Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

The Queen recently spoke for the whole country when she said that many are, “tinged with sadness. Some (are) mourning the loss of those dear to them and other missing friends and family members, distanced for safety. When all they really want … is a simple hug or a squeeze of the hand.” We may...

2 Cor. 12:8; ‘Three times I asked the Lord about this …BUT…’  Paul is talking about one of the most mysterious and one of the most baffling aspects of prayer – when God does not say yes. On the face of it, Paul’s prayer was very modest.  For some time he had been troubled by...

Exercise can be just as effective as mindfulness when it comes to reducing your stress and anxiety.  Such is the conclusion of a recent study at Cambridge University. Mindfulness is a form of meditation which involves focussing your thoughts and sensations, and it has become popular in recent years.  But now Cambridge University experts say...

Ten years ago, on 15th March 2011, the Syrian Civil War began. It continues today. Hostilities started with “Arab Spring” pro-democracy demonstrations that were crushed by President Bashar al-Assad, and the violence spread, with different groups, backed by various countries, joining in. The Sunni Muslim majority clashed with the President’s Shia Alawite sect, and jihadist...

Another state in India has passed a law banning religious conversions. Madhya Pradesh has replaced existing legislation with a tough new law intended to prevent Hindus changing their religion. Release International warns that this is the harshest anti-conversion law yet to be passed in India. And there is concern it could lead towards a ban...

It was 1700 years ago, on 7th March 321, that the Roman Emperor Constantine 1 (Constantine the Great), who had converted to Christianity, decreed that Sunday should be a day of rest throughout the Empire. This was a change from normal Roman Empire practice, which was to regard Sunday as just another work-day – something...

Under lockdown, millions of us who rarely walked around our immediate locality are now well acquainted with every nearby driveway, every crack in the pavement, and every pothole in the road. We have developed views on our neighbours’ gardens, on their oddly coloured garage doors, and on their dogs, children and cars. If we go...

Rupert is the saint for you if you like The Sound of Music – or salt with your food! Rupert (d c 710) was bishop of Worms and Salzburg, and it was he who founded the great monastery of St Peter in Salzburg in the eighth century, thus firmly establishing Christianity in that city. True,...

Thousands of BBC local radio listeners across England recently tuned in to an unusual sporting-themed church service. It wasn’t broadcast from a typical place of worship, a church or a cathedral, but from Wycombe Wanderers FC – a football club in the Championship, the second rung of English soccer. Four of the team’s leading players...

I believe there were two key elements to gathered worship. The first is that there should be a welcome for everyone. The second I’d like to propose is that gathered worship is absolutely concentrated on enabling and allowing our hearts and souls to be closer to the God whom we are worshipping. In other words, whatever takes places,...

‘Do not let this Book …depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night … be careful to do everything written in it.  Then you will be … successful.’ (Joshua 1.8) Any flying instructor will tell you that aeroplanes need to be ‘trimmed’ or ‘balanced in flight’ on a regular basis.  After flying through...

Joyce Grenfell wrote a wonderful song, Joyful Noise, about three lady choristers: Miss Clissold, Miss Truss and Ivy Trembley. Their greatest delight was to sing in an oratorio at the Royal Albert Hall. ‘It may be like a gasworks with a green-house roof above it, and it may lack convenience, but all the same we...