Ethics and morals are often thought of and talked about as if they were abstract principles - ideas that we generate through theory and then seek to pull down from the sky (or the bookshelf) in order to 'apply' them. Nothing could be further from the truth. Ethics is an account of lived ethos, and morals are the good practices that define a particular way of life.
 
Rightly understood, Christian belief and practice is communally derived and organically practiced by 'the body of Christ', a group of people who have been joined to Christ in his sacrificial life, unjust death and life-giving affirmation by God - so argues Stanley Hauerwas, whose classic 'The Peaceable Kingdom' is our Reading Allowed book choice this week.
 
His words also feature in our highlighted quotations, alongside Rabbi Harold Kushner's plea for religion to be the demonstration of virtue not an excuse for malevolence.
 
All this is profoundly relevant to a good number of heated debates going on right now. Our feature articles look at two of them: the question of church schools, and the need for Christian institutions to live their values rather than just affirm them when it comes to discrimination; and the issues of probity, loyalty and political integrity thrown up by the MP's expenses saga - which is also raises large questions about the shape of governance.
 
Moral purpose also goes to the heart of the event we focus on - this weekend's Faith, homophobia, transphobia and human rights conference, of which Ekklesia is a supporting organisation. And it is central to the thinking-in-action that the World Council of Churches has been engaging in relation to conscientious objection, peacemaking and war resistance as elements of Christian discipleship.