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Do you value your Bible?  If so, Felix of Thibiuca (247 – 303) is a good patron saint for you.  The year was 303, and Diocletian was emperor in Rome.  In February of that year he decided that Christians were NOT a good thing. So he issued an edict:  all copies of the Christian Scriptures...

Did you know that if you can stop smoking for 28 consecutive days, you are five times more likely to succeed in stopping for good?  And that could give you years more of life to enjoy. Along with the health benefits, cutting out smoking will save the average smoker more than £38 a week, or...

Can you think of a politician who deserves to be called a saint?  If no one currently living politician comes to mind, never mind – there is always King Alfred of Wessex (871-899). This remarkable and best known of all the Anglo-Saxon rulers may have dozed off and let some cakes burn while a peasant...

That is the clear message of leading clergy in Poland, who are deeply concerned at the increasing attacks on Ukrainians who have sought refuge in Poland. The Archbishop of Krakow, Cardinal Grzegorz Rys says: “Not a day goes by without the media reporting new acts of violence: against children and youth, against women and against...

One hundred years ago, on 14th October 1926, the children’s book Winnie-the-Pooh, by A A Milne, was published. It was set in the Hundred Acre Wood, an innocent world described as “largely Edenic” but based on Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, which the Milne family often explored from their home in nearby Hartfield. It came...

Odran is a suitable saint to remember as Halloween approaches, for his story involves the spirit world. British by birth, Odran (died c. 563) was one of Columba’s first companions on Iona.  Sadly, he died not long after his arrival on the island.  But Columba found comfort, for in a vision he saw Odran’s soul...

Ninety years ago, from 5th to 31st October, the Jarrow March took place. Some 200 men walked from Jarrow in north-east England to Westminster to draw attention to the severe unemployment and poverty in their area. Because of the huge number of unemployed in the town, on the banks of the Tyne, the marchers felt...

Prisons Week is an annual initiative dedicated to prayer and raising awareness for those affected by the criminal justice system. This year it runs from Prisons Sunday, 11th October, to Saturday 17th October. It was begun in 1975 by Bishop Victor Guazzelli, an auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster. The bishop was...

Everyone seems to have their ‘special day’ these days, and this month brings us Grandparents’ Day, on the 4th October. If your grandchildren are still young, why not keep at your house: A dressing up box – of fairytale clothes, plastic crowns and cardboard swords.These will keep them busy for hours. Charity shops can be...

The Church of Scotland has transferred ownership of 800-year-old Brechin Cathedral in Angus to the Brechin Cathedral Trust, which will ensure that the building “continues to be the beating heart of the community”. The A-listed cathedral has an iconic Irish-style Round Tower, only one of two in Scotland, which was built around 1100 and originally...

Christianity in Afghanistan “now hangs by a gossamer thread”, warns a recent report on persecution in that country. The report, Crimes Against Humanity and Potential Genocide: the threat posed by the Taliban regime of total eradication of the Christian community in Afghanistan, was recently published by the Lindisfarne Centre for the Study of Christian Persecution....

 Forty years ago, on 29th October 1986, the M25 motorway around Greater London was opened. An orbital motorway for London had been proposed in 1944, but by 1966 this idea had evolved into two ringways, to the north and south. By the time the first sections opened in 1975, however, it had been rethought again,...