Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

If you venture into the countryside this month, be careful and stay vigilant: be wildfire aware. So warns the National Fire Chiefs Council, after a record-breaking season for wildfires. The concern is based on some alarming data. By June (the most recent data on hand) firefighters had responded to more than 500 wildfires across England...

UK Baptist churches have been invited to join a global effort from the Baptist World Alliance that seeks ‘unprecedented collaboration in God’s global mission’ to mark the 2000th anniversary of the Church The Acts 2 Movement is an initiative in anticipation of the anniversary birth of the Church in 2033. The aim is to ‘mobilise the...

Raymond Nonnatus (1204 – 40) is a good patron saint for anyone who does not take life for granted. The account of his own life begins with the story of how his mother died just before his birth, and of how Raymond was somehow extracted from her dead body just in time to save him.(‘Nonnatus’...

  When I say, “I am a Christian,” I’m not shouting, “I am saved!” I’m whispering, “I get lost; that is why I chose this way.” When I say, “I am a Christian,” I don’t speak of this with pride. I’m confessing that I stumble and need Someone to be my Guide. When I say,...

Don’t be afraid to use baby talk to your baby – it is great for them. Research has found that infants whose parents talked to them at a higher pitch, in a happy tone of voice, and with elongated vowels learned nearly three times as many words by the age of two as those whose...

Well over three million people have now used the Church of England’s Daily Prayer podcast and app, which offers Morning and Evening Prayer in audio form. Launched during the pandemic, the service has seen over 12 million downloads, with thousands tuning in each day. Blending scripture, music, and reflection, it reflects a wider resurgence of interest...

Red squirrels have found a surprising friend in their fight to survive against grey squirrels. It is the elusive pine martin, who is a natural predator of all squirrels. Now a recent study by Queen’s University, Belfast, has found that pine martens are increasing, and that they kill more grey squirrels than red squirrels. This...

 Osmund is the saint for you if you like cathedrals, or if you have ever met the dean, precentor, chancellor or treasurer of one. Why? Because nearly 1,000 years ago, it was St Osmund who first invented all those roles, and it was he who also decreed that a cathedral is to be the ‘mother...

Sundays of the Month Editor:  We thought you might find it helpful to know what the Sundays of each month are called… 6th July             Third Sunday after Trinity 13th July           Fourth Sunday after Trinity 20th July           Fifth Sunday after Trinity 27th July           Sixth Sunday after Trinity ** High Days and Holy Days for July As...

Most Christians in the UK have heard of the Church Mission Society or CMS.  Far fewer have heard of the Revd Henry Venn (1796-1873), whose father, the rector of Clapham, founded CMS in 1799, and who himself became the greatest missionary strategist of the 19th century. Not that Henry Venn ever became a missionary himself;...

Do you ever admire relief workers?  Those hardy folk who regularly appear on our TV screens, actively seeking out the disease-ridden, starving, destitute people of the world, instead of avoiding them, as most of us try and do. John Francis Regis (1597 – 1640) could be a patron saint of relief workers.  It all began...

Thomas, one of Jesus’ 12 apostles, was an impulsive, confused, honest sceptic.  Jesus could understand and work with such a man.  Thomas’ impulsiveness was evident when Jesus prepared to visit Lazarus in Bethany.  It was a dangerous trip to make, because of the Jews, but Thomas urged his fellow disciples: “Let us also go, that...