Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

The best ways of staying fit and healthy may be different from what you thought. Here are some fitness dictats which were originally based more on marketing than on science. Walk 10,000 steps a day: This goal has been a popular mantra for years, and it has even been adopted by the World Health Organisation....

In Salvador Dali’s picture of Jesus’ ascension all you can see are His feet! As we celebrate the event this month, it prompts the question ‘where did Jesus go?’ Peter says Jesus ‘has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand’ (1 Peter 3:22). However, the New Testament tells us three things about what...

Latest worshipping and visitor data collected from England’s 42 cathedrals and Westminster Abbey during 2021 shows attendance began to recover, despite ongoing Covid-19 measures. The data showed a weekly total of 15,800 people were reported at cathedral services in 2021. This is 22 per cent more than the equivalent figure from 2020, although still 58...

A Private Member’s Bill brought by the Bishop of Durham, Paul Butler, to abolish the two-child limit on Universal Credit has recently completed its passage through the House of Lords. The Bill will now be considered in the House of Commons. The Bill would amend previous legislation which limits the number of children counted when...

As a little boy growing up during World War II, I spent night after night in a bomb shelter. Why were those wicked Germans strafing us? Why was everything rationed (especially sweets)? After the war I began to understand that many other countries had suffered too, and unspeakable atrocities had been inflicted on Jews and...

Have you ever considered the furniture that we have in our churches? Close your eyes and think what your own sitting room looks like and the furniture you have chosen to go in there. Most of us will have chairs, a sofa, one or more tables of different sizes, a fireplace and a television. Which...

Coronation Prayer 2023 Signs and Promises Pentecost Prayer Acts 2 Blind Bartimaeus United St John the Swift ** Coronation Prayer 2023 Almighty God, On the occasion of the crowning of King Charles 111, we, the people, pray for him. We thank you for him and for the calling on his life and we recognise the weight...

Some 250 years ago, on 10th May 1773, Britain passed the Tea Act, which favoured the British East India Company over the American colonies. This led to the Boston Tea Party in December, which escalated into the American Revolution and the establishment of the USA. The idea of the Tea Act was to help the...

An important spiritual discipline is prayer, where we can both listen and talk to God. However, it’s not always easy, and as Pentecost tells us, we have the Holy Spirit to help us to pray. ‘In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray...

We used to call it Whitsun – ‘White Sunday’ because long ago children marched to church in white on that day. There are no processions nowadays, and we’ve even changed its name. It’s now ‘Pentecost’, which is more accurate but needs explaining. Pentecost marks a vital event in Christian history. It is celebrated 50 days...

If you are contacted by a clergyman asking you for money, beware! It is a scammer. Scammers have been impersonating various clergy, including even the Archbishop of York, to ask priests and other church people to buy them Amazon vouchers and online gift cards. The scammers use either emails or texts, and their message is...

Josephine Butler is the ‘saint’ for anyone who believes in social justice. This remarkable 19th century clergyman’s wife became a renowned campaigner for women’s rights and for putting a halt to human trafficking. Josephine was born in Northumberland in 1828, the daughter of a wealthy family of liberal politics and committed Christian faith. They had...