Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

There were an estimated 45,500 congregations or churches in the UK in 2020:  79%, in England, 8% (3,700 churches) in Wales, 8% (3,500 churches) in Scotland and 5% (2,100 churches) in Northern Ireland. New congregations are being started or having to close all the time, and in the fifteen years since 2005 it is estimated...

The first cloned mammal – Dolly the sheep – was born 25 years ago, on 5th July 1996, at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh. The news was generally greeted with either direct opposition or considerable suspicion. Richard McCormick, a Jesuit priest and professor of Christian ethics at the University of Notre Dame, voiced the feelings of...

If you led a wild life before your conversion, then Olaf is the saint for you. Indeed, anything you have done could hardly match him, for he was a brigand and pirate who roamed the Baltic and Normandy around 1015 AD, maiming and killing, stealing and destroying, feared by all. Then on one particular raid...

The Difference When we feel shaken Prioritising Robin Mountains in the sky Sing to the Lord Reaching Out ** The Difference So often I can’t wear the right clothes, Speak the right words, Fit the right mould, Be the shape people want me to be, Expect me to be, Demand that I am, To conform....

It was 15 years ago, on 15th July 2006, that Twitter, the American micro-blogging social network, was launched. The first tweet – or short message – had been sent internally in March that year and was recently sold for over £2 million. The service was originally known as twttr (by analogy with the photo site...

Truth can come from a range of places. In Shakespeare, it’s the fool who often has the insight that the main characters lack. In the Old Testament, it’s the prophets that proclaim the truth from God’s perspective. Maybe today, we should be listening more to the comedians – to the people who stand back from...

The Church Commissioners for England recently announced their goal to reduce the carbon intensity of its investment portfolio by 25% by 2025. The Commissioners focus on using their influence as a responsible investor to engage companies and policy makers on setting and supporting net zero targets, thus bringing more constituents of its portfolio on to...

Does this month spell the end of school, college, or even a job, for you?  Then congratulations are in order: you have completed a significant step! Now it’s time to decide your next step. The dictionary defines ‘step’ as a physical movement that advances you in a desired direction. You ‘step’ forward in order to...

During the 18th century many people in England were involved in the campaign to abolish the slave trade.  The CofE remembers especially William Wilberforce, Olaudah Equiano and Thomas Clarkson – three very different but all tireless campaigners against the evil practice. Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846) was an Anglican clergyman and one of the most prominent of...

School is out this month, but how much good did it do your child? More than 200,000 pupils will leave primary school this year without being able to read, according to recent unpublished figures by the government. Now Boris Johnson has announced a ‘four-year emergency’ plan to help children catch up on their learning. One...

During the 18th century many people in England were involved in the campaign to abolish the slave trade.  The CofE remembers especially William Wilberforce, Olaudah Equiano and Thomas Clarkson – three very different but all tireless campaigners against the evil practice. Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846) was an Anglican clergyman and one of the most prominent of...

Have you ever tried to use cash in a shop, and been refused? That happened to more than a third of us last year. But now, in response to widespread protest, supermarkets and high street shops have promised that they will continue to accept cash. Aldi, Asda, Co-op, John Lewis, Lloyds Pharmacy and Waitrose have...