Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

A perfectly mown lawn may look beautiful, but it is also a sign of male control. So says Monty Don, the Gardeners’ World presenter. He is wary of what he calls the ‘male obsession’ to achieve a closely cut lawn which is of pure and perfect grass, without any other plants in it at all....

It was 60 years ago, on 6th June 1961, that Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist, died. He was the founder of analytical psychology. Today he is thought of as a countercultural icon and an advocate of spirituality outside religion, associated more with New Age thinking than mainstream psychology. But he came from a...

What are the best metaphors we could use to describe biological things? You might be used to hearing phrases like “your genetic blueprint” or “survival of the fittest”, but are they helpful or even accurate? Some of these words fail to capture the wonder and joy of understanding something new about the nature of living...

It was “sobering and shameful” for the Church of England to be “confronted by the recent Panorama documentary”, which looked at “a number of shockingly specific instances where sisters and brothers in Christ have experienced racism in the Church of England.” So said the Archbishop of York in his recent Presidential Address to the General Synod. He...

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....

Remember the story of Jacob, and how God met him in a dream when he was sleeping on the desert floor with a rock for his pillow? The story in Genesis 28 says this: ‘When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of...

The Church Commissioners for England have announced their goal to reduce the carbon intensity of their investment portfolio by 25% by 2025. The 25% reduction target, based on a baseline of 2019, is “a realistic goal in our mission to create real world change to transition to a net zero global economy.” The Church Commissioners...

Do you yearn for a garden gnome?  You are not the only one. Since last year’s lockdown, garden centres have been reporting a ‘massive upswing’ in ornament sales, due to people being forced to spend more time in their gardens.   Gnomes top the list of most-wanted ornaments, with a near 100 per cent increase in...

The vital role played by local newspapers and radio in encouraging greater understanding of faith has been highlighted in a newly-published parliamentary report. I say Amen to that. ‘Learning to Listen’, produced by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Religion in the Media, praises the positive role played by local and regional media in reporting...

You can take your choice: a recent survey has found that a third of us think that society may never go back to the old ways,  a third of us think we will go back to exactly as we were before, and a third of us think that we will be keener than ever to...

The Archbishops’ Anti-Racism Taskforce recently published its report, From Lament to Action, which proposes a suite of changes designed alter the culture of the Church of England. It issues a warning to the Archbishops that a failure to act could be a “last straw” for many people of UK Minority Ethnic (UKME) or Global Majority...

What happens when you spill a cup of coffee? Does the minor irritation ruin the rest of your day? Or do you simply clear up the mess and not give it a second thought? Our brains respond in different ways to minor negative experiences. Now a study by psychologists at the University of Miami has...