Viewing all items in Resource Category: Looking at God

During lockdown the little Methodist chapel to which Pen and I belong has been refurbished. After the builders left, we started putting things straight, and were stunned to realise how much stuff we had. Old hymns books. A broken communion set. Paper and defunct pens, stickers and dried glue from Messy Church. Wonky plastic chairs. A...

The Story is still the same! From the Vicar Christmas can’t come too early Hope amid uncertainty Journeys or lockdown this Christmas? What Mary taught me Reflected Faith Series: Grace for all Christmas: Celebrating the Incarnation ** Editor: by Canon Paul Hardingham. The Story is still the same! ‘Christmas may look different, but the story...

‘Christmas may look different, but the story is still the same!’ That’s the message for Christmas in 2020. Coronavirus will make our celebrations this year look very different from usual. However, the message of the baby born in Bethlehem is still relevant! In one nativity play, the highlight was to illuminate Jesus, with a light...

‘Christmas may look different, but the story is still the same!’ Coronavirus will make our celebrations this year look very different from usual. However, the message of the baby born in Bethlehem is still relevant! In one nativity play, the highlight was to illuminate Jesus, with a light in the manger, when all the other...

Every year it happens. I hear Christians lamenting how ‘Christmas comes earlier every year.’ Since this September (or before!) supermarkets, shops and garden centres have been selling Christmas jumpers, socks and pyjamas and all kinds of other seasonal merchandise. Should we be annoyed or exasperated? Should we have gone around reminding people that it’s much...

‘Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call Him Immanuel.’ (Isaiah 7:14) This promise to King Ahaz in 8th century Judah is fulfilled in the coming of Jesus at the first Christmas: ‘God with Us’ (Matthew 1:23). Ahaz faced the military...

Christmas is a busy time for travel, as many of us venture a great distance to see family or friends again. But this year coronavirus has put an end to all that. Seeing all our loved ones this Christmas will be difficult, if not impossible. Soon we may not be travelling anywhere very much at...

“And behold, you shall conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and call His name JESUS…”  (Luke 1:31) On 8th December Roman Catholics celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. While non-Roman Catholics do not venerate Mary in the same way, we can still learn so much from the Mother of...

Last month we thought about one key element of gathered worship – the Welcome. It is for everyone, regardless of how they look, or dress, their faith or their behaviour. This month, being the month of Advent and Christmas, let’s focus on Grace. God, in Jesus, did not wait for us to become perfect or...

Many people say: “I can understand God, but I can’t see where Jesus fits into the picture.” A theologian called Athanasius, Egyptian by birth and Greek by education, gave the answer to your question 1600 years ago. He said: “The only system of thought into which Jesus Christ will fit is the one in which...

C.S. Lewis called it the Grand Miracle and the Central Miracle. He noted that “Every other miracle prepares for this, exhibits this, or result.s from this…The fitness, and therefore credibility, of the particular miracles depend on their relations to the Grand Miracle.” So if you can believe in Christmas – the incarnation of the Son...

We Will Remember – 80 years on From the Vicar Psalm 122 and Advent Why should you bother to pray? 80 years on, we still need courage and endurance When life goes wrong for us Why do we need Advent? Lord, prop us up! The Soldier’s Prayer ** Editor:  Canon Paul Hardingham considers how we...