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Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud. Each week we choose some of our favourite pieces

from the magazine and ask their writers to read them out loud. I'm Patrick Gibbons and on the

podcast this week. Reacting to the recommendations from a recent report exploring the Church of

England's role in Africa historically, William Moore asks if the church is about to apologise

for Christianity itself. Sean Thomas recounts his experience tripping on ayahuasca in a remote Colombian province.

Matt Ridley argues that private landowners make better conservationists.

Lionel Shriver warns against pathological niceness and explains why this is linked to the debate about

immigration. And Kate Andrews reviews the new play at the Olivier Theatre about

Nye Bevan, starring Michael

Sheen as the architect of the NHS. Up first, William Moore. Is the Church of England going

to apologise for Christianity? A report by something called the Oversight Group has declared that the Church should say sorry publicly,

not just for profiting from the evils of slavery through investment in the South Sea Company,

but for seeking to destroy diverse African traditional religious belief systems.

And having apologised, it recommends the church reach beyond theological

institutions and enable all Africans to discover the varied belief systems and spiritual practices

of their forbears and their efficacy. The oversight group is an independent committee,

but the church commissioners have warmly welcomed all the report's recommendations, including the suggestions around

truth-telling, and for those of us who still love the Church of England, this is both

...