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Fruit of the Spirit Prayer for October 2025 Agape Love Praise to the Holiest in the height Autumn Glades The Gates of the Kingdom The Leaves A Helping Hand ** Fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22,23, Ps 34:8)< Opportunities To ripen your fruit in our lives, Lord, give us opportunities. To grow in Your Spirit,...

Gardens are preparing to go to sleep, but next Spring will soon be here.  So why not consider some changes now: ~ Install a water butt now, to store up the winter rain for the Spring. ~ Reduce the hard standing in your garden. Instead, let rain soak into the soil, rather than go down...

1 Thessalonians 3:12, 13, runs: ‘May the Lord …establish your hearts unblameable in holiness.’ Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonian church, dating from about 51 AD, is generally regarded as the first book in the New Testament to have been written. That means that this prayer is the first New Testament prayer to have been...

 Religious Studies (RS) GCSE in England and Wales fell by 2.6 per cent this year, but it still remains a popular subject.  And the Religious Education Council (REC) of England and Wales is calling for more specialist teachers. The REC said in a recent statement that RS was “the seventh most widely taken subject in...

When did you first spot Halloween-themed items in the shops this year? Some were on sale in August. Seriously. August. But perhaps no wonder – as in the UK Halloween has become the third-largest retail event after Christmas and Easter. In 2019 we spent £474million. By last year it had grown to £776million. Who spends...

This year marks ten years since England introduced the 5p charge for single-use plastic carrier bags. The charge has had a dramatic effect – with a reduction of 98% in sales. In 2014, 7.6 billion single-use plastic bags were sold in the UK. By 2023, 133 million single-use bags had been sold in the major...

** Lost in translation Sign on a door in Istanbul: American dentist – 2nd floor. Teeth extracted by a new Methodist. ** Reply A curt reply to a bishop who had suggested that a certain incumbent consider moving read: Dear bishop, I REMAIN, yours faithfully…. ** Not any more Two young tourists went into a...

In October we traditionally give thanks for the good gifts of God’s creation at harvest time. In the readings for our worship, we often return to that original goodness in the Garden of Eden, described for us in the opening chapters of Genesis. We glimpse that scene of paradisal harmony in Lucas Cranach’s painting ‘Adam...

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...

On 6th-13th October this year many people around the world will be celebrating the Jewish festival of Tabernacles, or Sukkot. They will celebrate the Harvest, and also remember God bringing the Israelites out of Egypt and through 40 years in the desert. The biblical book of Deuteronomy contains a description of what Tabernacles should have...

The UK arm of the Navigators turns 70 this year. It has been celebrating its work in the UK with a national roadshow that stretches from Glasgow to Southampton. The Navigators was first founded in 1933 by an American evangelist, Dawson Trotman, who ministered to sailors in the US Navy. Due to his efforts, 135...

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:...