Viewing all items in Resource Category: Looking at your Church

A detailed research report by the American Pew Research Centre was published in November 2017.   It stated that the Muslim population of Europe had risen from 19.5 million in 2010 to just under 26 million by 2016, especially driven by the mass immigration of 2014-2016, of which it reckoned 53% were Muslim. Between mid-2010 and...

Could you help the Conservation Foundation investigate the state of our elms? Are you someone who believes that all our elms have disappeared?   That may be a popular opinion, but there could be more healthy elms in parks, gardens and our countryside than we think. The Conservation Foundation, which has been working with elm trees...

On May 30th the Church of England honoured Josephine Butler in its Calendar of great Christians of the past. It seems appropriate in this particular year to recognise the contribution of a woman who came decades before the suffragettes but fought many of the same battles. Josephine Butler’s was an often-lonely Victorian voice, challenging injustice,...

I’ve noticed a sudden increase in the number of banns of marriage being read in our church. I suspect that a few couples reckon it would be a nice idea to get married in the same month as Prince Harry and his bride Meghan – at least you’ll be regularly reminded of the date! But...

By Naomi Steinberg, Church Mission Society “Mission is helping people.” “Mission is spreading the love of God in places which maybe are a bit more disadvantaged and they might need a little more help.” These are a couple of the responses we received when we asked the question, “What is mission?” at festivals during the...

This year, we all have the chance to mark the centenary of the end of World War 1. On Sunday, 11th November 2018, people around the country will observe Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day. As well as reflecting on loss, this year also gives us the chance to look forward as we mark the end...

Our church always welcomes people who want to use our building for their wedding.  But should we ‘charge’ brides who are late to weddings at our church?  What do you think? Most of us will remember the story about the rector in Kent that made the headlines a few months ago:  he charges brides £100...

In parts of the UK, there is a kind of poverty more profound than in Uganda. This is the view of Rev Jenny Green, a missionary working with Church Mission Society on the Faxfleet estate in Bradford. Prior to being community chaplain in Bradford, Jenny Green spent 20 years with CMS in Kisoro, south west...

A former house church leader, prisoner of faith, and one of the leading voices for the persecuted Church in China, Bob Fu has recently warned that the persecution of Christians in China is worsening and is now as severe as at any time since the Cultural Revolution. Bob Fu was one of the original Chinese...

Are you a registered nurse? Parish Nursing Ministries is a Christian charity which helps local churches to appoint nurses, who in turn support people and communities towards whole person healthcare. This is care for the person’s overall well-being, incorporating body, mind and spirit.   More details at:  http://parishnursing.org.uk/

In 2017 there were £22 million worth of religious books sold in the UK, some 2.5 million copies if their average price is the same as non-religious books.  This was 1.4% of the total sales of books in the UK in 2017.  The largest growth area was in non-Christian books because the Oxford University Press...

Ever wondered about the ethics of having CCTV in church? Now a consistory court in the diocese of Canterbury has ruled that churches who install CCTV to protect their premises during the day, must switch off CCTV cameras during worship services, because prayer is private. Baptisms, wedding and funerals should also be free from CCTV,...