Viewing all items in Resource Category: Looking at your Church

Oils and creams loom large in the Bible just as they do in our world today. We use healing creams for all sorts of ailments, and moisturising lotions to soothe, but also often for the pure sensual pleasure that they give us. What can be better than your favourite hand cream after time spent gardening?...

Which books in the Bible are the most popular with preachers?  A website called CrossPreach has taken some 127,000 sermons (available on mp3s) from over 600 churches.  It then counted how many times the basic text was taken from which book of the Bible. The sermons were preached by a total of 9,500 different preachers,...

The Church of England’s lead Bishop for Education, the Rt Revd Stephen Conway,  has backed calls for a comprehensive Rural Strategy, following the publication of a new study. The report, recently published by the Rural Services Network, calls for action by the Government, citing concerns that the UK’s exit from the EU could serve to...

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York are calling for every parish and diocese to hold their local MPs, politicians and the members of the Government and civil servants in their prayers. Their concerns are for the social divisions, which “feel more entrenched and intractable than for many years”, and also for “the divisions within the...

Women’s ordination – 25 years on The day that women first became priests in the C of E Jeremy Hunt speaks on behalf of persecuted Christians Who cares for the Vicar?  Signs & Symbols:  the bells, the bells! Concern for the homeless on our streets Violence towards clergy on the rise The next 30 years...

Twenty-five years ago this month, women were ordained as priests in the Church of England.  As the BBC commentator on the first service in Bristol Cathedral I was prepared for disruptions from demonstrators, but it proceeded reverently and without a hitch.  The only protest was outside, where a group of approving Roman Catholic women held...

It was 25 years ago, on 12 March 1994, that the first 32 women priests in the Church of England were ordained. It happened in Bristol Cathedral, and Bishop Barry Rogerson ordained them in alphabetical order; so Angela Berners-Wilson was considered the very first woman to be ordained. The daughter of a priest, she is...

The Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has been voicing his deep concern for Christians facing persecution worldwide.  He has warned that a “misguided political correctness’ must not inhibit the Government’s response to religious persecution, and that ‘with Christianity on the verge of extinction in its birthplace, it is time for concerted action that begins to turn...

The Church of England is looking into ways of giving more support to vicars. You may wonder why, as it looks a nice life: house provided, regular salary, job security – and only one day’s work a week! But from my own personal experience I can assure you it’s not like that. In my working...

Last month we thought about ‘crossing ourselves’ and in a way I wanted to continue that by asking ‘when would you cross yourself?’ I can recall people doing it almost superstitiously at times of danger, seeing an ambulance rushing on the road or even as a sign of gratitude at good news. Many sign themselves...

The Bishop of Manchester, Dr David Walker, has said that the level of street homelessness in the city is now worse than anything he has seen in his lifetime. The Bishop said that in the past the reasons for people to be homeless seemed to have been relationship breakdown or mental-health issues.  But now the...

It can be risky being ordained: ten per cent of C of E clergy who filled in a recent   government-funded survey have said that someone had been violent towards them during the past two years.  In one in five cases, the violence had resulted in the clergy being injured. The survey was carried out on...