This is moving account from Peter Hitchens (with whom I disagree on most other things) about his return to faith, and his relationship with his brother.  I liked this passage:

Why is there such a fury against religion now? Because religion is the one reliable force that stands in the way of the power of the strong over the weak. The one reliable force that forms the foundation of the concept of the rule of law.

The one reliable force that restrains the hand of the man of power. In an age of powerworship, the Christian religion has become the principal obstacle to the desire of earthly utopians for absolute power.

The photo is unusual, you don't often see Christopher in such un-self-conscious pose, and focussed on the actions of, indeed enjoying the actions of another.  There is one other such photo in the article, taken during a debate in 2008, which paradoxically enabled a reconciliation between the previously fratricidal siblings.   On his brother, Peter says:

We've got this huge challenge in the Church of Scotland at the moment, reducing our ministry posts from 1244 (not 1400 as it was in Life and Work this month) down to 1000.  In Glasgow, that's a reduction from 160 down to 132.

How to make these reductions involves crossing an intricate minefield of Church legislation, local needs, wider considerations, transparent processes and the fact that it is very difficult to get hold of what a Church is, and make a fair decision about whether it needs a minister or a deacon more than the Church up the road.  Too much goes in congregations that is invisible, only God knows what goes in the corner of every Church - we don't have the eyesight required to make those assessments.  And yet we have to.

One problem is blindness.

The other is competition.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said that whenever you got more than two disciples together, there would arise "a reckoning amongst them" - a competition to work out who is the greatest.  When we read the that the disciples were arguing about "Who was the greatest?", we can't believe the baldness of the discussion, the brazen-ness of a Peter turning to Thomas and saying "here's why I am greater than you?".