Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

In the year 1212 Clare, the 18-year-old daughter of a local Count, heard a young preacher called Francis. A few years earlier he had caused a sensation in the centre of the town where they both lived, Assisi in Italy, by stripping himself of his wealthy clothes and declaring that from now on he would...

Many historians of the First World War consider that two battles in the summer of 1918 were the final turning points in the eventual outcome of the war and of the settlement which followed it. The second Battle of Marne was in July, and the even more significant Battle of Amiens was in August, exactly...

Clare (1194 – 1253) was the famous virgin foundress of the Minoresses or Poor Clares.  Born at Assisi of the Offreduccio family, Clare grew up to hear the teaching of St Francis of Assisi, and at 18 she renounced all her possessions and joined him at the Portiuncula, where she became a nun.  Soon Francis...

‘How did we do?’ (on a scale of one to ten, where ‘ten’ is excellent and ‘one’ is poor?’) ‘Would you recommend us to your friends?’ You can hardly buy anything now, or make use of a service, without an email popping up asking such questions. Some go further into detail about delivery, courtesy or...

Some people’s lives seem to epitomise the suffering of millions, but also to shine with a Christian response to it.  One such person was Maximilian Kolbe, 1894 – 1941, a Franciscan priest of Poland, and publisher extraordinary. Maximilian was born at Zdunska Wola, near Lodz, where his parents, devout Christians, worked in a cottage weaving...

New resources to be released in September will help schools raise awareness of modern slavery and help protect their students from becoming victims. The resources are a result of a collaboration between The Clewer Initiative, a project helping the Church of England to respond to modern slavery, and Just Enough UK, an educational charity teaching...

Have you done something bad which haunts you?  Does the memory of it still follow you through each day – and keep you awake at night?   If so, then Laurence Loricatus (c. 1190 – 1243) is the saint for you.  He was born at Facciolo (Apulia) and as a youth he killed a man. After...

Drivers are being encouraged to join an unprecedented national information-gathering campaign launched by the Church of England and the Catholic Church in England and Wales which is aimed at eradicating modern slavery in hand car washes. Anti-slavery campaigners and other key agencies, including the police and councils, are backing the Safe Car Wash App, launched by The Clewer Initiative, the Church of England’s campaign against modern slavery,...

Gardeners have been told by government ministers not to bring back plants from holiday, in order to stop them inadvertently introducing an invasive species into the UK. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs officials are becoming increasingly concerned about water-borne threats such as the Dikerogammarus villosus, or killer shrimp; Didemnum vexillum, the carpet sea...

How will you become a better person than you are now?   Have you ever denied yourself in order to try and please God?  No matter what your dedication, it is unlikely that your efforts will ever have outshone those of Rose of Lima (1586 – 1617), who in 1671 became the first saint of America,...

The Church of England has launched new worship and prayer resources to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War. On Monday 11th November 1918, the treaty known as the Armistice of Compiègne came into effect, ending hostilities between the Allies and their last opponent, Germany. The agreement ended four years of...

Millennials have the most negative outlook on the future.  A quarter of them believe that depression is normal in older age, and two in five of them believe that dementia is inevitable. A survey by the Royal Society for Public Heath (RSPH) has also found that half of women and a quarter of men say...