Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

** Editor:  One of our Parish Pump editors, Catherine, near Chester, has just sent in the following true story from her own parish.  Keeping warm?   A member of our PCC floated the idea of opening the church during the Warm Spaces hours, for anyone wishing to sit in church and light a candle. **...

January always brings us a financial reckoning, but this year things look especially grim for many people in the UK. Recent research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that one in five people in the UK are living in poverty. In real terms, that’s a staggering 13.4 million people. Some recent sobering statistics from...

Work of art The New Year This was the moment Turn your love Let nothing disturb thee A New Year’s Resolution As time goes by! Great lives Why churchwardens love January ** Work of art (Mt 6:25-34, Eph2:10, Gen1:27) Clothing grass, Fashioning feathers and flowers, The Master Designer Shows off His work to His people...

As we consider 2024 stretching ahead: Hope means expectancy when things are otherwise hopeless. – G K Chesterton When you flee from temptation, be sure not to leave a forwarding address. – Anon  The quest for excellence is a mark of maturity. The quest for power is childish. – Max Lucado There are no short...

If you like ceramics, and enjoy colour, then you are bound to be familiar with the work of Clarice Cliff. Her glowingly vibrant plates, cups, teapots, and vases are world famous – and still loved. She was born 125 years ago this month, on 20th January 1899, in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent. Clarice’s father worked in an...

The Rectory St James the Least My dear Nephew Darren So, you have just attended a course on ‘Diary Management’, to get you prepared for another year. If you had visited me, I could have told you all you need to know in half the time. Allow me to provide you with useful information which...

Are you wondering about which charities to support this year? Does it matter to you if your money is used wisely or not? If so, then Maedoc of Ferns is the patron saint for you this month. He certainly knew how to deal with people who would waste his money. Maedoc (d 626) was born...

Strawberries are better for you than you probably know. They provide 100 per cent of the recommended daily vitamin C amount in a single cup serving, and they also contain heart-healthy nutrients such as folate, potassium, fibre, phytosterols and polyphenols. A recent study has found that eating about eight of them a day for three...

A Bible printed in 1620, one of the very first to be produced in Welsh, has been discovered by chance in a vestry cupboard in St Martin and St Enfail’s Church in Merthyr, near Carmarthen. Mari James, Library Development Officer at St David’s Cathedral, described the 400-year-old Bible as “quite a treasure” and “a precious...

Last year a report by UK parliamentarians heard that almost 90 per cent of all the Christians kidnapped worldwide are abducted in Nigeria. According to the charity, Aid to the Church in Need, about 5,200 Christians were kidnapped in Nigeria between January 2021 and June 2022. And last year another 23 clergy and church workers...

Those words of the 18th century poet Christopher Smart remind us how faith and music have always gone hand in hand, faith inspiring the music and music expressing the faith. In this series we shall consider 12 pieces of music inspired by the Christian faith, beginning from its roots in the Old Testament. Among the...

Sundays of the Month Editor:  Continuing our new feature, as we thought you might find it helpful to know what the Sundays of each month are called…   3rd  December              1st  Sunday of Advent 10th December            2nd Sunday of Advent 17th December            3rd  Sunday of Advent 24th December            4th Sunday of Advent – Christmas...