Giving Up
In the Chad Blog at the start of Lent, Jonathan Hill, Lichfield Diocese’s Director of Finance contemplates an alternative understanding of ‘giving up for Lent’
News
The banks that flourish
Bishop Matthew has indigestion as we approach the start of Lent
Mark my words - all together
On the first Sunday of Advent, Isaiah’s words rip through the air and his prophecy will continue to thunder around us Sunday by Sunday. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus cries ‘Keep Awake!’ and we hear his passion for this world to flourish and for his followers to take their place on the side of hope.
Pathways is Back!
Helen Scheven extols the virtue of our introductory course for thinking about vocation
Christmas greetings from our bishops
Bishop Sarah, Matthew and Jonathan mull over themes of the season
Your free gift! A guilt-free January!
Bishop Jonathan's new year resolution to avoid advertiser-induced guilt and instead welcome Christ-inspired body-image.
As far as it depends on us
Angels and Putin are in Bishop Matthew's thoughts at the start of December.
Lichfield Diocesan Digest Sound Magazine
The Diocesan Digest was founded in 1989 and is the Sound Magazine for Lichfield Cathedral and the Diocese. Volunteers produce a full audio magazine every month which gives news and conversation for people who are blind and partially sighted, as well as anyone else who is interested.
Called to Serve?
Did you know that 15 million people alive today attended a Church of England school? Today a quarter of all primary schools are Church of England schools and approximately 1 million children currently attend a Church of England School.
Bishop leads on the Methodist connection
Generous passion for the gospel includes working in unity
Success & Failure
As exam season begins to recede in requests at prayer meetings and results play on many minds, one of our school chaplains considers how we can all act when tested.
Praying from the heart
In the run up to Dementia Action Week, prayers are the solace many have contributed in our Share A Prayer Through Dementia Initiative.
Say what?
A bit of Bananarama theology to start a Monday morning...
Dust and Glory
Easter Day, a time for celebration - Easter eggs and bunnies? "Yes to all of that!" says Bishop Sarah - read why!
Prized Nature
Churchyards are very important places for those whose loved ones are buried there, but a survey of visitors to some churchyards in Sussex found that they are often visited by people who value their peace and beauty. The Churchyard Award Scheme has been running for over 30 years. It’s run by volunteers to celebrate the work of volunteers in maintaining and developing churchyards and church gardens across the diocese of Lichfield.
Send more pauses
Emails, debate and Lent
I got rhythm
The Community of St Chad is a community founded on companion groups of three people who meet to pray together and who live out five Rhythms of Grace.
Open the eyes of my heart
Bishop Sarah has been blogging after a recent revelation:
'Head to Heart' resource for families living through dementia
This resource is born of personal experience. My dad died in 2018 and he was diagnosed with dementia ten years earlier. He’d been a solicitor in Birmingham and spent his working life making incisive, head-level connections. The journey of the last decade of his life was a journey from head to heart.
A sting in the tale of Christmas
The enchanting story of the Wise Men visiting the infant Jesus has a sting in its tail. Archdeacon Paul Thomas has been thinking about what this means as we mark the change of year and how the tale of Epiphany is so relevant today.
Be curious, be present, reimagine
The Difference course, designed and produced by Archbishop Justin Welby’s reconciliation team, is made up of five sessions exploring the power of faith to transform our relationships and heal division.
Receiving gifts
It's harder to receive than to give? Revd Chris Precious has experience in his Shropshire parishes.
Sleepers awake!
There's no time like the present, according to Bishop Clive in his bishops' letter for December
Church plant revitalisation holds a beacon of hope!
Revd Chris Lane shares an insight into the most recent part of his journey around Walsall
Are we accidentally ‘ableist’?
Was the Queen misguided? Revd Zoe Hemmings on having her own prejudice challenged by a good friend.
How still we see thee lie
Bishop Sarah recently experienced moments where the world seemed to stand still despite being in the middle of cosmopolitan chaos, hearing about the risks some take to engage in building peace and reconciliation.
Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone.
It's the month of new beginnings - new school and university terms. We usually think it's for the young, not those approaching retirement. Revd Charmaine Host asks us to think again.
Reason for response
Bishop Matthew contemplates the coming months not with hopeful cheerfulness but with an uneasy dread provoked by international upheavals, the unsettling evidence of a changing climate and, most immediately for many, a crippling cost of living crisis.
People of hope
The focus of the Lambeth Conference is to discern the Holy Spirit’s directing in exploring what it means to be ‘God’s Church for God’s World’
West Midlands team returns Hands at Work to Africa
On Saturday 23 July a team of people from churches in our diocese and other parts of the Midlands will be heading off to South Africa and Eswatini with the charity ‘Hands at Work, Africa’.
