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G  –  God R  –  Ran A  –  Alongside C  –  Carrying E  –  Everything

– Pancake Day Ever wonder why we eat pancakes just before Lent? The tradition dates back to Anglo-Saxon times, when Christians spent Lent in repentance and severe fasting. So on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the church bell would summon them to confession, where they would be ‘shriven’, or absolved from their sins, which gives...

What have men and women been thinking about during the pandemic? According to recent data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), men have been preoccupied with takeaway food and pints, while women have been keeping in touch with their friends. In a study on the social impact of coronavirus, the ONS found that women...

Do you ever worry that your past failings mean that God will not accept you now?   Some of us have done many things which we regret, things that have caused us, or others, great pain. We’ve given our children short shrift, we’ve betrayed our marriage partners, we’ve been dishonest at work, we’ve been ruthlessly greedy...

A new report by Christian Aid, Counting the cost 2020: a year of climate breakdown, has identified 15 of the most destructive climate disasters of the year. Ten of those events cost $1.5 billion or more, with nine of them causing damage worth at least $5 billion. Most of these estimates are based only on...

It has been a terrible year for farmers and workers in the global south. In 2020, on top of the pandemic, they had to deal with the growing impact of climate change: more droughts and crop disease, locusts, floods, fires, and heatwaves.  No wonder their harvests were shrinking. Yet with the help of Fairtrade, many...

– in Jerusalem by David Winter Ash Wednesday introduces the Christian preparation for Easter, which normally coincides with Passover, the major Jewish celebration of the year. It’s near Easter because Jesus was crucified at Passover, having just shared this very meal with His disciples. Passover celebrates and recalls the Israelites’ escape from slavery in Egypt....

– revealing the extraordinary love of God in ordinary ways The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2021 By Hannah Steele, SPCK, £7.99 The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book 2021, Living His Story, explores evangelism as a way of sharing God’s love with people. How can we convey the love of God to our neighbours in a...

Don’t let vulnerable members of your family accidentally poison themselves with hand sanitiser. It can kill them. Poisonings from swallowing alcohol-based hand sanitiser have more than doubled in the past year, to nearly 400. Doctors from the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford urge that more needs to be done to...

The Church of England, the education charity Teach First, and the Chartered College of Teaching have recently launched the new Rural Teaching Partnership. The partnership will run in ten pilot regions across England, and will see trainee teachers, trained by Teach First, start two-year placements with Church of England primary schools by September 2021 By...

–  you are sorry Have you done something which haunts you?  Which makes you feel restless and defensive, every time you think of it? Why not deal with it this month, and put it behind you? Whatever your mistake has been, consider what the Bible has to say to you: ‘I have not come to...

– our sins Lent begins with Ash Wednesday. But why ‘Ash’ Wednesday?  The reason has to do with getting things right between you and God, and the tradition goes right back to the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, the Israelites often sinned. When they finally came to their senses, and saw their evil ways as...