Viewing all items in Resource Category: Looking at God

It’s a yearly paradox. You’ve brought some flowers to the churchyard to lay on the grave of a loved one. All around you are graves and headstones, reminders of the inevitable end of life’s earthly journey. But it’s Easter Day, and from within the church you can hear the singing: ‘Jesus Christ is risen today,...

This Easter the media will rightly remind us of the carnage in Ukraine and the Middle East. For as we celebrate this great Festival, commemorating Christ’s victory over evil, we are confronted with death, barbarity and terror in the world.  Unless we choose to live in fantasyland, we have to relate the two. First, Jesus...

‘Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary of Magdala went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple… and said “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we...

The Book of Proverbs is an anthology of sayings (‘mishle’) that are generally attributed to Solomon (Proverbs 1:1), who uttered 3000 proverbs (1Kings 4:32). The purpose of these oracles is ‘for attaining wisdom and discipline’ (1:2). Solomon was concerned that people, especially the young, would understand ‘the sayings and riddles of the wise.’ (1:3-6). His...

What time of year were you baptised? For the first few centuries of the Early Church, baptisms were only held at Easter, with the preparation being taught in the few weeks beforehand. Leo I, Bishop of Rome from 440 to 461 AD, was a strong advocate of holding baptisms solely at Easter. He wrote: “… for...

A Lent Reflection From the Vicar An Introduction to the Books of the Old Testament: Psalms Reflecting Faith:  The Meaning of Baptism Praying the Prayer of Forgiveness Bearing fruit takes time Is it time you remembered ‘eureka!’? ** Editor:  Canon Paul Hardingham considers A Lent Reflection  Somebody asked a Christian friend why he was eating...

Somebody asked a Christian friend why he was eating doughnuts, when he had given them up for Lent! He answered, ‘At the bakers I told God, that if He wanted me to buy doughnuts, He should provide a parking space in front. On the eighth time around, there it was!’ Rather than seeing Lent simply...

Somebody asked a Christian friend why he was eating doughnuts, when he had given them up for Lent! He answered, ‘At the bakers I told God, that if He wanted me to buy doughnuts, He should provide a parking space in front. On the eighth time around, there it was!’ Rather than seeing Lent simply...

This month we continue our examination of a selection of books from the Old Testament. ‘The Psalms have a unique place in the Bible, because most of the Scripture speaks to us, while the Psalms speak for us’(Athanasius of Alexandria). The Book of Psalms contains 150 prayers or songs of praise, the majority (73) attributed...

Last month we considered the overall ‘look’ of a church building and how that often reflects the way faith is celebrated inside. One of the clearest visual symbols inside a church building relates to where the font, used for baptism, is placed. We often think of Baptism as being uniquely Christian, but this is not...

Numbers 12:13, ‘O God, heal her, I pray.’  These six words are Moses’ prayer for his sister Miriam.  They tell us a lot about Moses and a lot about prayer. For some time Miriam and her brother Aaron had been simmering with anger against Moses. They protested that he had married a Cushite woman (v.1),...

The nine fruits of the Spirit are Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. We don’t strive for the fruits of the Spirit, rather we plant ourselves in good soil, allow ourselves to be fed by the Holy Spirit, keep taking in nourishment, turn to face the light of Christ and these...