Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

A new campaign launched in Wales , The Food and Fuel Campaign, is aimed at putting pressure on the Government to address the spiralling costs that force families to choose between heating or eating. With foodbanks across Wales struggling to meet the increasing demands for donations, the campaign includes an open letter to all supermarkets...

Some observations on Christmas … Some thoughts to ponder at this ‘giving’ time of the year…  **  Some observations on Christmas … I heard the bells on Christmas Day their old familiar carols play, and wild and sweet the words repeat of peace on earth, goodwill to men! –  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  If Jesus were...

 Editor:  You may wish to include in your magazine some details of your local Christmas activities this month. These might include: Churches Together:  Are your local churches gathering to sing carols in the centre of town? Information Office at your Town Council:  What concerts or other activities are planned in any local stately homes or...

How do you think of Jesus? As the Lord of lords in glory? Or as a human baby soon to be born in Bethlehem? November brings the glorious climax of the church year with the Sunday of Christ the King at the end of November – only to begin a new ‘year’ a week later,...

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… 6th November              Third Sunday before Advent 13th November            Second Sunday before Advent 20th November            Christ the King – Sunday next before Advent 27th November            The First Sunday...

All Saints, or All Hallows, is the feast of all the redeemed, known and unknown, who are now in heaven. When the English Reformation took place, the number of saints in the calendar was drastically reduced, with the result that All Saints’ Day stood out with a prominence that it had never had before. This...

The first martyrs of Rome are recorded in the old Roman Martyrology, which states that: ‘At Rome, the birthday is celebrated of very many martyrs, who under the Emperor Nero were falsely charged with the burning of the city and by him were ordered to be slain by various kinds of cruel death; some were...

The early Church was slow to dedicate a liturgical day to offering prayers and masses to commemorate the faithful departed.  But in time prayers were offered on behalf of dead monks, that they might attain ‘the Beatific Vision’ through purification, which the Church later described as Purgatory.  Odilo, the powerful abbot of Cluny, (d 1049)...

The morality of hunting has made the headlines in recent years, but here at least was one man who was converted while hunting.  Hubert (bishop, d 727 AD) was out on Good Friday hunting stag when he came across a stag with a crucifix between its antlers.  This so shook him that he converted to...

Why should being a ‘lay’ person stop you from as full a ministry as being ordained?  Here is a saint for all lay people who suspect they can do as good a job…. Charles Borromeo was an Italian who lived in Milan from 1538 to 1584.   His uncle, Pope Pius IV, made him Archbishop of...

Back in 1605 Guy Fawkes managed to stow a good few barrels of gunpowder under the House of Lords without anybody noticing.  He was part of a Roman Catholic plot to murder James 1 of England and his parliament at the state opening.  Fortunately, Guy Fawkes was found – and stopped – in time.

Kea was an early Christian and a monk from a good family who left Glastonbury to work in Devon and Cornwall, where Landkey (Devon) and Kea (Cornwall) bear his name.  He founded several Christian centres in the area before going on to Brittany to become the saint known there as ‘Saint-Quay’.  It seems that Kea...