Thought for the Day
A one-minute read to inspire or challenge. Written by members of the church and updated every few days.
6th February 2026
Whilst working out how best to engage with distressing news stories, I am also drawn towards more heart-warming reports.
At a recent conference researchers described their progress towards improving lives of those living with various medical conditions. There was special focus on solving problems of inequalities in healthcare provision. For instance, for organ donation for transplantation, there is a better chance of not only finding a suitable match from a donor of the same ethnicity, but better outcomes for the patient. Researchers are investigating ways to be able to help patients have better outcomes, even in the absence of a perfect match.
During Jesus’ ministry, we are told: “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor” (Matthew 11:5).
Ruth Burgess and Kathy Galloway referenced the ministry of healing in the life of the Iona Community in Praying for the Dawn: a resource book for the ministry of healing: “The healing of divisions and splits in our own lives, of broken bodies, painful memories, divided communities and nations, the healing of the earth itself and of our relationship with it, are all part of the integrity to which God calls us. They are all part of the ministry of healing.”
There are many ways in which God calls us to be part of His healing work. It might be as simple and wonderful as making a hot lemon & honey for a cold-ridden student (someone at Tyndale did that for me, and I’ve never forgotten it)!
Ruth Allen
4th February 2026
I invite you to reflect on the strain being placed on truth, trust, and public life. News cycles move quickly, outrage is amplified, and it can feel hard to know whom or what to believe. In such a climate, Jesus’ call to honesty, humility, and love of neighbour feels both challenging and deeply relevant […]
30th January 2026
Growing up in the Anglican Church with Sunday School tales of the Northumbrian saints Aidan and Cuthbert, I was always aware of the significance of Iona for the evangelisation of the north east of England. It was from Iona on the west coast of Scotland that Aidan travelled with his monks to Lindisfarne (Holy Island) […]
28th January 2026
Sunday 8th February has been designated as Racial Justice Sunday. I am dismayed that, over fifty years after Martin Luther King Jr became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (at the time), we still need to set aside time each year to explore what it means truly to love our neighbour. In recent […]
23rd January 2026
Curiosity. That’s a word that has caught my attention this week. It has popped up at work, as one of those skills that the company seeks to encourage in its engineers. Mindfulness meditations encouraged me to be curious about the sounds around us and the sensations of the body. As I caught up with some […]
21st January 2026
At Swakopmund in Namibia, once a German colony, there is a historic steam locomotive abandoned there in 1895 and known to the locals as Martin Luther because “Here I stand, I can go no further”. I am writing this in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. At least in England the churches stance about […]
16th January 2026
I’m writing on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s birth in 1929. A Baptist minister, his prominent part in the 1960s Civil Rights movement is honoured on this day as a federal holiday across the USA since 2000. A favourite time for me in teaching was playing to pupils a recording of MLK’s ‘I have […]
14th January 2026
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhereThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;The best lack all conviction, while the worstAre full of passionate intensity. W. B. Yeats’ words, penned in the turmoil following the 1914-18 conflict and war in Ireland, ring tragically true today. […]
7th January 2026
CHANGE AND CHANGELESSNESS What a world of change we live in. I find it remarkable that to send a letter by first-class post, even a short distance, costs £1.70, whereas an email can circuit the world for practically nothing. We may well be amongst the few who still use details of TV Channels to determine […]
31st December 2025
We’ve reached the turning of the year: goodbye to 2025 and hello to 2026. TV, radio, newspapers and magazines invite us to review the year that’s departing – the past 12 months’ political headlines, major news stories, sporting events, gossip from the world of entertainment, scandals, obituaries and the like – before going on to […]