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On that long ago first morning of Pentecost, Jerusalem was crowded with thousands of visitors, for it was one of the most popular feast-days in the Jewish calendar – the Feast of Firstfruits, looking forward to the wheat harvest. In one small room of that great city, a small group of people who had followed...

Helena should be the patron saint of all mothers who help their sons achieve great things. Helena was born at Drepanum in Bithynia about 250. Although only a stable-maid or innkeeper’s daughter, she caught the eye and affections of a Roman general, Constantius Chlorus, while he was stationed in Asia Minor on a military campaign. ...

John and Charles Wesley were the founders of Methodism.  Two of 19 children born to Samuel and Susannah Wesley of Epworth Rectory in Lincolnshire in 1703 and 1707, their father was the local rector, while their mother was a spiritual inspiration to her many children. Both John and Charles went to Christ Church, Oxford (1720...

Later this month the Church calendar celebrates the lives of John and Charles Wesley.  John’s great gift to the Christian cause was the little matter of founding the world-wide movement known as Methodism. His brother Charles had an equally profound impact through his hymns. He actually wrote over 6000, most of which aren’t sung nowadays,...

Augustine, a 6th century Italian prior, holds a unique place in British history.  He became the ‘apostle to the English’ – although it was with great reluctance. In 596 Augustine was chosen by Pope Gregory to head a mission of monks whom he wanted to send to evangelise the Anglo-Saxons.  Augustine was not a bold...

How far would you go to respond to God’s call on your life?  When as the daughter of a peasant family in Champagne in 1426, 14 year-old Joan heard heavenly voices calling her to ‘save France’ from the English, she decided to obey the call, no matter what the consequences. Teenage girls who want to...

Mary – the virgin mother of Jesus.  For centuries the eastern and western churches have considered her pre-eminent among all the saints. In the gospels, Mary makes her first appearance as a teenager.  Nothing is known of her childhood, and what we do know of her is found mostly in Matthew 1 – 2 and...

So says the Archbishop of Canterbury’s ‘Just Finance Foundation’. In a recent statement, it said: ‘Primary school pupils should receive compulsory lessons on how to manage money as part of the response to growing levels of financial insecurity and problem debt in the UK.’ Learning where money comes from, when to spend and how to...

Schools should teach children to look beyond the culture of cosmetic surgery, fast cars and designer labels, a bishop has told leading head teachers. In a recent address to school leaders in London, the Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell, said schools can be places where children learn to seek “fullness of life”...

There is a forest coming.  Well, 50 million trees that will ‘embrace’ Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Chester and Hull, among other urban centres.   Over the next 25 years, with the M62 as its ‘spine’, the Woodland Trust will be working with the Community Forest Trust to plant a 120-mile “Northern Forest” between Liverpool and Hull....

Vending machines that can provide essentials such as water, sandwiches, and warm socks to rough-sleepers 24 hours a day, are to be installed in several cities in the UK. The first machine was installed in Nottingham at the beginning of the year, and already Action Hunger, the charity behind it, has had requests from charities...

Could you ‘mocha difference at a CAP café this summer?’ So asks the group Christians Against Poverty.  It is offering a free event pass, free camping AND free food at Big Church Day Out or New Wine’s United 18 in return for volunteer help with their café teams this summer. CAP says: ‘We need 40...