Chapter and Verse: Luke 1:5-38

12/12/2023 | Reform

Joshua Norris surveys different responses to Christ’s birth

When I read Luke’s account of the Christmas story, I find myself fascinated by the assortment of reactions to God’s activity in those days. The angel Gabriel first appears to Zechariah … Read More

Do stay for tea and coffee: ‘You can hear Marley’s chains a-rattling in that Bible story’

12/12/2023 | Reform

Paul Kerensa revisits A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol turns 180 years young this December. Yet Christians can have a love-hate relationship with this festive novella. Doesn’t it distract us from the real Christmas? The one with the Christ-child … Read More

Art in Focus: December 2023

12/12/2023 | Reform

Flight into EgyptWalter Ritchie, 1919–1997Brick relief sculpture

‘Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod.’

For how many Christmases have we heard … Read More

Reform’s Christmas Charity Guide

12/12/2023 | Reform

As Noddy Holder put it so well in Slade’s 1973 hit ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’: ‘It’s Christmas!’ Fairy lights and mince pies, carols and baubles, jingle and ding dong. Yum! But why be content with merely celebrating and getting stuff, when … Read More

On the pilgrim way: ‘All this clearing out raises questions: What I am getting ready for?’

12/12/2023 | Reform

Sheila Maxey finds pleasure and pain in remembering

‘For everything there is a season – a time to keep and a time to throw away.’ (Ecclesiastes 3:6)

I have just been to Germany again to visit my ailing … Read More

Living in a world of war

12/12/2023 | Reform

If individuals can’t solve the conflicts of a violent world, what can we do? asks Graham Handscomb

How can we deal with war? I don’t mean as a society, or as the international community, but as individuals. And I’m … Read More