Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

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,...

Christian Aid has warned that time is running out to prevent coronavirus overwhelming health systems across Africa. As coronavirus infections rise sharply across the continent, and with African countries lacking the specialist equipment or staff to cope with a pandemic, the international development agency is calling for the cancellation of debt repayments from African countries...

The Rectory St James the Least My dear Nephew Darren Your decision to hold a Summer weekend Arts Festival in church, bringing culture to your inner-city streets, was most commendable. Pity, how it all turned out. The Friday evening started well with the concert of Scott Joplin piano music. Obviously knowing that the pieces were...

– God’s faithfulness in times of suffering By Keren Baker, 10ofthose, £5.99 Living a faithful Christian life will always hold the possibility of trouble and difficulty, but how do you cope when the troubles come one after another? A chronic long-term illness, miscarriage, a difficult pregnancy and premature baby, the unexpected death of a little...

Editor:  with coronavirus in mind “God is present in the midst of all the chaos that surrounds us.”- Henri Nouwen “I think one of the big effects is there’s a renewal of the sense that we all belong to Christ… I’ve been deeply moved by the services I’ve participated in; they’ve reached out in a...

A new wave of crop-eating locusts has been devastating East Africa, just as communities are also dealing with an increase of coronavirus cases. At the start of 2020, Ethiopia and Somalia faced the biggest invasion of the insects in 25 years – and the worst in Kenya and Uganda for 70 years.  The locusts also...