Thought for the week

The story of the rescue of 4 Colombian children lost in the Amazonian rainforest is a welcome good news story. On 1 May the children and their mother were passengers in a small Cessna 206 plane flying from a jungle area known as Araracuara to the town of San Jose del Guaviare. Just minutes after…

We live in world of suffering and are reminded of it every day. The photographs of the recent rail crash in India show the tangled wreckage of the trains in which, tragically, more than 200 people died and many more were injured. The destruction of countless communities in Ukraine by the Russian forces sent to…

Kenneth Elliot, an Australian doctor kidnapped in Burkina Faso and held captive by al-Qaeda for more than seven years, has finally returned home to his family in Perth. Dr Elliot, who is 88 years old, is safe and well. The family said, “We wish to express our thanks to God and to all who have…

We are enjoying warm and sunny days. So, it is no surprise that students in schools and colleges are sitting exams! Somehow the sun always seems to shine at revision and exam times. It is a very stressful time for the young people sitting important school, college and university exams which have implications for their…

On 28 August 2002 Lyn Connolly came home from shopping to find her husband, Mick, sitting with two strangers. They were detectives who had brought the family some terrible news. The night before their 28-year-old son, Paul, had been murdered by two strangers in a motiveless attack. Paul had been stabbed in the back and…

Early in the Coronation Service of King Charles III, Samuel Strachan, Child of his Majesty’s Chapel Royal, spoke to the King, “The King your Majesty, as children of the kingdom of God we welcome you in the name of the King of kings.” The King replied, “In his name and after his example I come…

The Coronation of King Charles III is a major event for the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries of which Charles is the King. In the Bible kings play a major part. The first king of Israel was Saul who was appointed because none of the prophet Samuel’s sons was fit to be king. When…

Marianne Rozario has recently published a report for the Theos Think Tank entitled “Ashes to Ashes” on attitudes towards dying, death and the afterlife in Britain. She says the way we mark death is changing especially in the decline of traditional funeral services. Only 23% of funerals are now conducted in the Church of England,…

There are times when we are reminded that we are mortal. Recently my wife and I attended the funeral of a friend who was younger than us. We reflected on the fact that none of us knows how long we will live. If we receive a serious diagnosis of heart disease or cancer, the end…

The wonderful message of Easter is “The Lord is risen!” After the crucifixion of Jesus, the disciples were devastated and despondent. The Lord whom they loved, and in whom all their hopes were centred, had died in the most terrible way. Early in the morning on the third day after Jesus died, Mary Magdalene went…