, for social justice and civic peace - indeed for Christian mission? We are delighted to bring you this outstanding lecture by Matthew Harvey Sanders. As CEO of Longbeard, home of Magisterium AI, Matthew is responding to the immense challenges of artificial intelligence with extraordinary works of grace. Read the lecture.

Common Good Schools – Advent Update

At the end of a busy term, Jo Stow, our Common Good Schools Project Leader, shares her excitement for the year ahead. She looks forward to launching our brand-new programme for primary schools, unveils the Common Good Schools Bursary Fund, and highlights an inspiring film from one of our partner secondary schools. Jo also previews our upcoming activities and speaking engagements for 2026, and invites you to get involved—whether by joining in or praying for this vital work. Read more.

Staying Human series - the latest

In October Susannah Black Roberts gave the third lecture in the Staying Human series – Being a Person in the Age of AI. Exploring what Christian humanism means for the new era, she investigates practical ways to preserve and cultivate our humanity in a world that threatens to make us obsolete.

• Listen to Susannah’s talk and Q&A and download the text here.

In November Dan Hitchens gave the fourth lecture in the Staying Human series - Useful Lives. Addressing what assisted suicide really means, he traces the change of era from Cicely Saunders’ hospice movement to the present paradigm of personal “choice” and asks how Christians should respond to this cultural turning point.

• Listen to Dan’s talk and Q&A and download the text here.

Forthcoming

Our Staying Human lectures continues in 2026 – details to follow. Meantime catch up with the series so far - talks and Q&As with Luke Bretherton, Jon Cruddas and Maurice Glasman, Susannah Black Roberts and Dan Hitchens. Feel free to share.

• Listen to recordings and download texts to read at your leisure here.

Signs of the Times and Recommended books

Discover our latest collections of articles to help you navigate this time of upheaval. We’ve assembled articles on Humanity, Bondi Beach, Islamism, Antisemitism, Changing Church, UK and International news - from across the media. You will also find our latest Recommended Books. Read more.

Thank you

Header image: Adoration of the Shepherds, Caravaggio (1609)

Matthew 22:37-40

Dear Friends,

Welcome to this edition of the T4CG Newsletter, with a special greeting to our new subscribers. As always, we’ve included lots of great content below which we hope will inform and inspire. To start, I want to reflect on the events of the past week in the UK—events that have left me, and I suspect many of you, deeply troubled.

Last Thursday evening, I found myself in Leeds railway station. In the main concourse, a Pro-Palestine demonstration was underway—a scene now familiar around the world. But on this occasion, protestors were masked and seemed emboldened; their chanting was aggressive, and the language of death was prominent. The timing and the tone framed the brutal murder of Jews in Manchester that very morning not as a tragedy, but as a grim “achievement” of war.

I was horrified. This was not mere insensitivity or indifference to the outrage earlier that day. The protesters’ behaviour was intentionally menacing. None of at least forty police officers did anything. The three officers I spoke to all said they were powerless to act. One even asked me to file a formal complaint with British Transport Police, which I did.

The intimidation tactics I witnessed, it later became clear, were part of a nationwide, coordinated campaign. In the media, the talk was of managing rights in a diverse society. But the issue at hand is not only one of free speech, nor only about the Middle East. And is it not a concern only for the Jewish community.

Both the attack and the menace that followed demonstrate a rupture of our common good. This dishonours us all. We are left with a deep sense of shame at what our country has become. Many people have been asking, “What happened to our humanity?” This question may seem naive or idealistic, but is exactly right.

Every era is shaped by a particular philosophy. The theological tradition of Catholic Social Thought helps us see that the animating idea of our collapsing era is liberalism—specifically, the extreme form known as neoliberalism.

This philosophy is built on the idea of “the unencumbered self,” a person reduced to an isolated, desiccated, soulless individual. This false anthropology has generated a false idea of freedom, which then demands a culture of personal preference where choice displaces meaning.

How different is this sad world of rights-bearing consumers from the vision of Christian anthropology—where, anchored in the Trinity, the truth of a human person is as a relational being created in the image of God.

The hyper-liberal spirit proclaims freedom, but is anti-human. Over the last few decades, its cult of self has infected our entire culture. The liberals of the political right endorse an economy that relies on cheap, mobile labour, degrading workers’ lives both at home and abroad. Those on the left promote identitarian dogma which distorts human identity, tempting people to self-sort into mutually hostile identity groups. Both forms have marketised society, producing a dehumanising estrangement—now, even to the point of murder.

The crisis here is real, and it is felt at every level. We may even be witnessing the collapse of trust in the British state. The stakes are high, but the future is not determined. We can—and must—be part of the antidote.

This is a time for kindness and friendship, but empathy and joint statements are not enough. What is required are acts of solidarity. Christians must build local relationships across class and opinion, across culture, faith and ethnicity. For believers, this vocation—this life of solidarity—is not optional; it is fundamental.

We need a new Christian humanism, one where our view of the world and society is grounded in an anthropology aligned with—not against—the nature of humanity. This means bringing a relational lens to rehumanise every decision. We have strayed far; the road back to reality will be long.

What is also required is the reform of our political economy. The answer to the question “What happened to our humanity?” must guide us. A new settlement is needed, at the heart of which must be a hard reckoning with power and economy—especially as the AI industrial revolution accelerates.

We must renew institutional life at every level. This will require a national story of solidarity—balancing rights and responsibilities—encompassed within a meaningful citizenship. It will mean distributing and decentralising power according to the principle of subsidiarity, and harnessing the power of capital to benefit family and community life. It will mean building an industrial strategy centred on the dignity of human labour.

But the root of the problem is spiritual, and so the solutions must be rooted in spirituality. As long as the flawed hyper-liberal anthropology maintains its hold on our society and politics, the crisis will persist. Some speak of a “quiet revival” of Christianity, but a faith-life focused only on individual salvation cannot resist the menace of totalitarian tendencies, nor the rise of ethno-nationalism, which itself springs from an identitarian worldview.

What is needed now is a relational spirituality, grounded in Christian anthropology, to guide our moral, social, cultural and economic life. A spirituality that orients us outward—to our neighbour and to God.

Every blessing

Jenny Sinclair and all the team at Together for the Common Good

In this edition

We are dedicated to civic and spiritual renewal. Here are some of our latest resources - which we hope will help you play your part in this time of profound change:

• Tony Uddin Disunited kingdom: peace-making in a time of polarisation

• John Clifton I was angry and you called me Gammon

• Edward Hadas I stand with my Jewish people

• Maurice Glasman and Jon Cruddas Statecraft for the Common Good

• Jenny Sinclair on Faith in the City: Forty Years On

• Jo Stow Autumn report on Common Good Schools

• Leaving Egypt podcast latest episodes

• Signs of the Times and Recommended Books latest selection

• Dates for your Diary: our Staying Human series of ONLINE public lectures continues. For full details and to book your place, see below or click HERE

This work happens thanks to a small number of wonderful supporters. To continue, we need to grow that number. If you’re not yet a paid subscriber, could you consider upgrading to a paid subscription and give us a hand? From only £5 a month you can play an important role in enabling this work to continue and grow.

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Being a Person in the Age of AI

Our next online public lecture is on Tuesday 21st October with Susannah Black Roberts, editor of Plough Quarterly, who will speak on Being a Person in the Age of AI. Susannah will look at what it means to be human, identifying practical ways in which we can preserve and cultivate our humanity in a world that threatens to make us obsolete. Drawing on the wisdom of Aquinas, Aristotle, CS Lewis and Catholic Social Thought, Susannah proposes a creative Christian asceticism to challenge the dopamine rush of an AI-flooded world. To register, click the button below.

Book now

The last in this current series is on Friday 21st November with Dan Hitchens, editor of First Things, who will speak on Useful Lives? addressing the cultural shift signalled by assisted suicide, marking a transition from the era of Cecily Saunders and the hospice movement to a new age where choosing death is presented as a solution. Drawing on the Catholic Social Thought tradition, Dan considers how we should respond to this hinge moment for British society. Booking opens soon.

Disunited Kingdom: peace-making in a time of polarisation

Amid the UK’s deepening divides over immigration, Tony Uddin speaks from experience about how churches can become genuine peacemakers. As a pastor in Tower Hamlets, he rejects both naive idealism and partisan posturing. Instead, he champions politically astute, grassroots leadership—rooted in courage and humility—that enables honest and balanced conversations on integration, ethnicity, and class.

I was angry and you called me Gammon

Gary from Blackpool, Charlie Kirk, and all these flags

In this sober and moving story, John Clifton examines the the discontent now being expressed across the country. A Salvation Army Officer who has lived alongside our poorest communities describes how anger, left unheard, hardens into wrath. Reflecting on three different scenarios, he on meditates on how Christ would respond.

Leaving Egypt podcast – latest episodes

Our Leaving Egypt podcast features co-hosts Jenny Sinclair and Al Roxburgh who explore what it means to be God’s people in an age of unravelling. Along with fascinating guests from across the Christian traditions they read the signs of the times and tell stories of hope from the grassroots.

Check out our latest episodes:

• Luke Bretherton Made to be with and for each other

• Jide Ehizele Local, Sacramental, Relational

• +Philip North Deeply Local, Rooted in Listening

Coming soon: Sarah Small, Anne Snyder, John Clifton, Andrew Willard Jones, Luigino Bruni and many more! It’s easy to join the Leaving Egypt community - subscribe here for free.

I stand with my Jewish People

In the wake of the horrific terrorist attack on the Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester, we felt it important to re-share this outstanding essay by Edward Hadas. A scholar of Catholic Social Teaching, and a Jewish convert to Christianity, Edward argues that, given the history of antisemitism, Christians have a special obligation to stand in solidarity with the Jewish community. For Christians, judgements of Israeli policy and Zionism should be of far less importance than the obligation to show solidarity with Jews and all people of goodwill in rejecting all forms of antisemitism.

Statecraft for the Common Good

The recording of our latest Staying Human event is now available. We were fortunate to have two complementary lectures. Jon Cruddas and Maurice Glasman each addressed how statecraft must be approached to tackle our current crises, and in light of the realities posed by AI. Both rooted in the Catholic Social Thought tradition, with deep experience in the mechanics of government, grassroots and parliamentary politics, and as people of faith, they set the territory for a frank conversation about the new era.

Listen now

Download lecture texts here:

• From Tragedy to Restoration - Shaping the New Era - Maurice Glasman

• From Crisis to Meaning – Renewal and the Spirit of Justice - Jon Cruddas

Common Good Schools - Autumn Update

Kicking off the new academic year, Jo Stow, Common Good Schools Project Leader, anticipates a dynamic term ahead. She reflects on the success of Phase One of the pilot for our new primary school resource, previewing Phase Two and the upcoming launch in early 2025. Jo also outlines her plans with our partner secondary schools this term and highlights forthcoming speaking engagements across the country. Discover how you can get involved and join in praying for this vital work.

Faith in the City 40 Years On: What Now?

This year sees the 40th anniversary of Faith in the City, the influential report that influenced decades of Christian charitable activity. But, asks Jenny Sinclair, was its analysis correct and is it right for the new era? Jenny has raised this question around the anniversary. Here, we share news about a chapter for a book of essays, a video from a panel event at Chester Cathedral, a recording of her lecture at Liverpool Cathedral, and an interview in Proximity magazine.

Signs of the Times and Recommended Books

Explore our latest collection of articles from new and legacy media to help you navigate the new era. You’ll also find our latest selection of recommended books.

Thank you

Header image: Icon of the New Testament Trinity (1450, Byzantium, Constantinople)

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the T4CG Newsletter. This edition is packed with great resources, as you’ll see below. But first, let’s start with a reflection on peace.

Matthew 5:9

For St Augustine, true peace emerges from the harmonious ordering of relations: between people, within and between political communities, and most importantly, with God. This theme, which runs throughout his City of God, is the all-encompassing, relational peace that Leo XIV - the first Augustinian pope - invoked in his first address, describing it as “disarming, humble, and persevering.”

How far we are from such peace. Even though the City of Man will always be blighted by injustice and conflict, Christians are called to promote peace in its affairs and in everyday life. To do this, we must be alert to what is going on and the causes of division.

For over forty years, British governments of both left and right have been colonised by variants of a bad idea. A hyper-liberal, progressive dogma has “liberated” everything from constraint, leading not only to extreme economic inequality but also freeing us from the limitations of responsibility, tradition, history, borders, citizenship, truth, family and even human nature. Assuming there was no longer any need for God, this philosophy supposedly freed society from God’s laws, supplanting them with the subjective, rational self as the moral authority.

As a result, we face an unravelling, a meta-crisis where everything seems to be going wrong at the same time. Unanswered questions hang over the country like a dark malaise: why so many people are paid wages too low to live on; why young adults are not forming families; why governments allowed migration to become so divisive; why laws allowing the killing of babies and the elderly are rushed through parliament.

Gross mismanagement by careless leaders has left the nation in a parlous state, dangerously divided. Awareness of this unhappy reality is limited depending on where you live, whom you know, and what news sources you consume. Many communities are deeply alienated, and pockets of unrest make wider instability a realistic prospect. Top-down attempts to suppress dissent are fuelling division and resentment, eroding trust and making the situation more volatile.

But there is hope. This moment is an opportunity for the Church to rediscover its true vocation. We are called to witness for Christian peace—not an administrative peace as in tolerance or social cohesion, nor a progressive peace that seeks to re-educate those guilty of wrongthink, but a peace that comes through The Way, the Kingdom, through a life of meaning shaped by the divine order. With God's grace, it is possible to become a courageous people who sacrifice their own comfort to build this peace.

John XXIII’s encyclical Pacem in Terris points to the causes of division through two lenses: the violation of God’s order and the relation between rights and order. It states that “Peace on Earth… can never be established, never guaranteed, except by the diligent observance of the divinely established order.” It also asserts that laws which violate this order “can have no binding force in conscience.”

Drawing on the wisdom of St Paul, Aquinas, and early Christian thinkers, the encyclical places great emphasis on the interconnection between rights and duties. Duties place rights within an order, creating accountability. For example, “The right to life involves the duty to preserve one's life; the right to a decent standard of living, the duty to live in a becoming fashion; the right to be free to seek out the truth, the duty to devote oneself to an ever deeper and wider search for it.”

However, the academic ideologies of identity politics ignored the link between rights and duties, leading to a duty-free paradigm of rights. Over time, this one-sided approach caused deep fragmentation, balkanising the population into estranged groups barely aware of the realities outside their silos. There has been a breach of the common good.

For Christ, justice can never be tribal. Just like the biblical prophets before Him, the love our Lord practises sits within the rabbinical tradition of relational justice, bringing people together across class, background, ethnicity and opinion. Love is the way to the Kingdom. This love is accompanied by truth, which, although it can be hard to bear, sets us free.

Where do we begin? We can take courage from the martyrs and saints, and from our fellow citizens today who are brave enough to speak the truth, even at risk to their own liberty. Each of us is called to be a witness to truth, from which justice flows. Truth-telling and listening in a context of divine love are the first steps on the road to a tangible peace. Everyone is worthy of that love, no matter what views they may have held before. Everyone is worthy of redemption.

Our churches must be places of healing, where people are known, loved, and heard, and where solidarity is real. They must become places that honour the vital relationship between rights and duties, the basic structure of reality, and the beauty of God’s moral order. Church communities should feel like home, enabling people to speak truth without fear. Deliberation is essential for social peace, and diversity of opinion is fundamental. Courage is called for, and the truth heals. As Augustine so passionately declares, truth is the very foundation of justice and Christian peace.

In enabling the truth to be told, we enable a life-giving connection between people and the emergence of a shared story of constructive citizenship. Our country desperately needs prophetic witnesses for the common good, and local churches are uniquely positioned to set the tone by standing in the breach.

Gracious Lord, give us the courage to build your peace.

Jenny Sinclair and all the team at Together for the Common Good

We are a small charity achieving a lot with very little. The work of Together for the Common Good depends on the generosity of a small number of wonderful supporters. If you’re not yet a paid subscriber, could you consider upgrading to a paid subscription and give us a hand? From only £5 a month you can play an important role in enabling this work to continue and grow.

In this edition

• Ben Curran Staying Put: John Battle’s Quiet Revolution

• Jenny Sinclair From Charity to Solidarity: A Radical Return to Christian Justice

• Lord Glasman Ever Ancient, Ever New

• Danny Kruger A Dangerous New Politics

• Jenny Sinclair A Fraying Social Fabric?

• Leaving Egypt podcast latest episodes

• Jo Stow reports on Common Good Schools

• Signs of the Times and Recommended Books latest selection

• T4CG Events and dates for your diary this autumn: our Staying Human series of ONLINE public lectures continues on Monday 15th September, beginning with Statecraft for the Common Good by Jon Cruddas and Maurice Glasman.

Book now

Staying Put: John Battle’s Quiet Revolution

In a culture where moving on and moving up are often taken as signs of success, Ben Curran interviews John Battle and learns about his deep commitment to staying put. John describes how a life centred around local relationships has led to profound but simple acts of solidarity that have resulted in concrete transformation of lives and enduring forms of community ownership.

From charity to solidarity: a radical return to Christian justice

This is the 12th Annual Micah Lecture given by Jenny Sinclair for Liverpool Cathedral. Prompted by the anniversary of the Faith in the City report, Jenny examines the prevailing assumptions of Christian charity and social action and argues for a new approach appropriate for the new era. Challenging and inspiring in equal measure, this lecture was commissioned to prompt an honest conversation among church leaders and congregations, Christian charities and volunteers.

Ever Ancient, Ever New

In this talk, Maurice Glasman describes the scale of the transformation we are living through, outlining the features of the old era as it is dying, and of the new as it is emerging. Referring to Leo XIII, Leo XIV, Aquinas, the Old Testament and the encyclicals of St John Paul II, Lord Glasman expresses his gratitude for Catholic Social Thought and its influence on his political life. This event was convened by Together for the Common Good at the WeBelieve Festival of Catholic Life on 27 July 2025. Includes audio of the talk and the conversation afterwards with Jenny Sinclair and Monsignor John Armitage.

A dangerous new politics

Danny Kruger, MP for East Wiltshire, was closely involved in scrutinising the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill as it passed through the House of Commons. Before it can become law, the Bill will undergo the same process in the House of Lords and is expected to be debated there in September. Danny writes powerfully about the darkness being ushered in as the dogma of autonomy subordinates our human obligations to each other, especially to the most vulnerable.

Common Good Schools – Summer Update

As this academic year draws to a close, Jo Stow, Project Leader for Common Good Schools, celebrates highlights from a busy term, including the successful pilot of a new six week common good resource for primary schools, bringing together our Italian and Liverpudlian partners, welcoming a new secondary school partner, as well as contributing to conferences and a pilgrimage. Jo looks ahead to an exciting schedule in the autumn, meeting increasing requests to address head teachers and delivering phase two of the primary pilot.

Migrant Protests: Is the Social Fabric Fraying?

Amidst growing public discontent, Angela Rayner and Sir Keir Starmer have said recently that Britain’s social fabric is “fraying at the edges”. In a short interview for TWR Radio, Jenny Sinclair comments on these remarks and goes on to discuss the causes of the present crisis, advising how Christians should respond.

Leaving Egypt podcast – latest episodes

If you haven’t yet discovered the Leaving Egypt podcast, give it a try over the summer! Co-hosts Jenny Sinclair and Alan Roxburgh explore with guests what it means to be God's people in an age of unravelling. Guests come from across the Christian traditions to read the signs of the times and tell stories of hope from the grassroots.

We know you will love our latest episodes:

• Finding a Place of Belonging with Angie Allgood

• A New Kind of Humanism with Susannah Black Roberts

• A Church Listening for the Spirit with Avril Baigent

• Forming Christian Life in the Rust Belt with Reuben Slife

After the August break, we will return with more wonderful guests including Bishop Philip North, Jide Ehizele, Luke Bretherton, Andrew Willard Jones, Anne Snyder and many more!

The Leaving Egypt community is growing, now with listeners in over 100 countries. It's easy to join: subscribe here – take out a paid subscription and play your part in sustaining this growing ministry.

Signs of the Times and Recommended Books

Explore our collection of articles from and beyond the mainstream media to help you navigate this time of change. We hope you find these links helpful. You’ll also find our latest selection of recommended books.

Upcoming T4CG events: dates for your diary

Our Staying Human series of ONLINE public lectures continues in the autumn:

• 6.30pm Monday 15th September: Statecraft for the Common Good with Jon Cruddas and Maurice Glasman.

  Book your place

• 6.30pm Tuesday 21st October: Being a Person in the Age of AI with Susannah Black Roberts - booking opens nearer the time.

• 6.30pm Friday 21st November: Useful Lives? with Dan Hitchens - booking opens nearer the time.

Join us online! For FULL DETAILS of the whole series, click HERE

Thank you

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Header image by Temuri Givi Kuliani: “Cleopas and the Unbelievable Story” Reproduced here with kind permission of the artist. www.kulianiart.com

Dear Friends,

Welcome to our Newsletter for the Pentecost Season, especially to our new subscribers.

Communion

Revelation 2:7

Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches

On the day of Pentecost, the disciples were all together in Jerusalem. Jesus had told them to wait there for the promise of the Father. As devout Jews, they would also have been waiting to celebrate Shavuot, the Jewish festival that celebrates God’s revelation of the Law at Mount Sinai.

Hearing a great noise like a rushing wind, the disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit. Astonishingly, they find themselves speaking in multiple languages. The noise alerted other Jews in Jerusalem, people from all over the known world. They came to see what was going on—and were amazed to understand the apostles’ message in their own tongues. Many Christians interpret this action of the Holy Spirit as the birth of the church. This unity of peoples and languages is often contrasted with the Tower of Babel, when man’s attempt to acquire god-like power, through false unity, was thwarted by the true God.

Our own time is plagued with a new sort of faulty unity: the globalised world created by the neoliberal marketisation of society. We are reduced to units of labour and consumption, unmoored from a meaningful past and with no regard for our distinct personal selves. The globalised economy and social systems promise to respect diversity, but reduce difference to superficial “identity groups”, whose unity is artificial. These groups lack the true internal coherence needed for self-governance or authentic rebellion, so they end up as subservient subgroups of the ever more extensive and intrusive modern state.

George Orwell wrote about this tendency, where “laissez-faire capitalism gives way to planning and state interference”. He describes a “managerial class” whose manipulation of bureaucratic procedure enables them to intervene in more and more areas of life. James Burnham, the philosopher who gave Orwell the idea, predicted that this class, capable of the “technical direction and coordination” of society, would operate by gently coercing consent.

Such people today, now widely mocked as the “lanyard class”, have achieved significant power. Convincing themselves they know what is best for society while acting in their own interests, they extend their reach - across state, economy, academia, and culture, and across national borders - by handing “unlimited power to people very similar to themselves”.

The result is a sort of soft totalitarianism, which enrages many ordinary people. Indeed, much of what is called populism can be more accurately described as a revolt against the political ideas, arrogance and evasion of accountability of the new ruling class.

But all empires contain the seeds of their own doom. Saint Augustine’s concept of the two cities can help us understand the dynamics. The City of Man, pandering to the human desire for control, can be identified by its “love of self, even to the point of contempt for God”. Its unhappy outcome is a cultural malaise, and so it is no coincidence that we see growing evidence now of a spiritual hunger, a longing to escape this deadly uniformity, and a yearning for true unity in God. There is a restlessness in our own empire.

In his Confessions, Augustine prays, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." That rest is found only in the City of God, the City that reaches its perfection in heaven. Unlike the all too human earthly city’s political tyranny, atomised consumption, oppressive uniformity, hedonism, divisive identity categories and dehumanising systems, the Heavenly City offers a very different kind of reality.

The citizens of the Heavenly City are the people who love God above all else. Representing the community of believers, this is a spiritual reality. Transcending earthly boundaries, it offers an authentic unity and freedom only possible through the Holy Spirit. As we read in Acts 2, “All the believers were together and had everything in common.” Regardless of difference, this community has agency, and can hold the full complexity of human uniqueness. Tyrannical forces hate this unity. Pentecost is a reminder that we are engaged in spiritual warfare.

We make our home in the City of God, but Augustine does not advocate for detachment from earthly affairs. Living in the world but not of it, as sojourners or pilgrims, we, the church, are called to get into the detail of our local, physical reality, to join with our neighbours in building up a just and orderly society for the common good. We must listen to the Spirit, our advocate, who gives us the grace to play our part. In fact, the earthly peace of our nations depends on it.

In his first address, Pope Leo XIV invoked peace. His greeting, “Peace be with you!” was not abstract. He was referring to peace as a tangible gift, “a peace that is unarmed and disarming, humble and persevering.” This peace comes not through control, but through surrender to God. It is built by listening, encounter and bridge-building. He was describing the peace of the risen Christ.

The meaning of Pentecost is both a judgement against the false unity of tyrants, and a blessing on communal life to be upheld through true unity in the Spirit. The City of God is not like the City of Man. It is not measured in greatness, but experienced in communion.

Blessings for this Season of Pentecost

Jenny Sinclair and all the team at Together for the Common Good

In this edition

We’re delighted to bring you lots of great content below. First, a short reflection by Michael Merrick on the estrangement of the Church from the working class, then a keynote by Jenny Sinclair on how Catholic Social Teaching can help us play our part in this time of deep change. You’ll also find a beautiful story by Jide Ehizele on the value of Christian vocation in the local, and Jo Stow explores the difference between being a consumer and a neighbour. We share the latest Leaving Egypt episodes too, featuring conversations with Jo Gilbert, Samuel Luak and Rodney Clapp. Last but not least, you will find Signs of the Times, our latest collection of articles and Recommended Books.

Welcome to the T4CG Substack - read on below and discover more here.

If you are enjoying this content, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription and help us continue this work.

Who Today is Our Lazarus at the Gates?

Who today is our Lazarus at the gates? This story by Michael Merrick addresses the estrangement between the Church and working class communities, calling the Church to an examination of conscience.

Am I a consumer, or a neighbour?

Am I a consumer, or a neighbour? In our work with schools, children and young people, we invite them to reflect on a question. This question is implicit throughout our KS2 and KS3/4 programmes. And it’s an important one. Here, our Common Good Schools project leader, Jo Stow asks ‘Am I a consumer, or a neighbour?’

Local Doesn’t Mean Small

Local Doesn’t Mean Small This is a story by Jide Ehizele whose sense of vocation is drawing him deeper into the local, into a shared life of civic and spiritual belonging.

Our Calling for the Common Good

Our Calling for the Common Good In this talk for head teachers at the EducareM School of National Formation, Jenny Sinclair explores how Catholic Social Teaching can help us play our part in the renewal of our country in this moment of deep change.

Leaving Egypt podcast – latest episodes

In our Leaving Egypt podcast, co-hosts Jenny Sinclair and Alan Roxburgh explore with guests what it means to be God's people in an age of unravelling. Guests from across the Christian traditions help Jenny and Al read the signs of the times and tell stories of hope from the grassroots.

Listen to our latest episodes:

• God wants us to be human again with Samuel Luak, from Welcome Churches

• Living out of Control with Rodney Clapp, author and editor

• A Spirit-filled Parish for the City with Jo Gilbert, East Brighton Catholic Parish

More exciting episodes are on the way in the coming weeks - with guests Susannah Black Roberts, Avril Baigent, Reuben Slife and Luke Bretherton, and many more. The Leaving Egypt community is growing, now with listeners in over 90 countries. It's easy to join and free to subscribe - sign up here

Signs of the Times

In Signs of the Times we share articles from beyond the mainstream media exploring the state of the UK, geopolitics, the changing church and the emerging challenges to humanity through a common good lens.

We share Michael Lind’s Avoiding the Jetsons Fallacy: AI and the Future of the City, Karl Mehta’s thread Big Pharma’s worst nightmare just came true, Sohrab Ahmari’s Pope Leo XIV heralds a renewal of Catholic social justice, Tanjii Rashid on The signs that Gen Z are turning to faith, and many other contributions.

Read the full list of articles and our latest book recommentations in Signs of the Times

In other news

• Our Director, Jenny Sinclair, will give the 2025 Annual Micah Lecture at Liverpool Cathedral on 19 June at 7pm. Booking is available here

• The first phase of our Common Good Schools primary schools pilot is underway with 17 schools. A second group of schools is set to pilot the material in the autumn – there is still time to join - get in touch here

• We are planning the next lectures in our Staying Human T4CG Public Talks series. For now we can share that Susannah Black Roberts, Senior Editor at Plough Magazine, will speak on 21 October. More to follow in the next newsletter.

Thank you

Thank you for reading this far. As ever, our aim is to inspire and support you. Drawing on the Catholic Social Thought tradition, all our work aims to encourage people to play their part in spiritual and civic renewal.

The demand for this work is growing. If you haven’t already, please consider taking out a paid subscription to help this work continue and grow.

*Header: Pentecost image from the 6th century. Folio 14v of the Rabula Gospels (Florence, Biblioteca Mediceo Laurenziana, cod. Plut. I, 560). Wikimedia Commons.

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the T4CG Newsletter for the Easter Season, our first edition from Substack.

Acts 18:9

Over the fifty days leading up to Pentecost, we encounter the formation of the first Christian communities. In our liturgies we read in the book of Acts how the Holy Spirit galvanised a group of frightened disciples into a community capable of evangelising the world. As we revisit this scripture, we are prompted to imagine what it will take to become such a people in our own time.

This year has extra significance. In a rare occurrence, the Gregorian, Julian and Hebrew calendars calculations meant that not only did Eastern Orthodox and Western Catholics celebrate Easter on April 20, but the Jewish people also concluded their Passover celebration on the same date.

Almost from the beginning of the Church, Christians understood that the Passion and Resurrection of Christ was the completion of the Festival of Passover, signifying that the Lord’s deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt was only the foreshadowing of the Resurrection of the Lord and of the deliverance of humanity from sin and death. Thus, Resurrection Day became known as the “Paschal Mystery”, after the Hebrew word for Passover: Pasch.

What does it take to become a people of the Resurrection? As Pope John Paul II famously said, ‘We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.’ Drawing on Augustine’s exposition on Psalm 148, he was indicating that being such a people is not just for a day, nor just for a season, we are called to a way of life. He goes on to qualify what the Easter season should mean for us: ‘We are not looking for a shallow joy but rather a joy that comes from faith, that grows through unselfish love, that respects the fundamental duty of love of neighbour, without which it would be unbecoming to speak of Joy’. Easter must not be domesticated.

This way of life, this fundamental duty of love of neighbour - which was also a great theme for Pope Francis too - is a call to action for our Pascal Season. But how do we avoid the temptations of a ‘shallow joy’?

To be a people of the Resurrection, we must enter the depths of the Crucifixion. The silence and darkness of Holy Saturday provide us with the necessary disorientation. We must carry this with us through the Paschal season - this place where everything seemingly has come undone. It is a place not to be fixing things, but just to be. There is perhaps a sacramentality to the nothingness. We are to go into the humiliation and the pain of our Lord, uniting our pain with His. In this place of surrender, we can begin to see the world from the perspective of the crucified Christ. We can pray along the lines of, ‘unite me with your wounds Lord, let it be a blessing for me to experience your suffering and to share with you the view from the cross.’

Our Lord was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. As we enter into the contemplation of the Crucifixion, we notice his grave expression. We begin to see the way He sees. Joining with His pain leads us to see with His great compassion but also His uncompromising truth. We see the foolishness, the cruelty, the madness of crowds. We see the crushing of the human spirit in unemployment, the evil of assisted suicide, the horror of aborting babies, the terror of every girl or woman raped, the humiliation of loneliness, the persecution of the faithful for their beliefs, the violence of war, the corruption of demoralisation, the intimidation of those with the courage to tell the truth about biological sex. There are many more crucifixions. The view from the cross is the place of most clarity. It is where the evil of the world is most easily perceived.

This calling to see and to respond is not easy. But this is not a time for a complacent church. In Amos 5, God condemns worship, even sincere worship, if the everyday life of the faithful fails to manifest justice and righteousness in their attitude to, and solidarity with, the poor and those who suffer injustice. Worship and life must be of one piece, not separated or compartmentalised.

This Paschal mindset does not avoid difficult issues in an “out of sight, out of mind” kind of way. It calls us to resist the temptations of indifference and moral squeamishness and to be a people with the courage to notice, listen and act in solidarity. It calls us beyond the concerns of our personal salvation journey to a ‘fundamental duty of love of neighbour’, including the love that strives to reform the structures of sin that blight our country.

Pope John Paul II was profoundly concerned that neoliberal economies were undermining the inherent dignity of human work. Drawing deeply on Scripture, his 1981 encyclical Laborem Exercens called for a political economy with dignified work as the cornerstone. He believed that it is ‘through work’ that a person ‘achieves fulfillment as a human being,’ and participates in God’s creative plan.

Examining the realities of contemporary economies, John Paul rejected all systems which undermined the dignity of the human being. This was a man who had experienced Nazi occupation first hand, who encouraged the „Solidarność” labour movement in Communist Poland, and who was aware of widespread exploitation of workers and the commodification of labour in so-called free markets, especially in poorer countries. Just as his predecessors had done, Pope Francis, the great champion of the poor - may he rest in peace - also warned about this inherently unstable ‘economy of exclusion and inequality.’ He said, ‘such an economy kills.’

We are now seeing major geopolitical shifts. Globalisation is breaking down, and the long-predicted end of neoliberalism brings opportunity. The new era is fraught with uncertainty and yet there is space to shape the future: we are called to help create a civilisation of love. For each of us, it means finding our own unique way of making a constructive contribution, however small.

The protection of human flourishing requires the rejection of techno-feudalism and the building of a common good political economy, a system based on the dignity of decent work. For the churches and Christian charities, this means a rejection of welfarism and a shift in posture from service to solidarity.

To be a Resurrection people we must not only express joy. Our Lord, who does not shy away from hard questions, is as close to the sorrows and injustices of the world as he is to the joys. Having encountered the meaning of the Crucifixion, we must ask God to preserve in us that ability to discern good from evil. Our Lord was killed by an oppressive Roman regime. Today, we must not turn away from the Crucifixion of good people by the principalities and powers of our own time.

During his visit to Liverpool, John Paul II prayed, ‘Lord, Restore Your Church on Earth Through the Gifts of Penance and Reconciliation.’ This means penance for the times we turned away and reconciliation with the people we have forgotten. The radical reality of this Pascal season is about deliverance. We are called to be an Easter people, for whom Easter isn’t merely a day or even a season. It’s a life of resurrection where we die and are reborn every day.

Wishing you a blessed Easter season.

Jenny Sinclair and all the team at Together for the Common Good

*****

RIP Pope Francis

Mourning the death of Pope Francis, we recall a man who longed for “a Church which is bruised, hurting, and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from clinging to its own security.” He did not please everyone, but he embodied the principle of the preferential option for the poor. In his struggle to refocus ecclesial priorities, he fought for a more personal Church, and his encyclicals, Laudato Si, Fratelli Tutti and Dilexit Nos expressed God’s love for human life and creation. Our good and faithful servant has been called home to the Lord. May he rest in peace.

In this edition

Welcome to our Substack platform! Many of you have previously received the T4CG Newsletter via Mailchimp. I hope you enjoy this new platform – if you haven’t discovered Substack before, I am sure you will find it useful. Over the coming months we’ll be developing further content here as and when our capacity allows. We are a very small charity making a big impact, but this is only possible with your support.

Demand for this work is growing so if you like what we do, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription.

Read on for our latest featured content. We hope you find this helpful.

Signs of the Times

Explore our Signs of the Times page with our latest collection of articles from across the media on the state of the UK, geopolitics, the changing church and the emerging challenges to humanity. Plus a few recommended books.

Building the Civilisation of Love: an Introduction to Catholic Social Teaching

Building the Civilisation of Love: an Introduction to Catholic Social Teaching – this was the focus of a session our Director Jenny Sinclair gave for East Brighton Parish, a dynamic and diverse church community becoming more and more connected with their neighbours. Click on the link for text, slides and a recording.

Leaving Egypt Podcast

In our Leaving Egypt podcast, co-hosts Jenny Sinclair and Alan Roxburgh explore with guests what it means to be God's people in an age of unravelling. Guests come from across the Christian traditions to help Jenny and Al read the signs of the times and hear stories of hope from the grassroots. We are sure you will enjoy our latest episodes:

• Sally Gaze, Archdeacon for Rural Mission in Suffolk, in God's Mission in the Rural

• Bejoy Pal, the CEO of Ascension Trust, in The Investment of Love

• Adrian Pabst, leading postliberal thinker in Wisdom in Disconcerting Times

More exciting episodes are on the way in the coming months with guests Samuel Luak, Jo Gilbert, Rodney Clapp, Susannah Black Roberts - and many more to come. The Leaving Egypt community is growing, now with listeners in over 90 countries. It's easy to join and free to subscribe.

Challenging Power, Changing Practice and Deepening Spirituality

Challenging Power, Changing Practice and Deepening Spirituality is a new paper Jon Kuhrt and Jenny Sinclair have written about the challenges facing the future of Christian social action as poverty is getting worse. Building on growing momentum since the T4CG lecture given by Jon last year, this paper reports on a retreat we held before Christmas with 36 CEOs/leaders and sets out how our sense of how God is reshaping Christian charity in this time of great change.

Pilgrimages of Grace: Walking towards the Common Good

Pilgrimages of Grace: Walking towards the Common Good is a story by Phil McCarthy who proposes walking pilgrimage as a humble witness to challenge the forces that undermine the common good, and shares news of a special pilgrimage coming up this September.

Promises to Place

Promises to Place is a story of a pioneering contribution to a place and its people, in which the Church fulfilled a valued and transformative role as a civic partner. Francis Davis explores the calling of Mgr Nicholas France and the extensive impact of his unique witness.

Assisted Dying

The Report Stage of the Assisted Suicide bill is May 16. Even if you have already done so, it is still important to contact your MP as a matter of urgency. Our Assisted Dying guidance sheet will help you compose a letter.

In other news

• Our Common Good Schools programme has growing momentum. Please pray for all our partner schools running the secondary KS3&4 resource, for all the new schools joining, and for our project leader, Jo Stow as she writes and pilots a new resource for KS2 between now and the autumn. We’re thrilled that 40 primary schools will be piloting the new primary programme. We are seeking someone to fulfil a part time support role: if you can help, have a look at the details here.

• We are delighted to announce that Susannah Black Roberts, editor of Plough Quarterly, will be our speaker in the autumn as part of the T4CG Staying Human Public Talks series. A date for your diary: Susannah’s talk will be livestreamed at 6.30pm on October 21st. More information will follow in due course and other speakers will be announced soon.

Thank you

Thank you for reading this far. As ever, our aim is to inspire and support you. Drawing on the Catholic Social Thought tradition, all our work aims to encourage people to play their part in spiritual and civic renewal. The demand for this work is growing. Please consider taking out a paid subscription to help us continue.

This is the editorial from the T4CG Newsletter Lent 2025. To view the newsletter in full, click here

Matthew 6:15

Dear Friends

Welcome to the Lent edition of the T4CG Newsletter, especially to our new subscribers.

It was Ernest Hemingway who famously said, “change happens slowly then all at once.” We are undergoing, as Pope Francis has said, “not just an epoch of change, but a change of epoch.” He has described this as a process of being stripped of “false securities.” It is no longer possible to “complacently enjoy” the illusions of the old era. It is no longer credible to continue with the assumption that governments have adequately represented us, or that the socio-economic model we’ve been living with can underwrite a flourishing life for all.

The upheaval we are now experiencing was foreseen by those who understood the inherent logic of the dying system, its devastating consequences for the human being, for families and communities, and its assault on relationship. They understood the profound disconnect it generated between ordinary working people and an arrogant governing class that presided over the corruption of our moral, social and economic life for the past forty years. As a new geopolitical order emerges from the wreckage, many still cling to the assumptions of that failed system.

What comes next is uncertain and the speed of events affects our capacity to discern wisely. Things are not obvious and could even turn out to be the opposite of what they seem. We should want to proceed carefully – not easy when there is so much social pressure to take a position.

These are days of temptation. Powerful forces are luring people into tribal groups. When dissent in our social circles meets with suspicion we are tempted to self-censor. We may hesitate for fear of provoking disagreement. But as Christ warned us against seeking the esteem of men rather than God, we must disentangle ourselves from distractions and look for truth, however little social approval this receives.

In this time of spiritual warfare, we are called to withdraw from the gaze of others, to discern alone with God – to “go into your room, close the door and pray.” We are not to engage in performative acts to prove our virtue: as the prophet Joel said to the people of Judah, “rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God.”

The devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness with the promise of worldly power. We too have been tempted for years to align with the propaganda of the globalisation project. As Jesus refused to make bread from a stone, so we must reject the lies that have been pushed on us, that consumerism will meet our real needs; that a zero hours’ contract will sustain a decent life; that social media likes will lead to fulfilment; that a culture of personal preferences can lead to mutual flourishing. And just as Our Lord declined the offer of earthly dominion in return for subordination, we must reject the utopian visions of social control that mask a totalitarian instinct.

In our desert time, we must be alert to these and the numerous other subtle ways in which the Great Deceiver attempts to turn us against each other. This Lent, we must face the scarcity of easy answers.

There are immense challenges as we engage with the AI revolution, geopolitical dynamics and the deep malaise in our own country. In this context, being on good terms with our neighbours, both locally and internationally, will be our greatest source of security.

The imperative now is to find ways of staying human. We must defend human life from commodification – from birth to death and everything in between. People are yearning for a restoration of common sense, of meaning and mutual responsibility. We are called to be constructive. The new era will be shaped by us as we participate together in building structures of grace.

Luke Bretherton describes it like this: “the times call for a renewed democratic vision, enacted not through political parties or legal procedures, but through highly participatory and relational local forms of association. We need to cultivate that God-shaped space, unmediated by the powers of market and state, where we discover what it means to be human with and for others.”

We must ask the Holy Spirit to help us think for ourselves, to love truth, to find points of connection and meet others heart to heart. Allowing each other to speak freely and honestly again is fundamental; a social peace cannot be achieved without frank deliberation. Hearing each other’s stories unlocks shared concerns through which we can build the common good.

But more than this, we are commanded to forgive each other. We cannot heal through protest, denunciation or avoidance, nor through deploying methods of therapeutic management to avoid hard truths. Forgiveness is fundamental to the reweaving of our common life.

To forgive is not moral disarmament in the face of evil. It is not without judgement. It is to acknowledge sin and to see justice done, but also to embrace repentance, cultivate responsibility and to dissolve the desire for revenge. Forgiveness is intended to stir the human heart, to bring people back into relationship with God.

This is why in Matthew 6.15, Jesus is so uncompromising: if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive yours. To forgive is to join with God in His work of redemption and repair, to mend that which has been broken.

***

To help you make sense of this moment of seismic change, we have collected a longer than usual set of articles and podcasts in our Signs of the Times section in the full version of this newsletter.

In this edition for Lent, my colleague Jo Stow writes about a relational approach to almsgiving and hidden poverty in schools; we share the recording and text from our recent lecture by Luke Bretherton on reimagining the spirit of the commons, and an essay by Adrian Pabst and John Milbank on political economy and the good life. From me, there’s an interview I gave for Radio Maria where I discuss with Fr Toby Lees OP why everything is falling apart, and in an article for Crucible I set out how Catholic Social Thought can help us as we navigate the new era.

You’ll also find our latest episodes from Leaving Egypt – the podcast I co-host with Alan Roxburgh, where we explore what it means to be God’s people in this time of unravelling. Alongside that, you will see we will shortly be hosting an online Conversations event with David Cayley, the pre-eminent authority on Ivan Illich.

As ever, our aim is to inspire and support you. Drawing on the Catholic Social Thought tradition, we hold public events, produce a podcast, create online resources and equip churches and schools to play their part in spiritual and civic renewal.

This has been another busy period and demand for our work is growing. We run on a very limited budget and need your help. If you value what we do, please consider taking out a paid subscription to support T4CG. Please pray for us as we do for you.

Wishing you a blessed Lent,
Jenny Sinclair, and the Together for the Common Good team

John 1:14

To view the full version of this Newsletter, which was sent before we joined Substack, click here

Dear Friends

A warm welcome to the Christmas and New Year edition of the T4CG Newsletter.

The little drawing above is the winning entry in our children's community Christmas card competition, a response to our invitation to draw or paint something reflecting on "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood", from John 1:14. This simple image brings it home that our God is not abstract. That Jesus is born into a place. That through the Holy Spirit, God is with us where we are.

Reflecting on the reality of God, I am thinking about a conversation on our Leaving Egypt podcast with Harvey Kwiyani, a Malawian missionary working among Christian communities here in the UK. We were discussing the impact of modernity on how people perceive God. Harvey's home culture has not yet succumbed to neoliberalism and individualism, and for his community still, the Spirit of God is real. They live with the expectation that God is at work among them, all the time. Harvey says "their interpersonal relations are grounded in the belief that they are serving the Spirit as they serve one another.” By contrast in the UK, he is meeting "many people who say they follow Christ, live as if God does not exist. What we are seeing is a functional atheism."

Our culture has lost its way, and the hunger for meaning is drawing some prominent atheists to explore Christianity. The attraction for some of them is what they perceive of as its role in the defence of Western culture. This is understandable and the loss is real. But Jesus tells us not to be afraid. We are invited to be constructive not defensive, and to restore trust in the reality of the divine nature of Creation. We are called to join in with God's great participation, with what the Holy Spirit is doing among us in the here and now, in the places where we live and work. This is not a naive or woolly position. Rather, the incarnational story calls us to a covenantal way of living bounded by the commandments, primarily to love God and neighbour. We are called into a story that is both traditional and radical.

The cultural malaise we are in is caused by an operating philosophy that, as John Gray has said, "is exhausted". He describes it as "a certain kind of neoliberal progressivism, unfitted to the conditions of the world in which we live." It was based on a false anthropology that assumes human beings can flourish as transacting individuals, and its system of globalisation is geared to prioritise the interests of finance capital. Such a worldview comes from the mistaken assumption that God, place, tradition and relationships are unimportant. This is why we are seeing this widespread unravelling and why we see such human distress.

Amidst all the brokenness, we must live with the expectation that God is at work. Anchored in daily practices of prayer, we can look out for the movements of the Spirit in the mundane, in conversations at the bus stop, in the taxi, in the local shop. Moments of mutual acknowledgement, acts of loving kindness, intentional acts of listening, making eye contact, putting down the smartphone - all these can develop into a shared strength capable of resisting what is dehumanising, and foster a confidence to build further human connection.

Made in the image of God, we are relational beings and by making space to listen to each other and to the Spirit, new forms of local association will emerge. These forms are the beginnings of a constructive alternative to the neoliberal and totalitarian tendencies that have become so dominant.

Grassroots collaborations, whether around local food production and supply, mutual aid, sport, care of the vulnerable, energy, land or housing - there are many forms of local and moral economy - will generate common good spaces which make "provision for each person to have a hand in shaping and benefiting from the material and social conditions under which they live and work." This is how Luke Bretherton describes the Catholic philosopher, Jacques Maritain's vision of Christian humanism. Maritain saw these local democratic forms of association "as a vital means through which humans can realise their true natures as those created in the image of God."

Each of us is called to join in with this positive energy, becoming attuned to where the Holy Spirit is active in our neighbourhood, joining in and seeing what happens. Church communities have a vital role to play as constructive partners, no matter how vulnerable they may feel. Crucially it must start, not with our own plans, but by discerning what the Spirit is already doing. We need to recognise that God is not abstract, but really and truly among us.

***

Featured in this edition Ian Geary tells a personal story about the importance of place, theologically, spiritually and politically, and Maurice Glasman gives an outstanding lecture on the politics of our present moment in which he draws on Catholic Social Thought and the histories of the churches. My colleague Jo Stow updates us on our work with schools and their calling to build common good in the neighbourhood, and there is a short talk by me on immigration from a common good perspective.

Also below you will find a link to a new podcast episode where my co-host Alan Roxburgh and I chat about the fascinating conversations we've had with guests over the last twelve months on Leaving Egypt - and we share details of our next online Conversations forum in which we'll welcome Avril Bagient and Sian Wade to explore practices of listening to the Spirit.

I hope you enjoy this edition. If you haven't already, I warmly invite you to read Hope in Uncertain Times, our 2024 Impact Report. Please pray for us, and if you can, lend your support with a monthly donation to help make this work sustainable.

Wishing you and those you love a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Jenny Sinclair, and the Together for the Common Good team

This is the editorial from the T4CG Newsletter, Christ the King 2024. To view the full newsletter, here

John 18:37

Dear Friends

Welcome to the T4CG Newsletter, especially to our new subscribers.

The feast of Christ the King draws us into a deep contemplation of Jesus, the faithful witness (Rev. 1.5). He is the witness to the truth of God's Kingdom, the truth of God as the Creator of all things, and to himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life. In a culture such as ours, these claims, especially that Jesus is Truth, come across as outlandish and are often met with indifference, scorn or worse. We are swimming in a sea of relativism where truth is reframed as mere opinion.

This is a period of epochal change, a time between eras, an interregnum. That sounds depressing and frightening, but we are neither panicked nor gloomy. These are great and wonderful days to be alive. Because we know, amidst the confusion, that God is at work. This is a time when we find ourselves in increasing opposition to the world yet called to live abundantly within it.

We see a profound political realignment underway, and a great struggle between competing cultural worldviews. The geopolitical landscape is highly volatile. Inequality is getting worse. Many communities have long since been abandoned and are in a state of degradation.

The powers of capital and state act like the modern Pharaohs of our time. As in Genesis 47, they seek to achieve control through economic methods of centralisation, exploitation, division and domination. Big corporations press further into globalisation, subordinating weak governments which then seek to insulate decision-making from the governed. This collusion between capital and state undermines the common good and provokes increasing discontent. The leadership class cannot comprehend that this so-called populism is the blowback from their own policies.

It may look hopeless, and we may feel powerless. But grace is working. We can look for signs of the Holy Spirit in our neighbourhoods and our local economies - signs of trust, forbearance, forgiveness, covenantal relationships of reciprocity and mutuality. We can join in with this divine energy and build the common good together. This is what keeps us human, and our God-given humanity must be defended. This is a time to speak the truth with courage, to accompany each other, refuse tribalism and build unlikely alliances of mutual respect and loving friendship.

The meaning of Christ the King is sometimes portrayed in a triumphalist manner as an endorsement of temporal power. But in Matthew 11, we discover that the truth of Jesus is that He is not only God, but also one who is “gentle and humble in heart.” As Henri Nouwen believed, it’s in this paradox, of victory alongside humility, that we discover that we must look for the “humiliated and victorious Christ” - especially at this moment - “before the celebration of Advent.”

Pope Francis is gravely concerned about what he calls the "malign culture", the neoliberal philosophy afflicting our societies. He calls people to act by connecting with each other from the heart, because, he says, “our best response to the love of Christ’s heart is to love our brothers and sisters.” In particular, he emphasises the importance of living in solidarity with people who are trapped in poverty. Not in a service provider-client dynamic, but as a way of everyday life in service of each other, through relationships of mutuality to build a sense of family. It is through such encounters of reciprocity that we will open ourselves to the healing heart of Christ, the servant king.

This is our God, The Servant King
He calls us now to follow Him
To bring our lives as a daily offering
Of worship to The Servant King

***

As ever this edition is packed with resources to help you play your part in civic and spiritual renewal. If you would like to explore our reading of the signs of the times, you will find three talks by me below: the session for EducareM head teachers (but relevant for all) is the most recent and comprehensive; the talk for Salvation Army leaders addresses the relationship between the church and the forgotten places, and there is a short panel input given at an event in Parliament on liberalism and the common good.

New in our Stories collection is a wonderful piece by Sam Williams from Transformation Cornwall about Christian solidarity in a post-industrial Cornish town.

Our transatlantic podcast Leaving Egypt which I co-host with Al Roxburgh is going strong and has produced some brilliant conversations lately, including with David Cayley on Ivan Illich and the corruption of Christianity, Sr Helen Alford on how economics became the theology our age, Colin Miller on personalism and the Catholic Worker tradition and David Widdicombe on forming the parish as a community of hope.

Our Common Good Schools programme is growing and as our project leader Jo Stow reports, we are excited to see our new partner schools being so creative in their neighbourhood relationships, and, that 100% of our schools have signed up for another year.

With the Assisted Dying bill fast approaching, you will find a template email below which may be helpful if you have not yet written to your MP.

Some news of our events: later this week we are hosting an invitation-only Advent Retreat for Christian social action leaders: please pray for us. Looking ahead to 2025, our first public event of the year will be a lecture with Professor Luke Bretherton on 19 February.

Lastly, we hope you enjoy reading our 2024 Impact Report: Hope in Uncertain Times. You will see how we draw on Catholic social thought to equip people to play their part. We operate on a shoestring although it might not look like it. We achieve so much only by the grace of God and through many wonderful partnerships. Please pray for us and if you can, consider supporting financially to help this work become sustainable.

Wishing you and your neighbours a blessed Advent
Jenny Sinclair, and the Together for the Common Good team

This is the editorial from the T4CG Newsletter, Michaelmas 2024. To view the full newsletter, click here

Eph 6:12, Dan 10:13, 21

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Michaelmas edition of the T4CG Newsletter.

As the days shorten and the leaves start to fall, many churches celebrate the autumnal feast of St Michael the Archangel. In medieval tradition, among his other serious responsibilities, St Michael was the heavenly warrior against the forces of evil. In our own time, we can draw strength from this great defender against the dark.

There's no avoiding it, no one can deny the scale of the unravelling any longer. What will emerge next we cannot know. It may be an intensification of the emerging technocratic, ideological paradigm, with its symptoms of loneliness, division and poverty in all its forms.
Or perhaps a road will open up to the renewal of the human spirit and the rebuilding of our civic life. This largely depends on us, on how well we can realign ourselves with God and with each other.

The malaise is underpinned by a philosophy that undermines the meaning of being human. This philosophy has been around for centuries, but its destructive force has accelerated in recent decades. It has impacted the human person in multiple ways - social, moral, cultural, spiritual and economic. The challenge before us is immense. Solutions will not come from an overwhelmingly corrupt, lost and disconnected political class.

But as the chaos accelerates, a parallel spiritual longing deepens. There is a yearning for truth, a desire for God. More and more people are exploring. Yet many churches are uncertain how to respond. Perhaps paradoxically it is the great traditions that often resonate most among spiritual searchers. Ancient practices of prayer, lectio divina, stories of the saints, pilgrimage, music, acts of kindness - the well of our inheritance is deep. But how can those most in need of divine truth find it? Society has become so fragmented and people are often so isolated, that they are estranged from realities outside their own experience.

Our modern systems have devastated so many of our relationships. Trust is breaking down. As the Catholic theologian Luigino Bruni says, “the market gives birth to and fosters its own sense of being human… it engenders the promise of interpersonal relationships without the ‘wound’ of the other”. But equally, we should not place our faith in the state to defend us against corporate power: these two pharaonic forces have become closely enmeshed.

Karl Polanyi, the Austro-Hungarian economic historian and politician, said that the fascist spirit aims first "to destroy democratic parties, organisations, and institutions in society" and then attempts "to change the nature of human consciousness itself." A Jewish convert to Christianity, his insight was that "the Corporative State is a condition of things in which there is no conscious will or purpose of the individual concerning the community, nor a corresponding responsibility of the individual for his share in it." These days, there is great potential for seduction as we benefit from the system: we must not be tempted into participating in our own subordination.

Christianity is the enemy of this malign spirit. The American farmer-philosopher, Wendell Berry, says we should be looking to God and to each other rather than to the state or to the corporation, to which we have already outsourced far too much. By listening to the Holy Spirit and to our neighbours, a light appears in the darkness, and we find Jesus walking with us.

By celebrating the holiness of life and by standing in solidarity with the poor and vulnerable, we rehumanise our life together. By making things together, by doing things together, by borrowing from each other, by celebrating and mourning together, we bridge our differences and defy the forces that dominate and divide. We must make everything we do an occasion for communion.

The saints are there to help us too. Properly understood, they transcend all party politics. By avoiding them for fear of being misunderstood, we enable their crass weaponisation by nationalists claiming to be Christian. So in a spirit of humility this Michaelmas, we should not shy away from asking St Michael "to defend us in battle, defend us in the struggle against the principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the spirits of evil in high places."

In this edition, you'll find resources that we hope can be of encouragement to you. You won't want to miss our Leaving Egypt conversation with Paul Kingsnorth on the church in the age of the machine. I am also delighted to share a story by Colin Miller about personalism and the Catholic Worker tradition, and another by me about my conversation with Harvey Kwiyani and spiritual poverty in the West. There is also an important essay by Sohrab Ahmari about the relationship between the church and workers. You will also find a report on our recent event on Christian social action featuring Jon Kuhrt, and an article for teachers by my colleague Jo Stow on the art of being a good neighbour.

Wishing you every blessing
Jenny Sinclair, and the Together for the Common Good team

This is just the editorial from the T4CG Newsletter, Summer 2024. To view full version click here

John 1:14

Dear Friends

Welcome to the Summer edition of the T4CG Newsletter, especially to our new subscribers.

Before the UK's General Election it was clear that a new government could not resolve all the problems the nation faces. That remains true. At such a time as this, responsibility must be taken at all levels: at the top, but also at regional, local, neighbourhood, family, and at the personal level. The Catholic Social Teaching principle of Subsidiarity guides us to distribute power: its purpose is to uphold human integrity. Everyone has a contribution to make.

The Church is duty bound to speak truth to power, to demand the reform of structures of sin that undermine human dignity. But it is vital to be anchored in the Christian tradition of relational justice. Utilitarian, welfarist solutions may appear to be efficient, but being non relational, they incentivise dependency and mask prophetic justice. Walking in solidarity with communities trapped in poverty, the Church is called to work for structures of grace. This involves building a politics of the common good, the cornerstone of which must be the dignity of decent, meaningful work so that people can gain some self respect.

Our credibility as Christians to engage in our nation's political life is often seen in terms of our grassroots engagement. The flourishing of families and communities is our business. Between us, across our traditions, we run schools, health and social care, we work in prisons, hospices, hospitals, we help families, the disabled, refugees, the homeless, the elderly, the addicted and the vulnerable. We volunteer, befriend, listen, accompany; we invest, we create, we employ, we lead, we govern, we participate, we pray with, we suffer with. We meet people at every stage of life. And if we are doing it right, not as service providers but through relationships of love, friendship and reciprocity, then we see in each person the face of Christ. We are there not only to give, but to receive. We are there for mutual transformation, neither as handmaids of the state, nor as cheerleaders for political ideologies, but as a distinctively Christian, relational people.

The challenge before us is monumental, and not isolated to the UK: the globalisation misadventure led to civic degradation and the breakdown of trust. It amounted to a politics of abandonment and an assault on relationship. To rebuild our societies and to restore faith in democracy, a fundamental step is a serious and properly funded industrial strategy. Correcting the wrongs done to the communities from post industrial and coastal towns and the neglected parts of our great cities is forty years overdue. Such a step requires more than rhetoric, more than piecemeal initiatives, more than issue-based campaigns. It requires the political will to reform the economy. This is looking unlikely: the scale of debt, and the enslavement to vested interests is too great. Governments perpetuating the neoliberal economic model have limited room for manoeuvre.

Meanwhile the unravelling continues apace. We are witnessing a great spiritual and moral confusion and a hunger for meaning. As Christians in this era of global instability we must tell the truth. We don't deal in false hope; we offer real hope in Christ. In post-Christendom, we don't fall for the false freedoms of the modern Egypt, but choose true freedom in our identity in God. To ward off the darkness, we draw strength from knowing that "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us". Our calling is incarnational: to work together with God and with our neighbours to build the common good. Like Him we are called to live as a people who deal in grace and truth.

As ever we've been devoting our energy to inspiring and supporting you to play your part, however great or small. You'll find below the latest episodes from our Leaving Egypt podcast; a story of transformation by Nick Graves on a council estate; a provocative lecture by Jon Kuhrt on Christian social action in memory of Frank Field; a talk by Archbishop John Wilson on the challenges and opportunities facing the Church; a set of bible studies from me, Jenny Sinclair on becoming a justice-seeking, relational church; an article from me on the election; resources on the common good and politics; and an encouraging update from my colleague Jo Stow, leader of Common Good Schools.

Wishing you and yours every blessing and a peaceful summer
Jenny Sinclair, and the Together for the Common Good team

The editorial from the T4CG Newsletter, Pentecost 2024. To view full version click here

Acts 2 v1

Dear Friends

Welcome to the Pentecost edition of the T4CG Newsletter.

A General Election is a time to consider seriously the condition of our country. One way to start might be to focus on policy, but this can miss what's really going on: the policy agenda is often driven by a political class disconnected from the country. Another way is to approach the question from the old political categories of left and right, but these can be misleading. And both approaches omit the transcendent. A better way for Christians is an approach anchored in God's reality. We might imagine doing this somewhere like an "upper room".

An upper room brings to mind a rarely used space at the top of a house, or even a practice of solitary prayer. But in first-century Holy Land the upper room was a place of communion. It was a place of fellowship and reunion, of encounter with scripture, of conversation and deliberation, a place to gather around a meal at the end of a long day. It's said that even the poorest families kept such a room furnished so that guests could be welcomed.

It was this kind of upper room where Christ met with his disciples. It was in such a room that he washed their feet and ate the final Passover meal. It was here our Lord introduced the communal practice of the Eucharist and here that the apostles received the Holy Spirit. It was in the upper room that they discussed their engagement with the world, and from here they left and here they returned. Perhaps our distinctive approach to consider the state of our country might be best done somewhere like an upper room.

Some of us are fortunate to have such a place of fellowship. But for many, spiritual life is a solitary activity. Like going to the gym, in the dominant individualistic sea in which we swim, even the idea of prayer is privatised. But the early church was communal: at the heart of the home, it was grounded in the neighbourhood and infused with the Spirit of God.

Our discernment around what is going on in our country needs to be anchored in a similar way. The framework of Catholic Social Teaching can help: sometimes referred to as the theology of the Holy Spirit in practice, it infuses our deliberations with both the transcendent and the rootedness of real life. Attuned to God's view, it trains us to join him in the neighbourhood, look for the flourishing of human beings, communities and relationships, and to call out any system which overcentralises power and undermines human agency.

Seeing our country through this portal reveals an operating system geared to benefit finance capital, generating human distress, failing to serve the interests of families and communities. A forty year neoliberal misadventure, perpetuated by parties of both the left and the right, has driven a low wage, high welfare economy. This model has enriched a few while 5.2 million people are on out of work benefits and 14 million are classified as living in poverty. This ideological mismanagement has broken large parts of our country.

And so we see the reason for the disconnect, and why people are so angry and alienated. A new government promising "stability" while not delivering fundamental reform is not serious about change, even if they use that language. The fundamentals will stay the same. There will be a continuity of collusion between government and big corporations to insulate financial interests from democracy. This is unacceptable from a Christian point of view.

A new government may well attempt mitigation by further centralising the welfare state, but the system inevitably will continue to generate pathologies that far exceed capacity. The churches will no doubt be invited to partner with social action and service-providing help. But the risks to the church are real: saviour complex, becoming a handmaid to the state, burnout and mission drift. Perhaps the greatest risk is that the church will inadvertently end up propping up an unjust system, alienating the very people it aims to help.

Instead of delivering services in a benefactor-recipient dynamic, Christians are called to build local relationships of reciprocity. The churches themselves are marginalised and in need of friendship: they must learn to receive as well as give. Together we can build a common good to resist the principalities and powers of the day. At a time when global instability is likely to get worse, emerging forms of local association are going to become more and more important. To ward off the darkness of this new time, we will need many upper rooms. We'll need places of communion, and to become communities of place.

And so, in this edition I'm pleased to share resources addressing these themes. There's a session I gave last week in Bristol for Pentecost, and an essay by Fr Olek Stirrat explaining why Catholic Social Teaching helps us understand the unravelling better than the old left-right axis. There's an essay by the late Frank Field on common good politics in honour of his memory. I'm also pleased to share some pre-election resources including our recent talks now available as podcasts, and a reprint of our common good bible study booklet.

Below you will also find links to the latest episodes from our Leaving Egypt podcast, where Al Roxburgh and I explore what it means to be God's people in an age of unravelling, and the latest update from my colleague Jo Stow on our schools work.

Wishing you and yours every blessing in the spirit of Pentecost
Jenny Sinclair, and the Together for the Common Good team

The editorial from the T4CG Newsletter, Easter 2024. To view full version click here

John 15:15

Dear Friends

Welcome to the T4CG Newsletter, especially to our new subscribers. This is our edition for the Easter Season 2024.

When Pope Francis said eight years ago this is not an era of change but a change of era, he was sensing the early signs of the unravelling that is now becoming obvious to all. Some may have thought he was exaggerating, and even now, when we talk about dark times, some still think we too, are catastrophising. What you see depends on where you live and who you know. Having a strong grasp on reality makes us better able to discern our calling for the common good.

We are not in the business of false hope. Real hope only comes from truth, and truth comes from God and through deliberation with each other. Often people do not want to hear the truth and it can be hard to be the bearer. Jeremiah was thrown into a pit for it, but he turned out to be right. He conveyed God's guidance on how human beings and creation can flourish, and how life breaks down when we breach the covenant.

This is a challenging time for Christians. There are aggressive ideologies at work and many traps are being set. One is a temptation into an individualistic salvation, another is to triumphalism, and another is to capitulation. But in Holy Week we are reminded that Christ came among us neither as a powerful leader nor as a people pleaser. He came neither to dominate nor to align with temporal power.

He came to teach us about truth, to love God and to love our neighbour. He introduced a vision of the Kingdom which challenged the dominant narrative of the time. He spoke truth to power to leaders in his own community who could not tolerate the truth and he was crucified for it. But the sacrifice of his death was like a seed that grew beyond all imagining and from which billions have since come into relationship with God.

Jesus is the central figure in the universe. If we are to see with the mind of Christ, then we are called to sacrifice our comfort too. We are called to tell the truth and to accompany each other in the struggles of life. He came as an ordinary labourer who lived in solidarity with the poor to teach people about true freedom in God. He assembled people together across class, ethinicity and educational background, modelling for us a coalitional, relational justice. He said to his disciples, "I no longer call you servants...I have called you friends".

This theme of friendship and local relationships is fundamental. Our relational, embodied nature is the foundation of our communal life. Local relationships need constant nourishment, especially as the business models of big tech and big corporates are designed to profit from our digital engagement. The subordination of the physical to the digital leads to the atrophy of grounded relationships, leaving us at the mercy of vested interests.

Many Christians are confused about the calling of the Church in contemporary culture. However, in a society so deeply lost, there is much we can do, especially in the local. There is a great hunger for meaning and belonging and God is greater than the state and the market. People are longing for a sense of the transcendent, the sacred, for justice, for accompaniment, for a way to live. We are called to a holistic evangelisation in which we join in with God and with our neighbours in the reweaving of our common life.

The work of T4CG goes to the heart of these questions, and so in this edition, I'm pleased to share with you my notes from a session addressing our calling for the common good in uncertain times, exploring the challenges and opportunities for God's people. And I'm delighted to share a story by Phil McCarthy on why churches should keep their doors open, and how walking pilgrimage can be a way of encountering place and people.

In a culture of hyperliberal individualism, financialisation and digital domination, which generate alienation and loneliness, the importance of reciprocal, local, face-to-face encounter is critical. Especially so for young people, and this is addressed by Jo Stow in her latest update on our work with our Common Good Schools partners.

Below you will also find links to the latest episodes from our Leaving Egypt podcast, where Al Roxburgh and I explore what it means to be God's people in an age of unravelling, along with details of our monthly discussion Forum. And you'll see I've been interviewed by Judith Ley for Manx Radio about the story of T4CG, and have been a guest of Phillip Ullmann on his channel, where we discuss the modern pharaohs and what can be done to restore human flourishing.

Wishing you and yours every blessing this Easter season
Jenny Sinclair, and the Together for the Common Good team

T4CG Newsletter, Lent 2024. To view full version click here

Matthew 4:8-10

Dear Friends

Welcome to the T4CG Newsletter, especially to our new subscribers. This edition for Lent 2024 is a little later than intended but, I hope, worth the wait.

Last week I was in Rome. I found myself standing outside the Pantheon, a vast and imposing building. I remembered it…

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The editorial from the T4CG Newsletter, Christmas-New Year 2023-2024. To view full version click here

Matthew 6:31-34

Dear Friends

Welcome to the T4CG Newsletter for Christmas and New Year season 2023-2024.

As we come to the end of a turbulent year, the unravelling is now obvious to most, and is likely to intensify as the new year unfolds. In the run up to …

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T4CG Newsletter, Christ the King 2023. This is an extract – to view full version click here

Matthew 25:31-46

Dear Friends

Welcome to the T4CG Newsletter at a time when grave things weigh heavy on our minds. The current situation in Israel and Gaza has emerged out of a long, complex story, and its profound implications connect with cultural and political tensions not only abroad but also at home. We mourn the dead and stand in solidarity with all who suffer and are afraid.

Recently I was asked to give a meditation on justice and peace which you will find below. I sensed it might be helpful to share this with you at this time of confusion and on this, the solemnity of Christ the King. The meditation begins with the death of John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets. He spoke truth to power in the rabbinic tradition, where justice involves right relationship, and his prophetic witness made way for the justice of Jesus. As we continue, we recognise that while war is the most obvious and extreme violation of peace and justice, there are many smaller violations which, when unresolved, cause mayhem and can culminate in war.

In the meditation, we explore the causes of injustice in our time, how the Church is called to respond, and we recognise that we will need to face this era with a tragic realism. We look at traditions of justice, examine our inadvertent complicity and mission drift, and identify how the people of God can offer prophetic witness today. Looking through the nonpartisan lens of Catholic social thought, we see how the Church is called in spiritual, cultural and political terms. We see ways in which Christ calls us to build peace - not a negative peace as in “tolerance” or “social cohesion” - but a non-tribal peace that comes from hearing God and from building relationships with our neighbours, to generate God’s economy.

Our work goes to the heart of the challenges facing the Church and society, helping you find your way in these times of instability. This edition is packed with resources, but first, I invite you to read or listen to the meditation on justice and peace.

I'm pleased to share with you the latest lectures in our series with Lincoln Cathedral which highlight how Catholic social thought can be a blessing on public life. The seventh, featuring Professor Alison Milbank, explored the role of the local church as part of the solution to balancing environmental and social problems, and the eighth is on Monday 27th online - join us as we welcome Sr Helen Alford who will open up a common good discussion on the question of social peace and the causes of division.

Our podcast Leaving Egypt is attracting a growing community. My co-host Alan Roxburgh and I are having fascinating conversations with brilliant guests on what it means to be God's people in an age of unravelling, reading the signs of the times and hearing grassroots stories of hope.

Time prevents us from covering all of T4CG's work here, but this leaflet will tell you more. Please pray for us as we do for you.

With all best wishes for a blessed Advent,
Jenny Sinclair, and the Together for the Common Good team