Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

An important spiritual discipline is prayer, where we can both listen and talk to God. However, it’s not always easy, and as Pentecost tells us, we have the Holy Spirit to help us to pray. ‘In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray...

We used to call it Whitsun – ‘White Sunday’ because long ago children marched to church in white on that day. There are no processions nowadays, and we’ve even changed its name. It’s now ‘Pentecost’, which is more accurate but needs explaining. Pentecost marks a vital event in Christian history. It is celebrated 50 days...

If you are contacted by a clergyman asking you for money, beware! It is a scammer. Scammers have been impersonating various clergy, including even the Archbishop of York, to ask priests and other church people to buy them Amazon vouchers and online gift cards. The scammers use either emails or texts, and their message is...

Josephine Butler is the ‘saint’ for anyone who believes in social justice. This remarkable 19th century clergyman’s wife became a renowned campaigner for women’s rights and for putting a halt to human trafficking. Josephine was born in Northumberland in 1828, the daughter of a wealthy family of liberal politics and committed Christian faith. They had...

 A number of apps which offer to keep an eye on your pet are also recording the login details and locations of YOU. Such is the finding of a recent study. It seems that many tech companies which offer smart collars, GPS trackers, and wearable cameras for pets, may also be creating cyber security risks...

We still enjoy ‘going to church’ online.  In fact, recent viewing figures for the CofE’s national online services reveal that they continue to receive about 150,000 views a week. Overall, in 2022, they attracted more than eight million views. It was in March this year that the C of E marked three years since the...

Parishes across England and Wales are registered to participate in Churches Count on Nature, an annual scheme where people visit churchyards and record the plant and animal species they encounter. The biodiversity survey, supported by environmental charities A Rocha UK and Caring for God’s Acre, as well as the Church of England and the Church in Wales, will...

With Pentecost coming this month..: Before Pentecost the disciples found it hard to do easy things; after Pentecost, they found it easy to do hard things. – AJ Gordon The fruit of the Spirit is not excitement or orthodoxy: it is character. – GB Duncan ** With the Local Elections in mind this month: If...

It was 150 years ago, on 1st May 1873, that David Livingstone, the Scottish missionary and explorer, died. He was best known for his search for the sources of the Nile, and for going missing (and being found by the American journalist Henry Morton Stanley) in the wilds of Africa. Livingstone was born in Blantyre,...

Each year as we look at Creation we see the cycle of the seasons. The earth comes alive in spring, blossoms and bears fruit in summer, gives up its goodness and glory in autumn, and seems to die in the sleep of cold winter. Each of those seasons has its moods and feelings, which we...

How far would you go to respond to God’s call on your life? When, as the daughter of a peasant family in Champagne in 1426, 14-year-old Joan heard heavenly voices calling her to ‘save France’ from the English, she decided to obey the call, no matter what the consequences. Teenage girls who want to rescue...

Do some common noises really bother you? If you hate everyday sounds like chewing, sniffing and even moderate breathing, then you may be among the one in every five people in Britain who suffer from misophonia. In the first study of its kind, researchers from King’s College London and University of Oxford have discovered that...