PHOTO: COPTIC ORTHODOX CHURCH, ST ATHANASIUS’ MONASTERY

COLUMNS

Christopher Howse’s Notebook

‘The archbishop tugged the king’s mantle at the knee. No one called that a tender moment’ /9

Patrick Hudson

‘It didn’t make much practical difference whether we spoke or not – he’s still the King’ / 13

REGULARS

• Letters 14

The Living Spirit 15 Word from

• the Cloisters

16 Puzzles 16

CONTENTS

13 MAY 2023 // VOL. 277 NO. 9502

FEATURES

4 / God’s Englishman

A collection of Oliver Cromwell’s writings only adds to the paradoxes in the life of one of the most controversial figures in British and Irish history / BY JOHN MORRILL

6 / Called out of Egypt

The Coptic Orthodox Church is addressing the challenge of keeping the younger members of its diaspora committed / BY JOSEPH TULLOCH

8 / Living stones

Can funds be secured to repair and restore two much-loved churches in deprived areas of South Wales? / BY ELENA CURTI

10 / A gradual awakening

In our sixth conversion story, a long-term agnostic recalls how, at his daughters’ baptism, he found himself wanting to take part in the rite with them / BY LEVI ROACH

12 / Encounter with the Jewish Jesus

A Hungarian Jewish scholar who transformed our understanding of the historical Jesus and influenced the Second Vatican Council / BY ALEXANDER FALUDY

NEWS

24 / The Church in the World / News briefing

25 / Superiors abused Sacred Heart nuns for decades

27 / View from Rome

28 / News from Britain and Ireland / News briefing

29 / ‘Errors of judgement’ made Byrne’s position untenable

COVER: PORTRAIT OF OLIVER CROMWELL (1599-1658) IN ARMOUR, AFTER SAMUEL COOPER, BASED ON WORK OF 1656, ALAMY/IAN DAGNALL

BOOKS / PAGE 17

Julia Langdon

Johnson at 10: The Inside Story ANTHONY SELDON AND RAYMOND

NEWELL

John McGill

A Pebble in the

Throat: Growing

Up Between Two

Continents

AASMAH MIR

Brian Morton

The Best Minds: A

Story of Friendship,

Madness and the

Tragedy of Good

Intentions

JONATHAN ROSEN

A.N. Wilson

Spring crime

ARTS / PAGE 21

Exhibition

Lavinia Fontana JOANNA MOORHEAD

Theatre

The Motive and

the Cue; Dixon and Daughters

MARK LAWSON

Exhibition

Those Who

Pray: Monastic

Communities in

Medieval Europe

MICHAEL CARTER

Radio

Great Lives:

Sir Edmund Coke

D.J. TAYLOR