In Depth:  Herbert Carson

The Swiss banks have been in the news - and rightly so! The issue is the disappearance of Jewish gold. Huge quantities were stolen by the Nazis during the holocaust. They even removed gold rings and teeth fillings from the victims of Nazi brutality.

There was also the question of secret deposits of gold by Nazis who saw Switzerland as a safe place for their deposits which could be a source of wealth when the Third Reich collapsed. There were also deposits made by Jewish investors who, before the full fury of the holocaust, could see the confiscation of their savings and wanted to make provision for the future peace, which, sadly, was to be too late for them and the millions of Jews who were slaughtered.

The tragic death of the Princess of Wales was followed by the announcement of the death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

After the vast coverage by the press of every detail of the royal funeral came a deeply contrasting, yet in some ways strangely similar theme. Here, in contrast with the beautiful young woman involved in charities, was the old woman with the steely determination to fight for the poor. It is not surprising that one broadcaster referred to them both being in heaven!

I have been invited by the editor, in the context of recent discussion of secession, to explain why I resigned as an Anglican parson. I tried to answer that question in the book Farewell to Anglicanism published in 1969. It took me 140 pages to give my reply then, so clearly it is very difficult to compress it all into one short article!

I have tried to echo the apostle Paul's insistence on freedom of conscience in disputed situations: 'Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls . . . Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind . . . So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God' (Romans 14.4,5,12).