Reviews – December 2014/January 2015

01/12/2014 | Reform

Scenes from a martyrdom

Stations of the Cross Directed by Dietrich Brueggemann Certificate 15, 105 minutes Released 28 November

Maria is a 14-year-old brought up in a conservative Catholic sect so extreme that she has a crisis of conscience when … Read More

Niall Cooper: To heat, or eat?

01/12/2014 | Reform

The chilling effects of fuel poverty

Advent may be a time of hope and expectation, but it is also, for many, a time of dread. As the thermometer starts to plummet, increasing numbers of people are faced with the unenviable … Read More

Jumble sales of the apocalypse: Badvent

01/12/2014 | Reform

Simon Jenkins introduces the “Badvent” calendar

Standing in the queue at Tesco a few weeks ago, I was eyeing up the impulse buys at the till and wondering whether to go for a two-for-the-price-of-one pouch of Maltesers, when my eyes … Read More

Chapter & verse: Joshua 4

01/12/2014 | Reform

Neil Thorogood finds layered meaning in stories of stones

Sometimes we stand where history was made: The churning memory of war remembered on Normandy’s beaches; the horror brought home following the railway tracks that lead into Auschwitz-Birkenau; the cost made … Read More

Christian Activist: Churches against Ebola

01/12/2014 | Reform

Some of West Africa’s poorest countries are facing national emergencies as they wrestle with the Ebola outbreak which has claimed more than 5,000 lives. Ebola is making orphans, severely stretching local health services, hitting the national economies hard, and putting … Read More

A letter from… Luhe, China

01/12/2014 | Reform

Jimmy Lam reports on Christmas in rural China

Christmas in the rural communities of Luhe reminds me of Psalm 96:12: “Let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy.” The … Read More