Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

The album Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel was released 50 years ago, on 26th January 1970. It topped the charts in ten countries and sold 25 million records. It was their fifth and final studio album. The song itself, one of their most widely known, was influenced by gospel music, especially the...

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2020 Holocaust Memorial Day – 75 years since Auschwitz World Leprosy Sunday – 26th January Silence can be golden – as long as the transmitters don’t cut out! Garden recycling project needs your old tools China: growing religious persecution  Looking for clergy in need of financial support Yoga and...

Magi from the East – it isn’t a lot to go on.  The Magi had originally been a religious caste among the Persians.  Their devotion to astrology, divination and the interpretation of dreams led to an extension in the meaning of the word, and by the first century the Magi in Matthew’s gospel could have...

It was 200 years ago, on the 27th and 30th of January 1820, that Antarctica was discovered.  A Russian expedition sighted the Fimbul Ice Shelf, but not land.  Three days later a captain in the British Royal Navy sighted the Trinity Peninsula. Neither of these achievements is totally beyond dispute, mainly because of the difficulty...

The story of the coming of the Magi grew in the telling.  By the 6th century they had acquired names: Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthasar.  By medieval times they were considered to be kings.  Whoever they were, we do know from Matthew that they brought three gifts to Jesus. What about their gifts of gold, frankincense...

In the 1990s a stream was a small river, the web was what spiders built in your shed, a net was something you used to catch things, the cloud brought rain, and tweeting was what birds did. Not anymore.  In recent years these words from the ‘natural world’ have been so overtaken by technology that...

Many saints have fed the poor, but not many were interested in actual food production.  Nathalan (died c.678) was, so perhaps he might be the patron saint of anyone who produces food – and gives most of it away to those in need. Scotland in the 7th century must have been a hungry place, especially...

How to have a healthy and legal New Year Dark Pills Could your dog be about to injure you? Drugs and your children Cup of tea?  Which one? Search your sofa Try running with straight arms Less beer ** Editor:  By David Pickup, a solicitor. How to have a healthy and legal New Year  Let...

Here’s a New Year Resolution for your dog: don’t eat the postman (or woman). The Royal Mail’s recent request, that dog owners distract their pets by feeding them before the postman comes, follows a surge of dog attacks on postmen and women, averaging out at 47 a week for the past year.  In all, nearly...

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established…. The authorities that exist have been established by God.   Romans 13:1 Do you get into a muddle at times?  Then here is an important New Year’s Resolution for you: this year, have a calendar and record...

Holocaust Memorial Day Caring for God’s World From the Vicar – caring for God’s World Facing both ways Blotting my copy book New Year’s Honours New or Old What are you supposed to be doing? Enjoy each day as it comes The Lord’s Prayer and you in 2020 ** Editor:  The Rev Paul Hardingham on...

Our appetites are killing us.  Hospitals are now treating 5,000 type 2 diabetics a day.  The head of the NHS, Simon Stevens, blames “our ever-expanding waistlines”, as obesity is the major cause of Type 2 diabetes. More than 1.7 million people were admitted to hospital last year with type 2 diabetes.   That cost the NHS...