Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

 Thoughts on our Christian pilgrimage… Exercise daily – walk with the Lord. – Anon We don’t change God’s message – His message changes us. – Anon Whatever we part with for God’s sake shall be made up to us in kind or kindness.  – Matthew Henry Affliction is God’s shepherd dog to drive us back...

If you have done your best to live ‘right’, and still had nothing but trouble and heartache in your life, Alphonsus is the saint for you.   He was born in 1533, the son of a wool merchant in Segovia.  He followed his father into the profession, married, and had two children.   He was a responsible...

The weekday eucharist in a parish church, with only a handful of worshippers present, can be a great contrast to the bustle and liveliness of Sunday services. It can offer you a quiet time to focus on the gifts of bread and wine offered on the altar. This month’s painting of 1633 is an opportunity...

Have you ever wondered what a Christian is to make of the unseen world of evil and the occult?  Where do evil spirits come from, anyway? The Bible takes the unseen world of evil spirits very seriously indeed. It tells us clearly that evil spirits were once part of the created angelic order (Genesis 6). ...

The Rectory St James the Least My dear Nephew Darren In the unlikely event of ever being put in charge of designing the course for those being trained for ordination, I would make a few significant changes. Modules on doctrine, Church history and Greek would all be dropped as unnecessary. In their place, I would...

Spoken, Written, Living Word A Prayer for October Loaves and Fishes The Crumbs beneath the Table A Funny Old Lady God our Help Falling Leaves ** Spoken, Written, Living Word (Gen1:3&31, 3, Ps 119:105, Isaiah 40:8, 55:11, Jn1:1) God has spoken. His word created everything In the beginning. God saw all That He had spoken...

The number of students taking Religious Studies (RS) at A-level has decreased by 3.5 per cent in England, and by 24 per cent in Wales. This is despite an overall increase in the total number of students taking A-levels. 14,690 students took an RS A-level in England in 2023, compared with 15,216 last year. In...

Do you keep encountering roadworks? No wonder. There have been more than 200,000 of them in the UK over the past three years – due to the need to fix faulty water pipes. Here is another depressing statistic: an average of 159 road repairs has been carried out every day since the start of 2020,...

‘Silver Sunday’ is 1st October – the ‘national day for older people’. So perhaps this is a good month to consider what churches can do to support their older people. Nearly one in five people in England and Wales is aged over 65. The over-70s currently make up around a third of the Church of...

Modern Halloween celebrations have their roots with the Celtic peoples of pre-Christian times. In those long-ago days, on the last night of October, the Celts celebrated the Festival of Samhain, or ‘Summer’s End’.  The priests, or Druids, performed ceremonies to thank and honour the sun.  For there was a very dark side to all this:...

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 September             13th Sunday after Trinity 10th September           14th Sunday after Trinity / Education Sunday 17th September           15th Sunday after Trinity 24th September           16th Sunday after Trinity...

St Drithelm is the saint for you if you have ever wondered what lies beyond death, or have had a near-death experience.    He was married and living in Cunningham (now Ayrshire, then Northumbria) in the 7th century when he fell ill and apparently died.  When he revived a few hours later he caused panic among...