search

Looking to move? Wanting a challenge? Then the Gateway Project could be for you!

Quite simply it is a project to grow a new church in the biggest redevelopment and regeneration area in Western Europe! The UK Government and private finance have been pouring billions of pounds into regenerating the hinterland of the Thames Estuary from the Pool of London along both banks of the river in north Kent and south Essex.

In 2006, Benedict XVI, pope of the Roman Catholic Church, made a statement challenging the Islamic world about their militaristic and terrorist practices throughout history and so questioning the frequent claims that it is a peaceful religion. This statement was, not surprisingly, unwelcome to the Islamic religious authorities as it exposed a truth that would hinder their aims and progress towards increasing control of the Western world.

Very quickly a group of scholars representing a range of Islamic thought produced an Open Letter to the Pope and, later, A Common Word Between Us and You. The latter document was written by 138 Islamic scholars to highlight ‘the common ground between Christianity and Islam’. That wording in itself should have been enough to warn evangelicals, and Christians of a wider spectrum! They go on to say that ‘despite their differences, Islam and Christianity not only share the same Divine Origin and the same Abrahamic heritage, but the same two greatest commandments’ (their emphasis). Again that does not require someone to be a theologian to see the flaws.

The new edition of Religious Trends (Christian Research) gives details of all the 275 denominations now constituting the Christian scene in the UK. It lists the number of members, churches and ministers for each of the years 2000, 2002-2006 with an estimate for 2010. The information was provided by each denomination, or estimated on their behalf. It also forecasts the overall figures ahead for 40 years to 2050. The basic figures are more interesting than they might look at first glance!

More buoyant: more people!

The figures published previously for 2005, revised in this new volume, were 5.6 million for the UK and 5.2 million for 2010. What has happened to cause these previous estimates to change so much? In a single word, immigration! We all know that thousands upon thousands of immigrants are coming to the UK at this time, the majority from the EU. Unlike other countries in the EU, the UK allowed citizens from Poland and other countries which joined in 2005 to be eligible for entrance to the UK immediately. Many of these immigrants came from Christian countries, both Protestant and Catholic, and have joined local churches wherever they have settled in the UK. More seem to have settled in England and Scotland than Wales and Northern Ireland.

Back in the 1920s, the then Secretary of The Open-Air Mission, Frank Cockrem, wrote a pamphlet to challenge preachers of the gospel not to confine their invaluable ministry to the four walls of their churches.

Such a challenge is needed even more urgently today. Since far fewer people attend church in 2008 than they did back then, out-door or open-air preaching is even more vital. Below is an updated version with seven questions which is written neither to offend nor discourage, but with the sincere desire that more needy sinners will hear the glorious gospel, and be saved.

Today, there are more 80-year-olds than 18-year-olds in our nation. By 2020 5% of the population will be over 80.

A couple of decades ago the St. Paul’s Methodist Seminary in Kansas established a professorship in gerontology — the study of old age. The reason for this was that some students found themselves pastoring churches where 100% of the congregation are over 65.

Until 1989, Poland was a Communist state ruled from Marxist Russia. Religiously, traditional Catholicism was the dominant force. But, during the years 1975 to 1990, God used a music group Deo Decyma (Ten for God) to spread the good news of Jesus Christ in Poland. This is something of their story.

The Krol family, headed up by the father Wilhelm Krol, a professor of civil engineering in Gliwice and a lay preacher, were evangelical Christians. Though their surroundings were quite hostile to the gospel, nevertheless the children, Nina, Henio and Adas, knew the Lord and felt very secure and free in Christ.

Is her controversial book How to Cheat at Cooking professional suicide? Or does Delia know more about our cooking habits than we are ready to confess? Eleanor wonders if she’ll need to bother putting her apron on.

For those like me learning to cook in the 1980s and 90s, Delia was our guiding light. Moving us on from Mrs. Beeton, her Complete Cookery Course could be used to look up any dish and follow simple instructions to obtain a decent result.

A tribute by his sister, Estelle.

There are hundreds of ageing people all over the world who have a life-long love affair with a beautiful little former Treaty Port formerly called Chefoo, now Yantai. Norman was born there in 1925 of missionary parents and grandparents. There was a school there founded in 1881 for children of missionaries, by Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission, who was the uncle of our grandfather.

Our parents, Howard and Mary Cliff, both pharmacists, went with baby Norman into the poverty stricken interior provinces of Henan and Shanxi. Our father was transferred to Hangzhou to be the Principal of the Bible Institute there and we were sent to Chefoo School.

The New Word Alive conference is scheduled to take place at Pwllheli, North Wales, from April 7 to 11. EN asked Nigel Beynon, who is responsible for organising the event, to tell us how things are going.

It feels like a long time since October last year, but I can still remember the day. It was October 16; the phone rang in the middle of the afternoon. It was Haven’s booking office, ‘New Word Alive is sold out!’

Do you ever find yourself missing the old-fashioned sweetie shop of yore: all those rows of big glass jars that were crammed with toffees, fudges, bonbons, flying saucers?

Well, now there’s something with all of the thrill and none of the sugar — a theological sweetie shop: http://www.theologynetwork.org, UCCF’s new online theological centre. Here you can listen to why Luther’s wife hid in a fish barrel and how Muslims pray; read about the depth of God’s grace and what our resurrection bodies will be like.

Famous books

John Knox’s The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women was published in 1558. This splendid title was an attack on the ‘unnatural rule of women’, namely Mary I of England and Mary of Lorraine, the dowager queen of Scotland.

Richard Baxter’s A Call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live … from the Living God was published in 1658.

One of the great things about London is its ethnic and cultural diversity. It is estimated that a third of Londoners are born outside the UK. Everywhere you see people of different races speaking different languages, eating different food, wearing different clothes and practising different religions.

I find this very exciting. I love shopping at our local street market in Hackney on Ridley Road where something from almost everywhere in the world – African snails, Jewish bagels, Asian fruit, Turkish delicacies – seems to be present. But it is not only ethnic diversity that is striking in London. There is also an amazing social diversity, with rich and poor, young and old and everyone in between living often in close proximity.