Westminster Abbey

Speaker: Sir Stephen Lamport ; Chair: Lord Saatchi

The importance of truth cannot be underestimated. It is at the heart of those things which sustain a civilised society: trustworthiness, dependability, wise decisionmaking and solid relationships.

This lecture was part of the Westminster Abbey Institute's Truth season, recorded Tuesday 13th March, 6.30pm in the Lady Chapel, Westminster Abbey

The truth of a situation is often genuinely hard to pin down. But, argues the Reverend Professor Vernon White, that provides no cover or excuse for giving up the pursuit of truth, which remains vital, and believing that finding it is possible.

Chair: Mark Easton, BBC Home Editor

Recorded in The Lady Chapel, Westminster Abbey, 6th March 2018

Part of the Truth season, from the Westminster Abbey Institute

Speakers: The Reverend Professor Michael Banner; John Raine; Rt Hon Jack Straw ; Chair: The Reverend Jane Sinclair, Canon of Westminster and Rector of St Margaret’s Church 

Is the use of 'diplomatic truth' by officials both with their own governments and foreign governments an outmoded and possibly damaging convention? Does a tweet do more good than a 'demarche'? If in this complex and disordered environment, it all goes horribly wrong, who is to blame? Is it those who assessed, took or managed the risk? If the world is getting more risky should be take more or fewer initiatives overseas?

Speaker: Professor Janet Soskice ; Chair: The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster 

In classical Christian teaching God is not only beautiful but Beauty itself, not only truthful but Truth itself, not only good but Goodness itself. What can this mean in a consumerist world where ‘truth’ is contested, ‘goodness’ deemed prissy, and ‘beauty’ discussed mainly in terms of revolutionary new beauty products? Do we, in the age of Instagram, hear the adage ‘beauty is only skin deep’ not as a warning but as a stipulation - beauty is only appearance and appearance is all there is? If so, what can any of this have to do with truth’ or for that matter with God, and how do we avoid swindling ourselves out of that conviction that we are made to seek the truth, to behold beauty and to become beautiful - made to be, not only loved, but lovely?

#westminsterabbey #janetsoskice

Sermon given by The Dean of Westminster, The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, at a Sung Eucharist with the Imposition of Ashes on 14th February 2018 at Westminster Abbey. #westminsterabby #ashwednesday

Sermon given by The Dean of Westminster, The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, at a Sung Eucharist on The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, 2nd February 2018 #candlemas #westminsterabbey

The Coarsening of Political Language

Monday 13th November at 6.30pm

This event was part of the Westminster Abbey Institute's Democracy season.

The Rt Hon Nick Clegg was Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2007-2015, and Deputy Prime Minister in the coalition government from 2010-2015.

Mark Easton is the BBC’s Home Editor. His first book, Britain etc., was published in 2012.

#westminsterabbey #westminsterabbeyinstitute #nickclegg #markeaston

Sermon given at Evensong on All Souls' Day 2017 by The Dean of Westminster, The Very Reverend Dr John Hall

Sermon hive by the Archbishop of Canterbury at A Service to Mark the 500th Anniversary of the 95 Theses and the Start of the Reformation, held at Westminster Abbey at Noon on Tuesday 31st October 2017