Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

Church leaders often talk about new churches and church planting, but probably talk less about new denominations. Yet new denominations are also being started. In the UK the number has grown from the 97 listed, when they were first counted in 1977, to 250 by the year 2000, falling to 230 by this year. The number of denominations...

Children’s piggy banks have been raided by a quarter of parents this year, struggling to pay their bills during lockdown. A survey by Direct Line Life Insurance has found that buying food was among the most common reasons for 23 percent of adults admitting they had actually had to dip into their children’s savings.

C.S. Lewis called it the Grand Miracle and the Central Miracle. He noted that “Every other miracle prepares for this, exhibits this, or result.s from this…The fitness, and therefore credibility, of the particular miracles depend on their relations to the Grand Miracle.” So if you can believe in Christmas – the incarnation of the Son...

When I was a choir boy many years ago, writes David Winter, ‘Good King Wenceslas’ was a very popular carol. A man sang the King’s lines, a boy sang the Page’s, and the choir filled in the narrative. It was not of course technically a Christmas carol but one for which most people know as...

Latest government figures for 2018-19 show that nine per cent of households in England – about 2.17 million – do not have a working alarm. And only 26 per cent of people who do own an alarm bother to test it at least once a month. This is despite experts warning that people are around...

A Taskforce has been set up to ensure racial equality in the Church of England. The Anti-Racism Taskforce will carry out preparatory work ahead of the launch of the Archbishops’ Commission to address racism in Spring next year.  It is expected to complete its work by the end of January. The Revd Sonia Barron, Co-Chair...

Three hundred years ago, on 31st December 1720, Charles Edward Stuart, commonly known as “Bonnie Prince Charlie”, was born in Italy. He was leader of the unsuccessful Jacobite rebellion of 1745-46 – a turning point in British history. Charles believed the British throne to be his birthright as the grandson of King James II, a...

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...

By Stephen Cottrell, SPCK, £5.24 The Sleepy Shepherd is so dozy that he completely misses the visit of the angels and the chance to greet the Christ-child in Bethlehem. But one crucial night, years later, he makes an important decision – to be a real shepherd to a man whose friends have all fallen asleep....

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,...

This time of year you can see all sorts of traditions played out with regard to Christmas decorations. Strict adherents use holly, ivy and of course, mistletoe. While holly and ivy are to be found in gardens and hedgerows, mistletoe usually only appears in greengrocers’ shops, or high in a tree well out of reach....

The Church of England has welcomed the award of grants from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England for grants amounting to £10.7m to 66 churches and cathedrals across the country. A total of 16 cathedrals and 50 parish churches will receive grants under the Culture Recovery Fund for Heritage. The grants will support churches and cathedrals,...