Thought for the week

Once again, the colours of the autumn leaves are resplendent. The yellows, browns and reds are brilliant especially in the low early morning sun. God has made our little earth a very beautiful place which stands out in the vast universe he created. We have every reason to thank him for his wonderful kindness to…

Black churches in Britain are growing. Whilst there has been a drop of 5% in church attendance generally there has been an 18% increase in Black Majority church membership. In London 48% of all churchgoers are now Black. The London Borough of Southwark has the largest concentration of African churches anywhere in Britain with an…

Some major atrocities are remembered simply by their dates. 9/11 is identified with the attack on the twin towers in New York when 2977 people were killed, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in history. In response the United States launched its global “war on terror” in which many more people died. Now October 7…

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…