Viewing all items in Resource Category: Looking at your Church

Lent is supposed to prepare us for Easter, but making time for spiritual reflection in our busy lives can be hard. One solution is to take a short retreat, at one of the many retreat houses or centres around the country. It has been said that “Retreats are for ordinary people at any time in...

The Church Commissioners for England is to begin to vote against companies that fail to meet its expectations on human rights. A leading responsible investor, the Church Commissioners will use its vote as a shareholder to ensure international human rights norms are respected by the companies in which it invests. The Church Commissioners will also...

Ukrainian Christians standing defiant Stamping out Christianity in the Middle East Cost-of-living crisis bites deep The wide reach of the local church Using church buildings for the community 29th January – remembering the fight against leprosy worldwide Finding Choral Evensong: the relaunch of the world’s only online directory Empowering women in Pakistan with the Word...

Church leaders in Ukraine have expressed their doubts about any meaningful peace talks with Russia, after a fresh wave of missile strikes in recent weeks. The primate of Ukraine’s independent Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Epiphany (Dumenko) said: “Our continuing struggle will certainly be crowned with success with God’s help – we are fighting for our homeland’s...

Christianity is facing an ‘existential threat’ in parts of the Middle East, as many communities have dwindled to mere shadows of their former selves. A recent study of Christian persecution by the RC charity Aid to the Church In Need has found that nearly 75 years on from the creation of the state of Israel,...

More than four million people in the UK are now being forced to borrow money to cover the cost of essentials, such as heating and food. Christians Against Poverty (CAP) say that a poll carried out for them by YouGov has found that nearly one fifth of adults in the UK, or about ten million...

Ever wonder how many people in the UK have any kind of contact with their local church? According to a recent poll, it’s as much as half the population. Types of contact range from attending some sort of worship, or community services, such as parent-and-toddler groups and foodbanks. The most common reason for people to...

Churches should improve the way their buildings are used by their community. And the survival of many local churches may actually depend on it. So says a new report recently published the Cambridge Judge Business School, part of the University of Cambridge.  Reimagining Churches as Community Assets for the Common Good (REACH Ely) found that...

Leprosy was a problem in biblical times, and sadly, even today, between 200 and 300 thousand people worldwide are diagnosed with it each year. Two to three million people are living disabled lives because of it. Leprosy is caused by a bacillus, Mycobacterium leprae (a relative of TB), and is mildly infectious. It is most...

The Choral Evensong Trust has just relaunched its website to help you find a choral evensong near you. Just visit: www.choralev:ensong.org During its seven years of existence, choralevensong.org has had 30,000,000 hits from 600,000 visitors, accessing services on offer at over 350 churches and cathedrals on Sundays, and also every weekday in most cathedrals and...

The Bible Society is helping women in Pakistan learn to read by holding regular Bible-based literacy classes in the Khyber region. “Before the Bible Society came, there was not a single school for girls in this region. Education for girls was considered immoral,” says Beena, a former hospital cleaner and mother of eight children. “Now...

If the Pope made a decree that reinstated meatless Fridays across the Roman Catholic Church, it would save millions of tonnes of carbon a year. So say researchers from the University of Cambridge.  The researchers also said that if only a quarter of Catholics in the UK went meatless on Fridays, it would save the...