Thought for the week

End of life care is being actively discussed in Britain today, especially what is known as “assisted dying.” The word euthanasia comes from two Greek words meaning “good death.” Every day doctors must make difficult decisions about whether to continue treatment or to withdraw artificial life-support measures knowing this will mean the patient dying. “Assisted…

Fanny Crosby was a prolific hymn writer, writing more than 8000 hymns. Soon after she was born, in 1820, it was realised that she was totally blind. Before she was one year old her father died so Fanny was cared for by her mother, Mercy, and her maternal grandmother, Eunice. The family moved to New…

A New Year is beginning. Starting something new gives us an opportunity to do better. Some people make New Year resolutions. It is good to resolve to change for the better and do things differently from the way we have in the past. When we were in primary school and had made lots of mistakes…

Many people around the world are remembering the birth of Jesus. He was the most extraordinary person the world has ever seen but the circumstances of his birth were amazingly ordinary. To comply with a Roman census, Mary and Joseph, a newly married couple, had travelled from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem. The town was…

World War I was a terrible war. The total deaths, both military and civilian, were 20 million with another 21 million casualties. The guns began firing across the green fields of France and Belgium in August 1914 and by Christmas Day had already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. In October 2014 the British army…

Tragically, hate is a characteristic of our modern world. Hate is an intense negative emotional response towards certain people, things, or ideas. Hatred is often associated with intense feelings of anger and contempt. Hate is ugly and is the opposite of love which is beautiful. Some examples of hate are: hate speech, hateful social media…

The Brazilian footballer Roberto “Bobby” Firmino has had a very successful career. After playing in Brazil and Germany he signed for Liverpool in 2015 and now plays in Saudi Arabia. He has represented Brazil 55 times scoring 17 goals. He grew up in a poor family in Brazil. His father, Jose, was a street vendor…

The Bible is a source of comfort and strength to people all over the world. In the Bible God speaks to us. He reveals his own heart and character and speaks to our hearts. Psalm 23 was written by David and is one of the best-known passages in the Bible. It has been a help…

In the past week we have remembered those who died in the two Great Wars of the 20th century. Remembering those who died is important. The scale of the losses was terrible. In World War I 20 million military personnel and civilians died. In World War II between 40 and 50 million died. It is…

We are living in days of great stress that affect the whole world. The Covid-19 pandemic took the lives of many people and those who lost loved ones still feel it keenly. The wars in Ukraine and Sudan and more recently in Gaza have involved destruction of whole communities and the deaths of many men,…