Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

– a spirituality of walking By Graham B Usher, SPCK, £9.99 Walking is one of the simplest things we do as humans. It’s how most of us experience life. In The Way Under Our Feet, Graham Usher conveys how exhilarating it is to walk into the depths of our humanity. We become more ready to recognise...

Britain’s first Christian martyr 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...

– 40 days of devotional readings By David Cole, BRF, £8.99 The life stories of the Celtic saints are inspirational. They demonstrate great and unassuming faith, often in the face of insurmountable difficulties. In Celtic Saints David Cole draws us to relate our own life journey and developing relationship with God into the life story...

The lockdown this Spring at least gave Nature a brief respite. Wild goats, herds of deer, sparrowhawks, stoats, snakes, badgers, spawning toads and songbirds all seemed to have enjoyed the peace and quiet. We, in turn, have enjoyed watching them from our windows. As Mark Thompson, a presenter on Stargazing Life, said, “This lockdown is...

“The coronavirus crisis will push thousands of households to the brink.”  So warns a spokesman for CAP, the charity which helps people in debt. So, while CAP approves the Government’s recent £20 per week boost for those on Universal Credit and those receiving Tax Credits, “what many won’t realise is that a staggering 2.83 million...

CPAS, the Anglican agency that helps local churches do mission, has refused to be shut down this summer by coronavirus. Although it has had to cancel its entire summer programme of youth holidays and training events – at a cost of more than £250,000, it is still determined to do what it can. General Director...

It’s difficult as a scientist to hear information that is fascinating, but which also involves so much suffering for other people. I worked for a time in a leukaemia research lab. We had to let other people’s pain drive our research without it crippling our ability to concentrate on our work. But, writing this under...

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....

Jesus the Good Shepherd has been a popular inspiration for artists from the earliest days of Christianity. But this month we focus on another image that has been just as powerful and influential from the first centuries of the Church: Jesus the vine. We think of grapes and the vine as symbols of the Eucharist...

why women hold each other back By Helen Roberts, SPCK, £9.99  Too often, women hold each other back, bad mouthing and making unflattering comparisons. Social media give extra opportunities for negative comment. Are we trapped in our own battles, or entertained by the wars of other women, to the detriment of our own freedom and...

– the lament of Psalm 13 As we struggle with the effects of the global coronavirus pandemic, we might echo the words of Psalm 13: ‘Howlong, Lord? Will you forget me forever?’ It is one of a number of lament psalms, where the psalmist cries out in pain, because he feels abandoned by God. In...

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,...