Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

** Day trip? A north country choirmaster was rehearsing the hymns for Sunday, telling the choir the hymns they were to sing, and the tunes to which they were to sing them.  He concluded the list and said, “Now then, ‘Come ye that love the Lord’, to Southport!” A moment later a voice called out,...

It can be easier to notice things away from home, when we are relaxed and surrounded by unfamiliar sights in an exotic location. But sometimes the same wonders are there in our own back yard. GK Chesterton was a great advocate of intensive observation, and he invited his readers to take a fresh look at...

Tea-drinkers in the UK are being asked to help change the “woefully inadequate” wages and working conditions of the estate workers on tea plantations around the world. The Fairtrade Foundation’s new ‘Brew It Fair’ campaign is based on the findings of a report which sets out just how many workers on tea plantations live in...

Do you know anyone with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)? It is very likely that you do. For when NHS England recently gave its first public estimate on the prevalence of ADHD, it reckoned that it could affect one in in every 23 people across the country. And that means almost 2.5 million people in...

Do you see a lot of murders? On TV, that is. According to the star of Gavin and Tracey, James Corden, television these days has become pretty much “wall-to-wall” murder. Corden believes that audiences deserve more programmes that feature love and kindness, instead. He says: “If there was an alien species that came to Earth,...

Qualities for our world leaders< With a summer of Sport in mind… Miscellaneous observations on our Christian pilgrimage… Miscellaneous observations on life today… ** With our world leaders in mind…. Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. – Abraham Lincoln Self-praise is no recommendation....

If you led a wild life before your conversion, then Olaf is the saint for you. Indeed, anything you have done could hardly match him, for he was a brigand and pirate who roamed the Baltic and Normandy around 1015 AD, maiming and killing, stealing and destroying, feared by all. Then on one particular raid...

During the 18th century many people in England were involved in the campaign to abolish the slave trade.  The CofE remembers especially William Wilberforce, Olaudah Equiano and Thomas Clarkson – three very different but all tireless campaigners against the evil practice. Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846) was an Anglican clergyman and one of the most prominent of...

Daniel 9:5, ‘We have sinned and done wrong … turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances.’ In this chapter the prophet Daniel, an exile in Babylon, prays one of the Bible’s truly great prayers of national repentance. Knowing that Judah and Jerusalem had fallen to the enemy and that 70 years of exile lay ahead...

From The Rectory St James the Least My dear Nephew Darren So, you have received your first letter of complaint. I am not wholly unsympathetic with your complainant, as attempting to marry the bride to the best man would have created havoc with the seating arrangements at the reception. However, you must learn that receiving...

Have you ever suffered from gossip? Ever discovered that people are saying some really wild things about you?  If so, Joseph of Arimathea would understand – and sympathise with you.  This decent, godly man of the gospels seems to have fired the imaginations of all sorts of odd people down the centuries. Joseph was a...

Last year there was serious conflict in at least 50 different countries. “The level of violence happening is certainly at one of its highest levels since the Second World War.” So says the founder of ACLED (Armed Conflict Location and Event Data). Some experts estimate that at least one in every six people is exposed...