The Long View - a BBC radio 4 programme - was on civil partnerships, Aelred of Rievaulx and friendship today, and included commentary from Mark Vernon.

You can listen again ...

And here's the blurb: Same-sex relationships continue to be a source of heated discussion as Britain’s gay and lesbian couples prepare to register for Civil Partnerships. From a religious perspective, there are those who debate how the church should react to this new development. Others argue about what values this new institution should represent.

But as Jonathan Freedland discovers, such debates are hardly new. In the 12th Century, Abbot Aelred of Rievaulx put pen to paper and wrote extensively about much the same dilemmas. Yet in re-thinking same-sex relationships, he didn’t always make himself popular with church hierarchy.