Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

Less than half of the UK population now want their death to be marked with a funeral. So says a major new research report called Love, Grief, and Hope: Emotional responses to death and dying in the UK, by the religion and society think tank Theos. The findings are based on polling commissioned from YouGov,...

Never under-estimate a deacon. After all, the first-ever Christian martyr was a deacon in the church of Jerusalem – St Stephen.  And the first-ever Christian martyr in Spain was a deacon of the Church of Saragossa – St Vincent. By now it was 304AD, and the Roman Emperor Diocletian was persecuting Christians.  When his edict...

‘Fragility of Freedom’ is the theme for this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD), as 2024 marks the 30thanniversary of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust explains that only “49 years after the Holocaust ended, 19 years after the genocide in Cambodia, the world stood by as Hutu extremists shattered...

Special services of prayer and dedication asking for God’s blessing for same-sex couples will soon be introduced in the Church of England on a trial basis, following a vote at the last General Synod. Synod voted in favour of a motion containing an amendment tabled by the Bishop of Oxford, Steven Croft, to bring forward...

‘… this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord … (Psalm 27:4) The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is this month (18th – 25th January), so it’s probably a good time to meet...

Have you noticed that people tend to be either givers or takers? John the Almsgiver was a giver – on a grand scale. Born into a wealthy family in Cyprus about 560 AD John was married with children when disaster struck: both his wife and children all died. In his grief, John decided to go...

World Leprosy Day is always the last Sunday of January. It aims to raise awareness of a disease that is at least 4,000 years old, making it one of the oldest diseases known to humanity. Leprosy still exists! Around 200,000 people are diagnosed with leprosy each year, and many millions are living with leprosy-related disabilities,...

This month, on 25th January, the Church celebrates probably the most famous conversion of all. At least, what happened to a young man called Saul on the road to Damascus has become a byword for all instant conversions – what is known as a ‘damascene’ moment. Saul was a devout Jew, a Pharisee, a student...

It was only 60 years ago, on 11th January 1964, that the US Surgeon General published a report that would begin to change medical history in the West. For it concluded that cigarette smoking was very dangerous – causing lung cancer and chronic bronchitis. This was first official US government report on the health issues...

January is a month of the beginning of great things! As well as the naming of the Son of God, we celebrate the conversion of the greatest ever apostle of the Christian faith.  Many books have been written on Paul, and here is the briefest of introductions. He was a Jew, born as ‘Saul’ at...

The Church of Scotland recently joined campaigners to urge the First Minister to keep his promise, and to provide significant additional investment to tackle child poverty. More than 150 organisations across Scotland signed an Open Letter that called on Humza Yousaf to “do the right thing” and increase the Scottish Child Payment to at least...

As 2024 begins, the eyes of the world are on the wars in Israel-Gaza and Ukraine-Russia. But meanwhile the economic and financial crisis in Lebanon is spiralling out of control. The World Bank puts it starkly: “Lebanon has been assailed by the most devastating, multi-pronged crisis in its modern history.” Just one statistic: Lebanon recorded...