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Many types of flowers are used in churches, but during Easter, there is one that is especially loved: the Easter Lily. It is a tall, stately flower topped by large, graceful, white trumpet-shaped blooms. While commercial bulb production of Easter lilies only began in the 19th century, Easter lilies make many appearances in both the...

The English have a patron saint who isn’t English, about whom next to nothing is known for sure, and who, just possibly, may not have existed at all. But that didn’t stop St George being patriotically invoked in many battles, notably at Agincourt and in the Crusades, and of course it is his cross that...

For Good Friday last year, the morning service at York Minister was offered online for everyone to see, anywhere in the world. It’s the most solemn day of the year. Hymns, readings, prayers: all focussed on Christ’s death and its benefits for humanity, for all time. A hundred or so people were in the congregation, alongside choir...

Cadbury Crème Eggs celebrate their 60th birthday this Spring. They have a lot to celebrate: the Creme Egg is the best-selling confectionery item between New Year’s Day and Easter in the UK, with annual sales of more than 200 million eggs, worth about £55 million. Cadbury Crème Eggs were first created by the British chocolatier...

In the New Testament the resurrection of Jesus is presented as a simple historical fact.  He did rise from the grave on that first Easter morning. The four evangelists, and Paul, carefully lay out the evidence. They record for us the details of the empty tomb, the names of those who visited it, the various...

The Coronation’s ‘Ring for the King’ challenge is still urgently looking for more volunteers – several thousand more of them, in fact. The new recruits will be needed if all the church bells in the country are to be rung on 6th May, the day of the Coronation. As we go to press, so far...

Easter eggs. We like them. So much so, that about 80 million are sold in the UK each year. They go on sale early: major supermarkets like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, and Waitrose launched Easter-themed confectionery ranges as early as January. Tesco had them on the shelves by 30th December 2022. On average, children in the...

The Saint of an English Army before he was Patron Saint of England, St George may have been a soldier, but he was no Englishman. Some stories say that he was an officer in the Roman army under Diocletian, who refused to abandon his faith during the Terror, and was martyred at Lydda in Palestine...

The Church of England’s General Synod has recently welcomed proposals which would enable same-sex couples to come to church after a civil marriage or civil partnership to give thanks, dedicate their relationship to God and receive God’s blessing. Synod members also voted to “lament and repent” of the failure of the Church to welcome LGBTQI+...

In England in the 1600s, singing in church was confined to simple melodies attached to the words of the psalms. Each line would be sung in turn by a precentor, and the congregation would follow. This was a slow, stilted and rather uninspiring process! When Isaac Watts was 15 years old, he complained to his...

Have you seen the film How to Train your Dragon? It’s set in a Viking village under attack from dragons, who steal livestock and burn down houses. Hiccup, the village Chief’s son, invents a machine to capture dragons. However, when he catches one of the most dangerous dragons, he cannot kill it, when he sees...

“We are not divided but we disagree, and that is very painful. And I will use again the words close to those I used to the Bishops gathered at the Lambeth Conference on a very similar debate. “For some, to question the inherited teaching damages witness and is sinful: you point out that in many provinces across...