Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

A major step in a significant package of proposals for clergy well-being has been announced, which if implemented will increase future pension benefits for existing and future pensioners. The improvements include restoring the target pension level to two-thirds of pensionable stipend, coupled with an increase to pensions that have come into payment since 2011. General...

When you drink your morning cup of coffee, you are not the only one who is enjoying it. Recent studies have found that the billions of friendly microbes living in your gut are also given a cheering boost. And that means better overall health for you – and even a longer life. It seems that...

Eternal Father, strong to save, Whose arm hath bound the restless wave, Who bidd’st the mighty ocean deep Its own appointed limits keep; Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee, For those in peril on the sea!  O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard And hushed their raging at Thy word, Who walked’st on...

 Anglicans worldwide have been called to fulfil the vision of the Lambeth Call on Mission and Evangelism, with each diocese urged to make a new commitment to planting and revitalising churches. The Call is one of a set of recommendations that were drawn up at the 2023 Lambeth Conference, and which has since continued in...

Ignatius came from a noble Basque family in north-east Spain. Born in 1491 in his family’s castle near Loyala, he was sent to serve as a page at the court of King Ferdinand V of Castile. Ignatius entered military service, but was wounded in 1521, at the French siege of Pamplona. While convalescing, he read...

There is a popular greeting card which says: ‘All things are possible with a cup of tea’. For many of us, that is almost always true. Tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant, which is often blended with other plants for different flavours, such as Earl Grey or chai. Tea is the UK’s favourite hot...

Bananas are in danger. Almost half of the world’s banana-growing regions may be lost to climate change in the next 50 years, a new report has warned. Bananas are the world’s fourth most important food crop globally — but rising temperatures, droughts, and fungal infections are threatening where most of the world’s crops grow, in...

 More and more pensioners have turned to shoplifting. They aren’t in criminal gangs, they are hungry. So says a security firm which works with hundreds of stores across the country. Kingdom Security reports that food retailers have seen a “massive” increase in pensioner shoplifters over the past year, involving “people who just can’t afford to...

Sundays of the Month Editor: For your convenience, here are the names of the Sundays in June, at a glance. 1st  June           Seventh Sunday of Easter 8th June           Day of Pentecost – Whit Sunday 15th June         Trinity Sunday 22nd June         First Sunday after Trinity 29th June         Second Sunday after Trinity – St Peter and St...

Sometime in the summer of 165AD seven Christian men were put to death in Rome.   Accused of belonging to an illicit religion, they refused point blank to offer sacrifices to pagan gods. Threatened with torture and execution they replied that suffering and death gave them confidence to appear at the Great Tribunal ‘of our Lord...

…. the first ever Christian philosopher Justin Martyr (c. 100 – 165), is regarded as the first ever Christian philosopher. He was born at Nablus, Samaria, to parents of Greek origin, and was well educated in rhetoric, poetry and history before he turned to philosophy. He studied at Ephesus and Alexandria and tried the schools...

… a good saint when you’re all at sea Do you like messing about in boats? If so, then you’ll have heard of St Elmo’s Fire. It is the light that is sometimes seen on mastheads of boats after storms at sea. St Elmo is another name for St Erasmus, a fourth century Syrian bishop...