Controversy and contestation is a major feature of public life. Sometimes it gets decidedly overheated. To our surprise (to put it mildly), Ekklesia was accused by a church official of being 'anti-Christian' last week. Not just wrong, misguided or mistaken in our perspective, but opposed to the very thing we take as our ground.
 
Sadly, people of faith dismissing and de-churching each other is nothing new. The divisions within historic Christianity are deep indeed, and Muslims, Jews, atheists and others also frequently find themselves at loggerheads - not just with each other, but also within their own fold. Martin Marty's piece on 'God wars' illustrates the often tragic contours of this all-to-human tendency to exalt ourselves and reject 'the other'.
 
Seeking ways of turning destructive division into life-enhancing ways of facing genuine (and often profoundly significant) differences in the church and in other sections of society is a key concern for Ekklesia - though we don't pretend that we are always good at it. Conflict transformation requires the kind of deep 'recognition' spoken of in our quotation of the week, from an Italian Catholic writer.
 
How to negotiate commonality and difference is also a challenge from (and to) non-conformist understandings of the Christian life... something reflected in our book recommendation this week: Stuart Murray's forthcoming volume, The Naked Anabaptist. For those who may wonder, Ekklesia's own outlook - though broadly based - is strongly rooted in the convictions (http://www.anabaptistnetwork.com/coreconvictions) of the Anabaptist Network UK.
 
Meanwhile, the debates continue. This week, among our features, Anglican priest Kevin Scully says why he thinks that the Church of England is in a mess over its weddings policy, and suggests that properly distinguishing the civic from the religious would be a real step forward in rectifying this. He does this out of deep pastoral faithfulness as well as honest realism.
 
Contending for difficult truth can be a matter of life and death, too, as Harry Hagopian illustrates in relation to the move to encourage recognition of the Armenian genocide. This would be a further step towards challenging the culture of immunity around the politics of hatred as it descends into mass slaughter.
 
Our highlighted event this time is the first global religious leaders summit on HIV-AIDS, an issue that people of faith have sometimes been in denial about, but where Christians and others also have a life-bringing contribution to make.
 
The controversial issue Ekklesia has been involved in lately (one which has apparently galvanised some of the angry comments about us) is involving the public in engaging the C of E bishops who currently sit as of right in parliament. The aim is to encourage them to take a lead in reforming the second chamber, rather than preserving their own privilege. We think this is about setting a good Christian stance. Most Christians agree, according to the results of an ICM opinion poll that forms our research feature.
 
Last but not least, the 'thinking in action' is that of Third Way, the magazine of Christian comment and discussion concerning society and culture. The April 2010 issue contains a courageous leader encouraging the churches to question the 'special opt-out' approach equalities, sex and relationships education in schools, and much else. As the final poignantly paragraph says: "So, do we merely stand aside and accept a tide of secularism washing over us? No. But we must understand, as the apostle Paul did, that we operate as strangers in a strange land. Loud demands for concessions come from those who insist on their own strength. We insist, instead, on our own weakness, and offer it as a point of contact. We meet those who argue with us as equals, rescinding our historical claims to authority. What strength is left, then, is God's".