In Depth:  friendship

All topics
Broken friendships and the power of the gospel

Broken friendships and the power of the gospel

Graeme Shanks
Graeme Shanks

'Nicola and I are no longer on speaking terms’. Those were the chilling and frank words of Alex Salmond in the recent BBC documentary1 exploring the breakdown of the long-term political partnership between him and Nicola Sturgeon.

She in turn spoke about the uneasy feeling that she lives with, when considering that some of the best moments of her life feature the man with whom she is now at odds. Certainly no love lost in this textbook impasse.

A ‘friendship recession’?
culture watch

A ‘friendship recession’?

Rebecca Chapman
Rebecca Chapman

This February the phenomenon that is the streaming show The Chosen has hit cinemas again, with the first two episodes of Series Four showing us more of Jesus and His disciples.

Director Dallas Jenkins hopes that watching will be a shared experience for many of us, encouraging people to ‘get together during a time that’s very divisive’. This new series is a step up in many ways – more focused, more confident storytelling, and more compelling with its mix of light and dark, sorrow and humour, faith and frustration.

How can we mend broken relationships?

How can we mend broken relationships?

Carl Chambers
Carl Chambers

Book Review RELATIONSHIPS: How do I make things right?

Read review
The precious commodity of biblical friendship

The precious commodity of biblical friendship

Adrian Reynolds
Adrian Reynolds

On a recent holiday visit to the Scottish Museum of Modern Art, I was struck by the entrance hall artwork which was made up of a long list of names: everybody the artist, 53-year-old Douglas Gordon, could ever remember meeting in his life. You can see it in my holiday snap (right)!

Now this kind of art may not be your cup of tea – you may prefer the more realistic brush strokes of Canaletto or the landscapes of Constable. But I like art that makes me think – and this installation certainly got me thinking, and not only about the GDPR consequences of such a display.

Venom in Love & Friendship
Crossing the Culture

Venom in Love & Friendship

Angeline Liles

Lady Susan Vernon’s reputation precedes her, and not in a good way.

Brought to life on the big screen by director Whit Stillman, with Kate Beckinsale in the leading role, Jane Austen’s posthumously published Lady Susan has finally been given the Hollywood adaptation treatment. Adopting the title of an entirely separate piece of Austen’s juvenilia, Love & Friendship attempts to find a home amongst the established Austen adaptation canon by mirroring titles like Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility.

Friendship and dating
The Single Track

Friendship and dating

Jacqui Wright

I am coming to this very difficult topic from a position of weakness.

There was a period of 16 years when I had no success in older post-divorce ‘dating’. In fact, I got things hopelessly wrong! On reflection, it was related to three factors: my personality, my past, and God’s providence.

Healthy friendships

Stefan Cantore

One Christian author has written: 'Today, true friendships seldom occur. Very few sing the praises of friendship because very few have experienced its heights.'

Someone else has said that 'friendship is God's way of apologising to us for our families'!