Features Archive

The great benefit of making a journey is that it can provide a much-needed space for reflection and thought. Although we can prepare for a journey, get the right tickets, guide books and read the literature, it is only in setting off that the…Read more

With all that has happened over the last twelve months it is quite easy to overlook that we have been celebrating the Year of St Joseph. Pope Francis declared this year in his Apostolic Letter Patris Corde in which he writes “Each of us can…Read more

In this striking image of the meeting of Blind Bartimaeus with Jesus, the Bulgarian artist Julia Stankova provides a sense of expectation and empathy between the two. The able-sighted crowd are the distracted ones. Jesus is the one who listens,…Read more

David Anthony Andrew Amess was born in and grew up in the East End of London. The son of an electrician and a seamstress, David absorbed a stringent work ethic from his earliest years but his passion was always politics and he studied economics…Read more

Just over 38 years ago David Amess, Julia and I stood on this sanctuary. They were getting married and I was officiating at the wedding. He was the newly-elected MP for Basildon, just three months into the job. In the years that followed I…Read more

By Reverend Roger Carr-Jones, Marriage & Family Life Co0rdinator for the Diocese of Westminster I have three vocations: Christian; husband and deacon, it is the former that informs the whole and for me, Zacchaeus is the model of domestic…Read more

This month, the Pope expresses his closeness to all those who are feeling overwhelmed in their daily life, above all those suffering from stress and depression, and he asks us to pray that they receive the help they need. Aware that people around…Read more

Marriage Care are the largest faith-based relationship support-specialists in the UK and was founded in the Diocese of Westminster in August 1946 in response to the significant breakdown in marriages following the war. 75 years on the need to…Read more

By the Reverend Roger Carr-Jones Marriage & Family Life Coordinator, Diocese of Westminster The inspiration for this piece comes initially from my reflecting once again on a remarkable art installation by the sculptor Fenwick Lawson commissioned by…Read more

In 2019, Pope Francis addressed 6,000 members of the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network in Rome, telling us that ‘the heart of the church’s mission is prayer’. When he invites us all, each month, to pray with him for a specific intention, he…Read more

The people of God, and all people of good will, have many concerns that they want to bring to their prayer, as does Pope Francis; yet some of our prayer may be devoted to his particular intention selected for this month, which is: ‘Let us pray…Read more

The Book of Ecclesiastes tells us: ‘To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven’. This idea of the seasons seems to fit very well, when we come to speak of our life-enhancing relationship with grandparents…Read more

In July, we are invited to pray ‘that, in social, economic and political situations of conflict, we may be courageous and passionate architects of dialogue and friendship’. All the monthly intentions in 2021 are expressions of the Pope’s…Read more

For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in campaigning for social justice, a key factor in why I wanted to work for Caritas Westminster, the social action agency of the Diocese of Westminster. A pivotal moment for me was when I…Read more