Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

One person you are bound to run into this Christmas season is Father Christmas.  These days he seems to frequent shopping malls and garden centres.  If he looks tired, just remember that he has been around a long time and gone through a lot of transformations. Father Christmas wasn’t always the red-suited, white-bearded star of...

What do your family call him, that cheerful old man in a red robe and floppy hat who pops up everywhere at Christmas? Sometimes he’s Father Christmas, sometimes Santa Claus, and in parts of Europe he’s Saint Nicholas. That’s his real name, abbreviated to ‘Santa Claus’ by Brits and Americans who don’t like to follow...

Asia Bibi acquitted by Pakistan’s Supreme Court O Little Café in Bethlehem… Give away Christmas HOPE Christmas services growing in our cathedrals Just hay in the manger? The woman bishop who does not much like all-female clergy at services CAP is worth millions to UK economy Why your Bible App’s ‘verse of the day’ may...

Some people have near-death experiences…. Lazarus should be their patron saint.  Except that he went all the way, and died for four days.  He was quiet in his tomb and the mourners of Bethany were in full swing – before Jesus called him back to life.  (See John 11: 1 – 44.) What happened next...

Pakistan’s Supreme Court recently overturned a death penalty on the Christian farm labourer who has become the country’s highest profile prisoner.  Asia Bibi has spent six years on death row facing blasphemy charges – a charge she has always denied. Within hours of the verdict, protests had broken out in in Islamabad and other cities,...

Do you know any odd Christians?   People with hearts of gold, who would never harm anyone… but who are nonetheless just plain ODD…. Well, Daniel the Stylite should be their patron saint.  Perhaps he is the proof that God can bless and use any one of us – no matter how batty some of our...

Connect Cafe, an innovative project launched in 2017 by JEO Ministry, creates space for relationships, outreach and discipleship in Bethlehem. JEO, an organisation that seeks to reach out to all people in the Holy Land with the message of Jesus, is led by Church Mission Society local partner Rami Fellemon. JEO runs ministries that aim...

A Midwinter festival has been a part of life since pre-Christian times. When the hours of daylight are fewest, the warmth of the sun weakest, and life itself seemingly at a standstill, our ancestors, the pagan peoples of Europe and Western Asia, kept festival by lighting bonfires and decorating their buildings with evergreens. Perhaps they...

#Christingle50 campaign Bishop calls for UK ‘net zero’ commitment as climate change report published First non-British head for Mothers Union How a mouse got into the Nativity Help someone break the chains of debt Church children’s groups are ‘failing through lack of prayer’ Netflix and Narnia After the tsunami Evangelists ‘believing for the nation to be...

How do you celebrate Christmas Eve?  It has its own customs, the most popular of which is going to Midnight Mass, or the Christ-Mas.  This is the only Mass of the year that is allowed to start after sunset.  In Catholic countries such as Spain, Italy and Poland, Midnight Mass is in fact the most...

For nearly four weeks leading up to Christmas Christians recognise a period called Advent.  It means ‘coming’.  It is a time of spiritual preparation.  ‘Coming’ refers to Jesus’ first coming as a baby, but it also looks forward to a day when Jesus is expected to return in triumph at his ‘second coming’ to establish...

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Children’s Society bringing Christingle to this country with a service held in Lincoln Cathedral in 1968. To celebrate this landmark anniversary, the Children’s Society is running its #Christingle50 campaign, which aims to support vulnerable young people through raising funds at Christingle events and a collaboration with The...