Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

Here is a saint for anyone who thinks Christian leaders should stand up for justice – even at the risk of angering secular powers. It all began when William was an English priest serving as chaplain to Canute, king of England, (1016-35), who decided to visit Scandinavia.  William went along, and was so shocked by...

The Church of England’s General Synod recently welcomed new measures to strengthen governance and operational frameworks for England’s cathedrals. The recommendations were made in a report by the Cathedrals Working Group, which began by noting recent failures of governance and management within a small number of cathedrals.  It went on to make recommendations intended to...

Remember the poor when you look out on fields you own, on your plump cows grazing. Remember the poor when you look into your barn at the abundance of your harvest. Remember the poor when the wind howls and the rain falls, as you sit warm in your dry house….   The poor have no...

Pope Gregory never called himself ‘the Great’, but instead ‘the Servant of the Servants of God’.  Nevertheless, Gregory was one of the most important popes and influential writers of the Middle Ages.  The son of a very rich Roman senator, he left the service of the State upon his conversion as a young man.  Gregory...

Cattle rustlers recently attacked the home of the Nigerian Archbishop of Jos, Benjamin Kwashi. The Anglican Archbishop was at home at the time, with some 60 orphans in his care when the raiders struck.  They seized nine cows and shot and killed a neighbour who challenged them. Archbishop Ben Kwashi heard the raiders break into...

Even London’s taxi drivers have given their backing to a new app aimed at eradicating modern slavery in the hand car wash industry. The app has been launched by The Clewer Initiative, the Church of England’s campaign against modern slavery, and the Santa Marta Group, the Catholic Church’s anti-slavery project, amid concerns about slavery and...

You are walking down the road when a beggar approaches you for money.  What do you do?   If, instead of giving money, you buy him/her coffee or a meal, then you are in good company:  you are following in the steps of the first ever Bishop of Venice. Laurence Giustiniani (1381 – 1455) was born...

Forth in your name, O Lord I go, My daily labour to pursue, You, only you, resolved to know In all I think or speak or do. The task your wisdom has assigned O let me cheerfully fulfil, In all my works your presence find, And prove your good and perfect will.  By Charles Wesley

In both eastern and western Churches, Mary has always been held as pre-eminent among all the saints. The unique, extraordinary privilege of being the mother of the One who was both God and Man, makes her worthy of special honour.  Thomas Aquinas believed she was due hyperdulia, or a veneration that exceeds that of other...

Here is a saint for anyone with a social conscience.  Claver was born in 1581 near Barcelona at Verdu, and at 20 became a Jesuit.  He went as a missionary to New Granada and worked to alleviate the terrible suffering of the slaves who arrived from West Africa, caged like animals.  (It was said that...

On this, the 17th anniversary of the Twin Towers, we remember two innocent people who also met their death in the flames of mindless violence.  These were Roman martyrs mentioned in the 4th century list of martyrs.  Hyacinth’s tomb was discovered in the cemetery of Basilla, with his name and the date of his burial...