A letter from… Melbourne

30/11/2016 | Reform

Stephen Burns learns from Advent in Melbourne

When I migrated to Australia from Birmingham, the Church year became strange for me. Here, Lent is in autumn, days are getting shorter and Easter is not accompanied by the new life of … Read More

Chapter & verse: Matthew 3:15

30/11/2016 | Reform

Kevin Watson reflects on the first words of Jesus

Did Paul McCartney, penning ‘Let it be’, know that those words are the first recorded words of Jesus? Some Bibles have Jesus’ words in red print, and my Advent Bible study … Read More

Commitment-Phobe: Why can’t I say no

30/11/2016 | Reform

Adventures with children and sheet music

This Christmas, I am working on saying the word ‘no’ at church. When invited to do something by a church leader I just don’t seem to be able to say it! My brain tells … Read More

Niall Cooper: Middle-class church problems

30/11/2016 | Reform

Can a middle class Church be for the poor?

Can a middle-class Church become ‘a poor Church, for the poor’? A Church of and for the poor is a Gospel imperative, important both for the Church and for people experiencing … Read More

Christmas ideas: How to give more

30/11/2016 | Reform

Reform’s annual recommendations for including charities in your Christmas celebrations

‘Christmas comes this time each year,’ as the Beach Boys sagely advised us, and assuming they were talking about 25 December, they weren’t wrong. But what comes this time each … Read More

Jumble sales of the apocalypse: Christingle

30/11/2016 | Reform

Simon Jenkins ponders Christingle

A few days before Christmas, a woman posted on Mumsnet.com in a state of utter bafflement: ‘A satsuma, a candle, two raisins, a sweet, four cocktail sticks and a peanut … what?’ Her daughter had just … Read More