Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

Thousands of our churches are currently involved in various mission initiatives across the UK.  If it is tough going at times, we should spare a thought for poor Birinus, a priest from Lombard, who was sent here on his own 14 centuries ago.  Pope Honorius 1 gave him the daunting task of being the apostle...

Osmond is the saint for you if you regret Brexit, and believe that immigrants can bring good to Britain. Osmond came to England from France back in the days before EU regulations.  It was shortly after 1066, and he was a Norman, following William the Conqueror. Osmond himself was no soldier, but a gifted and...

Father Christmas seems to be as old as Europe. Once he was Woden, lashing his reindeer through the darkness of northern midwinter.  Then he encountered the Church, and She transformed him into a saint, the much-loved Nicholas, Bishop of Myra (in south-west Turkey) in the fourth century.  St Nicholas became the patron saint of children,...

One account of how Father Christmas began tells of a man named Nicholas who was born in the third centre in the Greek village of Patara, on what is today the southern coast of Turkey.  His family were both devout and wealthy, and when his parents died in an epidemic, Nicholas decided to use his...

One person you are bound to run into this Christmas season is Father Christmas.  These days he seems to frequent shopping malls and garden centres.  If he looks tired, just remember that he has been around a long time and gone through a lot of transformations. Father Christmas wasn’t always the red-suited, white-bearded star of...

What do your family call him, that cheerful old man in a red robe and floppy hat who pops up everywhere at Christmas? Sometimes he’s Father Christmas, sometimes Santa Claus, and in parts of Europe he’s Saint Nicholas. That’s his real name, abbreviated to ‘Santa Claus’ by Brits and Americans who don’t like to follow...

Asia Bibi acquitted by Pakistan’s Supreme Court O Little Café in Bethlehem… Give away Christmas HOPE Christmas services growing in our cathedrals Just hay in the manger? The woman bishop who does not much like all-female clergy at services CAP is worth millions to UK economy Why your Bible App’s ‘verse of the day’ may...

Some people have near-death experiences…. Lazarus should be their patron saint.  Except that he went all the way, and died for four days.  He was quiet in his tomb and the mourners of Bethany were in full swing – before Jesus called him back to life.  (See John 11: 1 – 44.) What happened next...

Pakistan’s Supreme Court recently overturned a death penalty on the Christian farm labourer who has become the country’s highest profile prisoner.  Asia Bibi has spent six years on death row facing blasphemy charges – a charge she has always denied. Within hours of the verdict, protests had broken out in in Islamabad and other cities,...

Do you know any odd Christians?   People with hearts of gold, who would never harm anyone… but who are nonetheless just plain ODD…. Well, Daniel the Stylite should be their patron saint.  Perhaps he is the proof that God can bless and use any one of us – no matter how batty some of our...

Connect Cafe, an innovative project launched in 2017 by JEO Ministry, creates space for relationships, outreach and discipleship in Bethlehem. JEO, an organisation that seeks to reach out to all people in the Holy Land with the message of Jesus, is led by Church Mission Society local partner Rami Fellemon. JEO runs ministries that aim...

A Midwinter festival has been a part of life since pre-Christian times. When the hours of daylight are fewest, the warmth of the sun weakest, and life itself seemingly at a standstill, our ancestors, the pagan peoples of Europe and Western Asia, kept festival by lighting bonfires and decorating their buildings with evergreens. Perhaps they...