Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

Sarah brought her beautiful dog Bobby to a Quiet Morning at church.  He was very well behaved and loved all the attention he received.  As we began our time together Sarah gave him a bone to chew on, and he settled down contentedly, enjoying his own experience of ‘heaven’! The expression came into my mind,...

I was born a few weeks after the Wall Street Crash, 90 years ago this month. The American economy, so dominant in world trade, seemed to collapse overnight. Banks went bust, and then many businesses. Unemployment followed, and so did genuine poverty in American cities. Needless to say, I was totally unaware of all of...

That is the finding of a survey by Nationwide Building Society, who also found that one in four youngsters of primary school age do not even know what a high street is.  More than half have never visited a laundromat, and nearly half have never been to a florist or key-cutter. The survey comes amidst...

Do we know them when we see them? Heaven’s messengers of love? Who are there just when we need them, Sent to help by God above. Those who help us just by staying, Those who sit and hold our hand, Those who hold us up by praying, Those who simply understand. When the seas of...

There are up to 10,000 different kinds of birds in the world, and with about 530 different kinds in Israel alone, no wonder birds get a frequent mention in the Bible. Noah released a dove from the ark to look for dry ground.  A stork, an ostrich and an eagle are mentioned in Job.  Quails...

O holy Father of truth adored, O kindly Father of mercy poured, Deliver me from the spells that harm, Deliver me from each evil charm.   Allow no stain to blemish my soul, Allow no spot to my body whole, Allow no taint my breath to defile, Father of tender and lovely smile.   For...

Who does most of the housework in your family? Probably the woman, if you are like most families.  That is the finding of a recent analysis of who does household chores, carried out by University College London (UCL). The study found that even among couples where the woman is more qualified and has a more...

Like many older readers I can remember being taught how to write a letter. Address, date, recipient, signature, and then we had to address the envelope, buy a stamp (two pence at that time!) and post it. The first change to that routine came exactly 60 years ago this month, with the introduction in the...

I love to wander through the woodlands hoary, In the soft light of an autumnal day, When summer gathers up her robes of glory, And, like a dream of beauty, glides away. By Sarah Helen Whitman

Those aged over 50 now make up nearly half of all self-employed workers.  That is about 2.27 million people, up from 1.45 million a decade ago.  And almost one in five of the self-employed work-force is over 60. There’s good reason why older people turn to self-employment.  With a rising state pension age and a...

Over 80 years ago I sat next to my mother at a pantomime – ‘Cinderella’, I think. It was alright, if a bit too full of dancing for my taste.  But suddenly we were in a kitchen where the royal supper was being prepared. And wonderfully and gloriously, everything went wrong. Food took to the...

Doris Lessing, the novelist, playwright and poet, was born 100 years ago, on 22nd October 1919.  In 2007 she won the Nobel Prize in Literature.  She died in 2013. Lessing was born Doris May Tayler in Persia (now Iran). Both parents were British: her father, badly injured in the war, was a bank clerk. In...