The Family at Christmas Andy Hawes is Warden of Edenham Regional Retreat House Every sense is brought into play at Christmas, as indeed is every emotion. It is a time of profound spiritual richness. It is also a very busy [...]

EXHIBITION OF THE YEAR IT IS probably the Louvre’s ’Raphaël, Les dernières années.’ Back home, it has not been a vintage year, though a number of shows were well worth the ticket price. Of these, the generous loans from the [...]

The Archdeacon of Hampstead considers cordiality between Churchmen, and especially between Societies of Churchmen separated today by Differences of Spirit and Method The title is couched in the language of a century ago and the problem it faces is the [...]

Elise Gallagher is encouraged by the growing backlash against the use of the term ‘Xmas’ Increasingly I am starting to wonder exactly who likes and uses the short form ‘Xmas’ instead of that ever so longwinded word Christmas. I used [...]

Simon Cotton traces the history of a rare book and the life of its eighteenth-century owner It was just an old book I spotted on a bookseller’s list. What caught my eye was the fact that it contained a bookplate [...]

Hymns bursting with biblical truth are a great way for frontline clergy to do what it says on the tin of the Ordinal: ‘with all faithful diligence to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God’s [...]

Robert Beaken on the Nikaean Club which has promoted the ideals of Christian unity for over 80 years The year 1925 saw the 1,600th anniversary of the first Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325, which, among other achievements, gave us [...]

Picture a snowbound lake and a burning barn, Or a house inhabited by the moon: See how the beams of cunning silver light Send out the radiance of the Eternal Girl. See now a cowshed in the dead of winter, [...]

In his will of 1489, John Townsende left 12d to the ‘new candlebeam’ of Wenhaston church, meaning the rood screen. A few years later the screen was complete, topped by rood and loft, with a painted tympanic filling behind the [...]

Nicolas Stebbing reports on his recent visit to Zimbabwe Harare looks a bit better than it did; some new buildings are going up, some roads repaired; there is a bit more money around. There is plenty in the shops but [...]