Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him – John 1:11 God appeared one night; the world slept on. Infant flesh disguised the Holy One, announced by angels singing in the sky, ‘Peace on earth and praise to God on high’ but who turned up?   Shepherds came,...

Ethical Christmas presents ‘Tis the season for Angels! Free gifts for festive shoppers C of E’s Environment Group calls for greater action on Climate Change The Nazareth Trust – working to heal and improve lives Millennium yew trees – 20 years on Don’t ignore RE! Paradise and the Final Judgement in danger of flaking **...

‘It’s gonna be a lonely Christmas’. The pressure to have fun with friends and family is real over the Christmas period. In fact, over nine million people in the UK say they’re always or often lonely. (Red Cross). When Mary became pregnant with Jesus, she probably felt very alone. Her situation would be seen as...

Ever wonder where many of our Christmas traditions come from?   A surprising amount of our modern Christmas celebrations can be traced back to the well-loved story of ‘A Christmas Carol’, by Charles Dickens. When you read ‘A Christmas Carol’, you discover almost a template of the ‘ideal Christmas’ which we still hold dear today.  Dickens...

By Antonia Jackson and Felicity French, Lion Children, £4.99 Join the colouring craze and add a splash of colour to the story of Christmas with these beautiful and intricate black and white line drawings, just waiting for your creative input! Follow the Nativity scene by scene until you have a stunning masterpiece – your own...

How much damage to the earth will we manage to do this Christmas?   Those hundreds of millions of presents we are going to buy come from somewhere – usually raw resources.  Are the presents worth the strain on our already struggling planet? Here are some alternative presents, that are eco-friendly, useful, and fairly traded. Christian...

Who saw the man and pregnant girl Pressing through the crowded street Struggling through the human swirl On tired legs and aching feet? Who knew? Who heard her cries, in labour’s pain Deep within a battered shed? Who cared for their impoverished shame Who thought about her grassy bed? Who knew? Who, listening to an...

During this year we have been exploring the wealth of paintings in the National Gallery in London. Each year the Gallery has exhibitions highlighting the work of one particular artist, and until 26 January there is a major exhibition, ‘Gauguin Portraits.’ It celebrates in paintings and sculptures the life and work of Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)....

By Sophie Piper & Anne Yvonne Gilbert, Lion Children, £6.99 The emotion and detail in Anne Yvonne Gilbert’s exquisite illustrations will make this picture book of the first Christmas stand out in the memory. The retelling follows the traditional sequence of episodes and echoes the language of the Gospels themselves.

UK-based Release International has made Pakistan its focus for prayer this year, and continues to be deeply concerned for Christians in that country. As a spokesman for Release International explains, “Most Christians in Pakistan are poor, illiterate and vulnerable to abuse, especially young women and girls. Believers face discrimination in education, employment and the law....

It is to St Luke’s wonderful gospel that many Christians turn as the year draws to a close and Christmas approaches, for it is to St Luke that we owe the fullest account of the nativity. Luke alone tells us the story of Mary and the angel’s visit to her, and has thus given the...

Angels make a big appearance in the story of Christmas, but over the next few weeks other kinds of angels will be making appearances throughout the country, on streets and inside nightclubs. Teams of Street Angels and Club Angels will work hard this month to help to keep communities and people, especially within the night-time...