Viewing all items in Resource Category: Looking at God

I thought we’d spend a few months at the start of this New Year considering the outside of a church building, and the gardens around it. For many churches this will include a churchyard, though not necessarily. If your church does stand in a churchyard, then it may be what is known as a ‘closed’...

Mark is the shortest of the Gospels, and most likely the first to be written (about 65 – 70AD). It is certainly the most action-packed! The gospel of Mark was written by John Mark, whose name occurs often in Acts. His mother lived in a house in Jerusalem, where Jesus’ followers met in the early...

January is named after the Roman god Janus. He had two faces, so he could study the past and see into the future. At the start of a new year, we dispose of old calendars and diaries. No doubt, it is only natural to look back at the former year. Perhaps we recall occasions of...

“Thank you” – “I’m sorry” – “I forgive you” – “I love you”. These are the most common words spoken by people in their last moments of consciousness before dying. That’s what Dr Kathryn Mannix tells us, and she should know, having spent her whole career working alongside dying people, and learning from them. Her YouTube...

The Heart of Christmas From the Vicar Spiritual Disciplines: Celebration Preparations The Light of the World No Room?  On the Contrary The Most Beautiful Story No one Name is big enough! A Season for joyful song  Christmas all wrapped up!  The story behind the hymn:  O Come, All ye Faithful All faiths are not the...

We’re at that time of year again! But is Christmas just about the shopping, tree or presents? At its heart, Christmas is all about a God who has showed up on earth. The Creator of the universe, whose hands flung stars into space, cared enough to come to earth as a tiny baby.  ‘The Word...

During the month of December, people are ‘counting down’ to Christmas Day in an ever- increasing variety of ways. In my childhood we had a simple card with a traditional picture of a manger scene with doors marked with the countdown numbers and a picture of the different characters behind each.  If my parents had...

We’re at that time of year again! But is Christmas just about the shopping, tree or presents? At its heart Christmas is all about a God who has showed up on earth. The Creator of the universe, whose hands flung stars into space, cared enough to come to earth as a tiny baby.  ‘The Word...

This year one carol will be sung with particular poignancy.  It retells the message of angels, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom His favour rests” and continues: Yet with the woes of sin and strife, The world has suffered long; Beneath the angel strain have rolled,...

‘But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.’ (Luke 2:10). As we conclude our series on the spiritual disciplines, this month we look at Celebration, which is very appropriate for this Christmas season. We are called to rejoice in...

Christmas is a time for making plans. Presents to buy, cards to send, decorations to put up, food to order, travel arrangements to make… the list goes on and on. But whether our plans are ambitious or simple this Christmas, we still dread anything going wrong. Yet plans seemed to fall apart that first Christmas....

A well-known atheist was once interviewed on Radio 4. When asked how he spent Christmas, and he said that he went to Midnight Mass at church.  ‘But you’re an atheist’, his interviewer protested. ‘Yes’, he replied, ‘but what they celebrate at Christmas is the most beautiful story ever told’. That ‘beautiful story’ tells of a...