Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

‘Harran, Kanneh and Eden and merchants of Sheba, Ashur and Kilmad traded with you.  In your market-place they traded with you beautiful garments, blue fabric, embroidered work and multi-coloured rugs with cords twisted and tightly knotted. The ships of Tarshish serve as carriers for your wares. You are filled with heavy cargo as you sail...

It’s perhaps typical of the English that they should have a patron saint who isn’t English, about whom next to nothing is known for sure, and who may not have existed at all. That didn’t stop him being patriotically invoked in many battles, notably at Agincourt and in the Crusades, and of course it is...

It’s official: we are buying more soap bars these days.  And that is a good thing. It is all a part of the major consumer backlash against unnecessary plastic waste. More and more of us want eco-friendly versions of our everyday needs.  Thus, we have ‘bags for life’, loose fruit and veg, and now –...

The Saint of an English Army before he was Patron Saint of England, St George may have been a soldier, but he was no Englishman.  He was an officer in the Roman army under Diocletian, who refused to abandon his faith during the Terror, and was martyred at Lydda in Palestine about the year 300...

Church leaders give blessing to plastic-free faith Easter Egg General Synod backs plans to mobilise one million worshippers New code of practice on ecumenical cooperation approved General Synod backs drive to create new churches on estates
  Church of England commits to next generation evangelism Call for long view on ‘Character Education and Resilience’ New standards...

If she is spending more than three hours a day on social media, she may well need your help.  A recent study has found that such girls are more than twice as likely to have depression as their male classmates. A government-funded study by UCL found that more than 25% of teenage girls who average...

Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12). The word blessed describes how we can live under God’s blessing. Jesus talks about the ‘beautiful attitudes’ (Billy Graham) that characterise followers of Jesus. They speak more about ‘who we are’ than ‘what we do’ and reflect perfectly the character of Jesus that...

Middle-aged women who are open to a bit of romance should be careful: they are in the age group which is most vulnerable to dating fraudsters. Dating fraud begins online.  You think you have met someone rather special on that dating website, app or social media.  But as your friendship develops, they suddenly hit a...

Have you seen the film How to Train your Dragon? It’s set in a Viking village under attack from dragons, who steal livestock and burn down houses. Hiccup, the village Chief’s son, invents a machine to capture dragons. However, when he catches one of the most dangerous dragons, he cannot kill it, when he sees...

The Archbishop of York and the lead Bishop for the environment have welcomed a ‘plastic free’ version of The Real Easter Egg. Out of the 80 million eggs sold in the UK every year The Real Easter Egg is the only one which includes a 24 page copy of the Easter story in the box, is...

Negative thoughts can actually harm you, physically.  In a recent study by the universities of Exeter and Oxford, it was found that if you listen to that critical inner voice, you will end up with an increased heart rate, consistent with feelings of being under threat and distress. On the other hand, positive thoughts have...

I remember vividly a simple poster I saw on the notice board of our local Methodist Chapel. It had a silhouette of three crosses on a hill, and underneath the words, ‘FOR YOU’. Nothing fancy or clever, but a clear presentation of the Easter message, and it struck me deeply. At Easter our thoughts are...