Thought for the week

On 27 January 2025 there was a commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp. All Auschwitz survivors were invited to the commemoration. The German Nazis murdered 1.1 million people in Auschwitz, mostly Jews, but also Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and people of other…

Arthur Blessitt an American evangelist has died at the age of 84. Arthur came to personal faith in Jesus when he was 7 and became an evangelist when he was 15. After being ordained as a minister he devoted his life to street evangelism. He had a very unusual way of engaging people and telling…

Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States of America, has died at the age of 100 years. He came from Georgia, where he had been a peanut farmer, and became the State Governor. He served one term as President from 1977-1981 following the dark days of the Watergate scandal. Political observers, who look…

As the New Year has begun, we have greeted each other with the words “Happy New Year!” All of us are hoping the future will be truly happy both personally and for the peoples of the world. Yet there are many people in the world today who have every reason to be unhappy. War, conflict,…

When I was in primary school, I always liked the teacher giving me a new exercise book. It was an opportunity to make a fresh start and to try to write more carefully avoiding unsightly blots and crossing outs. As we start another new year it is new beginning for us all with new opportunities.…

The birth of Jesus is a cause for great joy. It is a message our sad and troubled world desperately needs to hear. In many places there is great suffering and sadness, and the future seems bleak. The terrible war in Ukraine continues with its daily toll of deaths and lifechanging injuries on both sides.…

Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has reopened 5 years after it suffered a devastating fire. In April 2019 a blaze broke out in the church’s roof space, destroying its iconic spire and damaging the cathedral’s roof and upper walls. The work of restoration on the 860-year-old building has been completed in a relatively short time…

The Christmas story is about ordinary people whose lives were transformed by the extraordinary birth of Jesus. One character in the Christmas story who tends to be in the background is Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus. The Gospels show him to be an upright, loving, and spiritual man. In our society there is a…

Bob Yerkes died recently. Bob was a legendary American stuntman who began a life of acrobatics in the circus as a teenager and went on to work as a stuntman in such films as Back to the Future, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, and Hook. He said, “I started tumbling down…

A documentary film has been released recently called “The sinking of the Lisbon Maru”. The documentary was made by the Chinese director Fang Li and tells the story of the rescue of British Prisoners of War by Chinese fishermen on 1 October 1942. The armed Japanese troopship “The Lisbon Maru” was carrying 1816 British prisoners…