Viewing all items in Resource Category: Looking at your Church
Stories of Christians in action, both at home and around the world
- Remembrance Sunday 2026 1st November – International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church General Synod opens – for the 11th time Burnham wants to approve bishops Are vicars slowly disappearing? Sing-a-long-a scripture attracts one million song plays 18 per cent of our teenagers are unhappy A God in Colchester? Let’s “unite around the gospel...Looking at Church (all articles) for November 2026
- This year the national service for Remembrance will be held on 8th November, and include the annual march past involving up to 10,000 veterans and eligible participants. It will be followed by formal two-minute silence on Wednesday, 11th November. This year Remembrance marks several significant milestones: The 110th anniversary of the 1916 Battles of the...Remembrance Sunday 2026
- More than 360 million Christians worldwide face persecution in their home countries. This includes harassment, detention, legal restrictions, violence, torture, and even death for their faith in Jesus. The Bible tells us to pray for those who are persecuted, as if we were ourselves mistreated. It says that if one member of the Body of...1st November – International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church
- There is a new General Synod beginning this month. Its term will run from 2026 to 2031. It is the 11th since the first General Synod began in 1970, following the Synodical Government Measure of 1969. The new General Synod has lots to debate and decide. Here are just some key issues: Identity and relationships: Since the...General Synod opens – for the 11th time
- The Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, wants to advise the King on the appointment of bishops and archbishops in the Church of England and Church of Scotland. The practice of the King being involved dates way back to the Reformation, when the monarch was head of the Church, and so took responsibility for appointing clergy. Burnham...Burnham wants to approve bishops
- There are certainly some worrying statistics out there. Such as: There are 8,368 retired priests holding permission to officiate. But there are only 6,682 clergy in paid (stipendiary) positions, and 2,440 in self-supporting, unpaid roles. Nearly half of the current 6,682 paid priests are aged over 55. They all retire at 70. But numbers of new entrants in...Are vicars slowly disappearing?
- So says the Children’s Society, following a major report. That means nearly one in five of all our 15- to 16-year-olds. Children’s Society analysed data from the OECD’s recent Programme for International Student Assessment, which looked at nearly 200,000 15- to 16-year-olds across 29 European countries, including the UK. Children’s Society found that the UK...18 per cent of our teenagers are unhappy
- This is listening to the Bible, but NOT as you’ve known it. For a new website which offers 38,048 individual recordings of chapters of the Bible being sung, in 16 different genres, has become a smash hit worldwide. In only the first two weeks of its existence, it has seen one million song plays from...Sing-a-long-a scripture attracts one million song plays
- One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) Acts 11:28 I have been watching the 1970s television series I, Claudius on BBC catch up. It comes on every few years. It was based on...A god in Colchester?
- An evangelistic Christmas initiative, Shine Your Light (SYL), aims to mobilise thousands of UK churches this Christmas. The aim is to take carol and other Christmas services out onto the streets, marketplace, and shopping centres. Last year there were 1,832 SYL events, involving 308,730 Christians. This year, organisers want to mobilise 500,000 Christians across 5,000 churches in a united Christmas...Let’s “unite around the gospel and reach five million people this Christmas”
- If you like St Francis of Assisi, you will enjoy visiting a new digital platform that has been launched especially to mark the 800th anniversary of St Francis’s death. It is called Preserving Assisi, and includes ultra-high-resolution photography, 3D surveying, immersive virtual tours and a digital archive. There are more than 27,000 photos and 12TB...New resources for the Franciscan octocentenary
- A while back, I found a strange connection between the cemetery, opposite the church where I minister, and my hometown. I discovered that a former head curator of the world-renowned Kew Gardens in west London was buried in the cemetery – and that one of his lasting achievements was to plant a line of trees...Could a cemetery – or churchyard – surprise you?