Oprah Winfrey – chat show host, actor, writer, guru – has many noble goals, quite a few of which she has achieved through grim fortitude and the strength of her charismatic personality. Through her daytime television show, her magazine, her book clubs, her altruistic institutions and her own writing, she has instigated charities that have changed thousands of lives, educated hordes of (mainly) women about literature and the value of books and has spread a message of self-determination and self-respect.

This is address was given by Dr Megan Best, bioethicist and member of the Social Issues Executive, at Parliament House on Monday 11 March 2002.

Reviews of The Dream of Scipio, Lucky Man: a memoir and The Girl in the Red Coat.

It is not often you have the opportunity to review a book that effectively calls you a heretic. That is the charge Kevin Giles makes in his new book against the authors of the Sydney Diocesan Doctrine Commission report The Doctrine of the Trinity and its bearing on the relationship of men and women, of which I am one. According to Giles they, or rather we, ‘have in fact departed from orthodoxy at the most fundamental level'.

The notion of faith is the essence of Yann Martel's Booker winning novel, Life of Pi. A tale of courage and survival, this story comes with a promise – it “will make you believe in God”. The novel begins with an author's note. After penning a doomed story, the narrator decides to travel to India to write another. This one he determines to be worthless also – ‘emotionally dead' is his description.

Contains "Young blood to bring fresh approach" and "Are Christians the barrier to finding the lost?" by Geoff Huard.

Does your church know about the different layers of population in your area?

There are a group of television shows so shameful that hardly anyone will admit to watching them. Viewers learn to hide their secret habit like a disease. Serious addicts draw the curtains so the neighbours will not see.