Thought for the week

Life for the first Christians was very difficult because they experienced great persecution. Jesus was crucified on the authority of Pilate, the Roman Governor. The Apostle Paul was imprisoned and then executed by the Roman authorities. The Roman emperor, Nero, falsely blamed Christians for the great fire of Rome in AD64 and commanded that many…

This weekend a good friend died. He was more than 90-years-old and had been ill with cancer. He had been confined to his house for the past 3 years beingly lovingly cared for by his wife of 67 years. My friend has received a visit or telephone call from his GP most weeks and in…

Philippa Lomas was born without any eyes and was, therefore, completely blind. It was a great shock to her parents whose other children are fully sighted. Philippa’s parents, who are Christians, wondered what good God could bring out of the situation. They were determined that Philippa would do everything as normally as possible and fought…

The Boeing Starliner spacecraft Calypso has returned safely from the International Space Station. It landed at White Sands Space Harbour in New Mexico on 7 September but its two crew members, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, were not on board and will probably remain at the ISS until February next year. Because of technical problems…

The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games has been a pleasure to watch as 4,400 athletes from around the world compete in 549 medal events across 22 sports. All the athletes have overcome disabilities to achieve an amazing level of skill. They are so happy to be at the Paralympics. Many of them know each other and…

Bukayo Saka is a rising football star playing for Arsenal and England. Many young people see him as a role model. Bukayo has enjoyed success but has also had to face real challenges. At Euro 2020, when he was 19 years old, he was the youngest Englishman to ever start a match at the semi-final…

Atrocities in which innocent people are murdered, especially when children are killed, understandably make people very angry. On 20 April 1999 there was a massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, when two twelfth-grade students murdered twelve students and one teacher. Twenty-one others were injured. Ten of the twelve students who died were in the…

The closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games has been held and the Olympic flag has been passed to Los Angeles where the next Olympic Games will be held in 2028. The last time the Olympic games was held in Los Angeles was in 1984 and many people will remember the women’s 3,000m race…

The great hymnwriter Isaac Watts was born 350 years ago in Southampton on 17 July 1674. He wrote 750 hymns many of which are familiar today even to people who seldom go to a church service. At Christmas congregations all over the English-speaking world sing his hymn “Joy to the world”; on Remembrance Day they…

As the Paris 2024 Olympic Games begin breaststroke swimmer Adam Peaty is in the news. He is the most dominant breaststroke swimmer of all time. He won the gold medal in the 100-metre breaststroke at the 2016 and 2021 Olympics and a silver medal at Paris. He is an eight-time World Champion, a sixteen-time European…