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Have you ever stopped to consider that the very first martyr of the Christian Church (Stephen died c 35 AD) was a deacon?  (But no, he wasn’t worked to death by his church.)  It was Stephen, one of the first seven deacons of the Christian Church.  He’d been appointed by the apostles to look after...

Most of us probably know that on December 26th (the Feast of Stephen) ‘Good king Wenceslas’ looked out, writes David Winter. We probably also know that the snow lay round about, ‘deep and crisp and even’. Beyond that, he’s just someone in a carol that’s not often sung nowadays. However, Wenceslas was a real person,...

The death of a very young child is perhaps the hardest grief of all to bear.  So the 28th December is a very poignant day in the church calendar.  It is when the worldwide Church joins with bereaved parents to grieve the loss of babies and young children.  For Holy Innocents day recalls the massacre...

The day most of us call ‘Boxing Day’, was when tradesmen used to collect their annual tips from customers. It is named in the Church Calendar as St Stephen’s Day, in memory of the first martyr, stoned to death by an angry crowd because of his faith. That is a shocking footnote to the celebration...

This year the Nazareth Trust has raised funds to support renovation work in the Nazareth Hospital’s Maternity Department.  Over £60,000 was raised, renovations are well underway. For 2020, the aim is to launch a new International Volunteer Chaplaincy. As a spokesman explains, “At our hospital, we encounter over 300,000 people every year. We want to...

The Rectory St James the Least of All My dear Nephew Darren I am sorry I was not alive during that wonderful four-year period when Oliver Cromwell abolished Christmas.  Just think!  No Christmas parties, no carol services, no cards to send and no frantic last-minute shopping. That man was a hero. Planning for Christmas at...

20 years ago, as 1999 drew to a close, the Church of England marked the Millennium by distributing thousands of young yew trees across England. In all, about 7000 seedlings were given to parishes requesting them. It was explained that the yew tree could be seen as ‘a metaphor for the life of faith in...

The number of schools ignoring Religious Education (RE) laws has risen, according to recent research by the National Association of Teachers of RE (NATRE). In a survey of more than 600 schools across England, it was found that half of academies without a religious character and 40 per cent of community schools do not meet...

English Heritage is concerned about our ancient church wall-paintings.  It has recently launched an appeal, ‘Save our Story’ to make sure that the rare and ancient wall-paintings in religious and other historic buildings in its care can be conserved for the future. The wall paintings range from the earliest medieval painting in Britain, found in...

Editor:  As Saints’ Days do not change from year to year, we have offered material on many of these days before.  The one with an asterisk is new this year. 1          All Saints’ Day 1          The first martyrs 2          All Souls’ Day 3          Hubert 4          Charles Borromeo – saint for those with a...

All Saints, or All Hallows, is the feast of all the redeemed, known and unknown, who are now in heaven. When the English Reformation took place, the number of saints in the calendar was drastically reduced, with the result that All Saints’ Day stood out with a prominence that it had never had before. This...