Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

All in the month of DECEMBER World Aids Day – 1st December A life for a life The writer who gave us Treasure Island and Kidnapped  The poet and hymn-writer who gave us ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ Nancy Astor – first woman MP in the House The News Quiz for 2019 Answers to the News...

It’s many years since Europe switched over to the Euro (January 2002).  So, this is a good time to remember Eloi, bishop of Noyon, who was born in Gaul, and started out as a goldsmith.  He entered the service of Bobon, the royal treasurer.  He went on to become master of the mint for King...

Ignatius Loyala sent his friend and follower Francis Xavier (born 1506) to the Orient as a missionary.  What a missionary!  Imagine David Livingstone, Billy Graham and the Alpha Courses rolled into one.  His mass conversions became legendary – he baptised 10,000 people in one month and in just ten years of work was credited with...

Thousands of our churches are currently involved in various mission initiatives across the UK.  If it is tough going at times, we should spare a thought for poor Birinus, a priest from Lombard, who was sent here on his own 14 centuries ago.  Pope Honorius 1 gave him the daunting task of being the apostle...

Osmond is the saint for you if you regret Brexit, and believe that immigrants can bring good to Britain. Osmond came to England from France back in the days before EU regulations.  It was shortly after 1066, and he was a Norman, following William the Conqueror. Osmond himself was no soldier, but a gifted and...

It was: 300 years ago, on 31st Dec 1719 that John Flamsteed, British astronomer died.  He was the first Astronomer Royal, and founder of the Greenwich Observatory. 150 years ago, on 31st Dec 1869 that Henri Matisse, the French artist, was born.  He became leader of the Fauvist movement. 125 years ago, on 3rd Dec...

It is just over 30 years since World Aids Day first began, in 1988.  It was the first ever global health day, and there is still very much a need for continuing an informed and united fight against AID-related illnesses. Worldwide, there are now an estimated 36.7million people who have the virus.  More than 35...

One person you are bound to run into this Christmas season is Father Christmas.  These days he seems to frequent shopping malls and garden centres.  If he looks tired, just remember that he has been around a long time and gone through a lot of transformations. Father Christmas wasn’t always the red-suited, white-bearded star of...

One account of how Father Christmas began tells of a man named Nicholas who was born in the third centre in the Greek village of Patara, on what is today the southern coast of Turkey.  His family were both devout and wealthy, and when his parents died in an epidemic, Nicholas decided to use his...

With Christmas in mind… This most tremendous tale of all, Seen in a stained-glass window’s hue, A Baby in an ox’s stall. John Betjeman’s ‘Christmas’ Filling the world, He lies in a manger!  Augustine The incarnation of Christ is the clearest affirmation of the truth that man is created in the image of God.  Lawrence...

What do your family call him, that cheerful old man in a red robe and floppy hat who pops up everywhere at Christmas? Sometimes he’s Father Christmas, sometimes Santa Claus, and in parts of Europe he’s Saint Nicholas. That’s his real name, abbreviated to ‘Santa Claus’ by Brits and Americans who don’t like to follow...

Father Christmas seems to be as old as Europe. Once he was Woden, lashing his reindeer through the darkness of northern midwinter.  Then he encountered the Church, and She transformed him into a saint, the much-loved Nicholas, Bishop of Myra (in south-west Turkey) in the fourth century.  St Nicholas became the patron saint of children,...