Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

A cross-party strategy is urgently needed to tackle rising levels of child poverty in the UK. So says a new report by the Church of England. The report brought together the views of 14 organisations, church leaders and grassroots groups. It has called for cross-departmental approach in Whitehall, and formal structures for driving forward this...

Bible Societies across the world completed Scripture translations in 90 languages last year used by 794 million people – just over 10 per cent of the world’s population. Despite a second year of disruption caused by Covid, 48 language groups – a total of 11 million people – received first Scripture translations, meaning that they were...

Alban was the very first Christian martyr in Britain – or at least the first we know of. A ‘martyr’ is someone who has died for the faith – the word literally means ‘witness’. He was probably killed during the persecution under the emperor Diocletian in the early years of the fourth century, in the...

 An important exhibition is running at the British Library in London until August 21st. It’s an exhibition taking a timely look at the news and the role it plays in our society. I’d love many Christians to visit it, writes the Revd Peter Crumpler, a Church of England priest and a former communications director for...

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has called on the Government to work with faith groups to achieve net zero carbon. Speaking recently in the House of Lords during a debate on Behaviour Change for Net Zero, he said: “My Lords, like the Government, the Church of England has targets for reaching net-zero carbon, in...

Under the Romans On June 22nd the Church remembers St Alban, who was put to death on that day in 250AD, on the site of the town in Hertfordshire that now bears his name and has a splendid cathedral which houses his shrine. Christianity was struggling to survive in third century Britain under Roman rule....

It was 250 years ago, on 22nd June 1772, that the Court of King’s Bench ruled that slavery was illegal in England and Wales. It remained legal in British Overseas Territories and colonies until 1833. In the 1772 case of Somerset v Stewart, William Murray, Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, made a very specific ruling that...

The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has been invited to welcome an historic Declaration of Friendship with the Catholic Church in Scotland that offers ‘a decisive and irrevocable statement of our friendship with one another, based on our shared faith in Christ.’ The culmination of more than 100 years of ecumenical relationship building...

Summer brings mosquitoes. We avoid them by using sprays, zappers or citronella candles. But now scientists may have found another way to discourage these blood-sucking pests. A recent study in Nature Communication suggests that we might also consider not wearing red clothes. It seems that mosquitoes see only certain wavelengths of light, and therefore only...

Your Servant Elizabeth Spirit of God Prayer for June 2022 Platinum Jubilee Celebration A (Royal) Dog’s Life Hear our Prayer Come Holy Ghost A Small Drop of Water Behold, enfold, hold Road of my Desire ** Editor: The Church of England has offered these two prayers for use during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. You may...

Helping a stranger in need Alban should be the patron saint of anyone who impulsively offers to help a stranger in need… and finds their own life turned upside down as a result. The story goes that Alban was a Roman citizen quietly living in England in the third century.  Then, miles away in Rome,...

This month, millions of households in the UK will be pushed into fuel poverty as the higher cost of energy really begins to bite. So warns CAP (Christians Against Poverty). “Now more than ever, people in financial crisis need urgent help.” CAP uses the example of Jayne, a single mum who fell into debt after...