Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

Numbers 12:13, ‘O God, heal her, I pray.’  These six words are Moses’ prayer for his sister Miriam.  They tell us a lot about Moses and a lot about prayer. For some time Miriam and her brother Aaron had been simmering with anger against Moses. They protested that he had married a Cushite woman (v.1),...

And his ladder to Paradise Is there something down at, say, B&Q, which reminds your friends of you?   John Climacus (d 649) had a thing about ladders.  He was a monk in Palestine who was only seen out at the weekends (at church, not B&Q); during the week he prayed and wrote in solitude. He...

Drinking a glass of milk a day could cut the risk of you getting bowel cancer by almost a fifth. So say researchers at the University of Oxford. They have found strong evidence that calcium protects against the deadly disease. According to the data, it takes only an extra 300mg of calcium a day (found...

What is the difference between a cathedral and a physics lab? Are they not both saying: ‘Hello’? – Annie Dillard Scientists often speak of a reality beyond the objects they are studying, and for some this is encountered in powerful – if rare – episodes of wonder and awe. The Christian writer J.W. Sire quotes...

In the midst of the dreaming spires and Gothic splendour of Oxford stands the Ashmolean Museum. Its classic proportions are a contrast to the buildings around. Within, the addition of thirty new galleries has doubled the exhibition space, and the visitor to the museum will discover a wealth of beautiful and impressive works – Renaissance...

** Snoring A clergyman consulted his doctor about his wife’s snoring. “It has to STOP,” he insisted. The doctor was intrigued: “Does it really bother you that much?” “Well, it’s not just me,” confided the minister. “She is bothering the whole congregation.” ** Beware of these contagious diseases in church Frontophobia:  A morbid fear of...

Editor:   With Lent and spiritual self-examination in mind…. ‘Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.’ – Isaiah 59:2 ‘Abide in Me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in...

Most adults would support a ban on under-16-year-olds visiting social media platforms such as X and Instagram. Such are the findings of a recent survey. It found that 75 per cent of adults favour the minimum age for accessing social media sites to be raised, from 13 to 16 years old. The survey was conducted...

There is an old Jewish saying:  God could not be everywhere, and therefore He made mothers. Mother Church, Mother Earth, Mother of the Gods – our human mothers – all of them have been part of the celebration of ‘Mothering Sunday’ – as the fourth Sunday in Lent is affectionately known.  It has been celebrated...

The Fourth Sunday in Lent was called ‘Mid-Lent’ or ‘Refreshment Sunday’, when the rigors of Lent were relaxed more than was normal for a feast day. It is called Mothering Sunday as a reference to the Epistle reading for the Day (Galatians 4:21-31).  The Lenten Epistles follow from each other with teaching about our life...

Peterborough Cathedral, one of the great Norman cathedrals of Europe, is facing financial collapse. The 1400-year-old cathedral is facing a perfect storm of rising National Insurance costs, rising fuel bills, cost-of-living crisis, and decline in giving to the cathedral. The dean, the Very Revd Christopher Dalliston, needs to raise £300,000 by the end of March....

The nine fruits of the Spirit are Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. We don’t strive for the fruits of the Spirit, rather we plant ourselves in good soil, allow ourselves to be fed by the Holy Spirit, keep taking in nourishment, turn to face the light of Christ and these...