Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

Gardeners have been told by government ministers not to bring back plants from holiday, in order to stop them inadvertently introducing an invasive species into the UK. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs officials are becoming increasingly concerned about water-borne threats such as the Dikerogammarus villosus, or killer shrimp; Didemnum vexillum, the carpet sea...

How will you become a better person than you are now?   Have you ever denied yourself in order to try and please God?  No matter what your dedication, it is unlikely that your efforts will ever have outshone those of Rose of Lima (1586 – 1617), who in 1671 became the first saint of America,...

The Church of England has launched new worship and prayer resources to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War. On Monday 11th November 1918, the treaty known as the Armistice of Compiègne came into effect, ending hostilities between the Allies and their last opponent, Germany. The agreement ended four years of...

Millennials have the most negative outlook on the future.  A quarter of them believe that depression is normal in older age, and two in five of them believe that dementia is inevitable. A survey by the Royal Society for Public Heath (RSPH) has also found that half of women and a quarter of men say...

On consecutive days this month (27th and 28th) the Christian Church celebrates, a mother and her son. The mother is Monica, and her son is Augustine. The story of their relationship and how, after a long process, they both came to share the same Christian faith is a moving one, and perhaps has a message...

August is a month when wars tend to start. For example, both the First and Second World Wars erupted in the month of August. Also, on 13th August 1961, East Germany’s Communist regime built the Berlin Wall, separating the city’s eastern and western sectors.   Then on 20th August 1968, tanks invaded and crushed Czechoslovakia, ending...

A benefit system which drives families into debt and leaves people hungry is a failing benefit system, say a number of Churches in the UK. The Baptist Union, the Church of Scotland, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church, have all commented on the recent release of the National Audit Office (NAO) report, Rolling...

MaintenanceBooker, a new heritage website to keep historic churches and chapels safe for the future has been launched in England and Wales, following a successful Heritage Lottery Fund pilot project in Yorkshire. Set up by the National Churches Trust, the UK’s church building support charity, and 2buy2, the national buying group for UK, charities, schools...

After St Paul, who was the most influential Christian writer ever?  St Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430), whose feast-day is on 28th August.  He lived and wrote in a time of social and spiritual chaos.  The Roman Empire was collapsing, the world was about to slide into the dark ages and the Church was...

When you go back to work after the August Bank Holiday this month, spare a thought for John the Baptist: however rough your local sandwich bar may be, it probably doesn’t serve you locusts with a honey dip; you won’t be imprisoned for saying derogatory things about the local MP’s wife, and even the boss...

Church of England congregations will be able to share mission and ministry with a range of churches in their area more easily under plans that received final approval by the General Synod in July. A long-anticipated overhaul of rules underpinning ecumenical relations is expected to open the way for parishes to take part in joint...

After the Bible, John Bunyan’s wonderful Christian allegory, the Pilgrim’s Progress, is one of the most celebrated and widely-read books in the English language.  It has been translated into more than one hundred languages around the world and keeps its place as a Christian classic. Names of people and places from its pages have been...