Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

You can go to church this autumn for worship, baptisms, weddings, and funerals, all without needing to offer proof that you have had the jab. The Church of England welcomed the news that vaccination certification will not be required. As a spokesman said: “it would be difficult … to justify limiting access to church services...

This winter, when you next see someone who looks both poor and cold, think of Martin of Tours.  This monk bishop, born in Pannonia (now Hungary) became one of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages. Martin’s father was a pagan officer in the Roman Army, and Martin was intended for the army as...

Amid the mud, blood and carnage of trench warfare in World War 1, tens of thousands of bright red poppies grew, marking the graves of the fallen.  This led John McCrae, a Canadian army physician who had lost a colleague, to write “In Flanders Fields”, In Flanders fields, the poppies blow Between the crosses, row...

The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church will be taking place on Sunday 7th November. This year Open Doors, CSW and Release International are again teaming up for a special online social media event on that day. For more details, please visit: Open Doors at https://www.opendoorsuk.org/resources/prayer/idop/ CSW at https://www.csw.org.uk/idop Release International at https://releaseinternational.org/idop/

A cut to the speed limit on motorways in wet weather would be backed by the majority of UK motorists.  Such is the finding of a recent poll by the RAC, following a rise in serious accidents. Almost three-quarters of us would be in favour of following the French method of lowering the speed limit...

In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on America 20 years ago this autumn, many Americans were seen to be ‘saintly’ in their brave attempts to help save lives.  But Frances (1850 – 1917) was the first citizen of the United States to be officially canonised as a saint – by Pope Pius XII in...

Faith leaders have been joining together to demand climate action ahead of the COP26 meeting in Glasgow (1st – 12th November). Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich, and lead Bishop on the Environment for the Church of England signed the letter alongside leaders of every major Christian denomination and representatives from Baha’i, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Jewish,...

This month sees the eagerly anticipated COP26 climate conference in Glasgow. As Christians, we need to hold together two key insights, if we are to engage with the challenge of climate change: The world is not ours: ‘The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it’ (Psalm 24:1). The world is not ours, but God’s!...

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. (Matthew 5:4) National and local memorials to the casualties were first proposed during the First World War. After the war ended, local committees were set up to plan how to commemorate the sacrifice of their young men’s lives. The committees were not usually run by...

Hundreds of thousands of people have discovered the ancient monastic cycle of daily prayer through a Church of England podcast which has received more than a million downloads in just six months. The Daily Prayer podcast, which is integrated into the free Daily Prayer app, brings listeners together twice a day for short traditional services...

Dogs really are in tune with human emotions like no other species, and they are born with this ability. Such is the finding of a recent study at Duke University in North Carolina, which compared the interaction of wolf cubs with humans, and of puppies with humans. In test after test the puppies came top...

Some women have power, and some women are good. When a woman with power is also good, she can achieve an astonishing amount. Margaret of Scotland has been called ‘The Pearl of Scotland’, but she began life in Hungary about 1045. She was born to the expatriate English prince Edward the Exile, and so was...