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When 18-year-old Donovan Shears sent a text message to a number he had just made up he wasn’t expecting a reply. It was 1998 and he had his first mobile phone that could send text messages. So, he made up some numbers and fired off the simple greeting ‘hullo’. One recipient was another 18-year-old called […] The post Call me appeared first on Turn the Page.

Both outgoing and incoming American Presidents have been generous with their displays of forgiveness. Four years ago, the clear up was in full swing after the storming of the Capitol on 6th January 2020. Some 1,600 people were convicted, some for violent assault. Now Trump has set them all free. Perhaps even more surprising, however, is […] The post Forgiveness for all! appeared first on Turn the Page.

As we know the universe is governed by certain laws. One concerns putting away Christmas tree decorations: only when you have packed them all away will you find one you missed. I have done this so many times that I have grown wise. I pack the boxes and then wait several days. I just know […] The post Don’t pack Christmas away too soon appeared first on Turn the Page.

With Gen Z leading the charge 2024 is going to be another year where the cost of Christmas is loaded onto credit cards. But when did our love affair with credit begin?  Back in the 1950’s the Bank of America sent an unsolicited credit card to every one of its 60,000 customers. Known as the […] The post Free credit at Christmas appeared first on Turn the Page.

You won’t be surprised to discover that we spend a lot of our lives waiting for things. According to some research, we spend on average 20 minutes a day waiting for a bus or train, 32 minutes every time we visit the Dr, 13 hours a year on hold, and 38 hours a year stuck […] The post Worth the wait? appeared first on Turn the Page.

Reporting on the resignation of Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, a BBC reporter referred to the Church of England as a ‘fading institution’. A cursory glance at the statistics from the last few decades surely bears this out. Perhaps we should not be surprised. Over the centuries church institutions have come and gone, not […] The post A fading institution appeared first on Turn the Page.

Jesus once got lost. At least that’s what his parents thought. They were returning from a festival in Jerusalem to their home in Nazareth and travelling with a large company of family and friends. Mary thought Jesus was with Joseph and he thought he was with her. It took a day to realise that he […] The post Where is home? appeared first on Turn the Page.

Jesus told a story about a man who had two sons. One day the younger son demanded his inheritance, in effect telling his father ‘I wish you were dead!’. Surprisingly his father agreed, and the son was soon far from home and splashing the cash on parties for his newfound friends. Before long, however, the […] The post No way back? appeared first on Turn the Page.

Many years ago, I volunteered at a night shelter for the homeless in Bristol. One man in particular stayed in my mind. He stood out because he was smartly dressed wearing a jacket and tie and carried a small bag of possessions. Thoughtful and articulate he explained that this was a way of life he […] The post Choosing to leave home appeared first on Turn the Page.

When the USS Enterprise launched in September 1966 ‘to boldy go’ where no one had gone before, it didn’t actually go very far. The idea of exploring the Milky Way was one of pure imagination far beyond the bounds of possibility. Fast forward nearly 60 years and how much has changed. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos […] The post To boldly go appeared first on Turn the Page.

The premature death of someone we love is one of the hardest griefs to bear. We are left with the haunting and unanswerable question ‘Why?’ It seems so unfair and makes no sense. How could a good God allow such a thing? A while ago a friend of mine had to grapple with this question […] The post Where not why appeared first on Turn the Page.

Growing up in Kentucky Abraham Lincoln witnessed slaves being herded along the highway like cattle. It made a lasting impression on him, and he became convinced that no person should ever be the property of another. But slavery was a fact of life and some 4 million were enslaved at the time of his election […] The post Ending slavery appeared first on Turn the Page.

In the mid-nineteenth century the American financial system was facing an existential threat from counterfeit currency. Something had to be done and so the Treasury established a secret service to go after the counterfeiters. But at the turn of the century, it was a threat to democracy itself that galvanised the service into the one […] The post In the line of fire appeared first on Turn the Page.

I recently found myself in conversation with someone bemoaning their experience of going to a church that was a bit ‘happy clappy’. They were not a regular churchgoer but had gone for the baptism of their second child. Their first child had been baptised in a more traditional church and this had clearly been more […] The post Happy clappy appeared first on Turn the Page.

In 2014 ‘Cheka’ Tsybukh was 16 years old when she first volunteered as a medic in eastern Ukraine helping those being wounded in the fight against Russian aggression. She served for three years but returned again in 2022 after the full-scale invasion. She still had her whole life before her but was quoted as saying, […] The post The greatest of loves appeared first on Turn the Page.

When the Michelin brothers started making car tyres, they weren’t thinking about fancy restaurants but how to feed themselves. To do that they needed to sell as many tyres as possible either on new vehicles or as replacements. So it was that they hit upon the idea of a free guidebook including recommendations about where […] The post Fancy food appeared first on Turn the Page.

When Jesus was telling his friends what to look out for as signs of his imminent return, I wonder if he had Taylor Swift in mind? Amongst the things Jesus mentioned were earthquakes and once again Taylor’s enthusiastic ‘Swifties’ have made the earth move. During her recent concerts in Edinburgh seismic activity was detected 6km […] The post When the earth moves appeared first on Turn the Page.

With the UK general election in full swing the political parties are starting to publish their manifestos. They will be full of promises to cut taxes, create jobs, spend billions on healthcare and housing and generally make us all feel richer and happier. The problem is we’re all rather cynical, convinced that politicians promise the […] The post Manifesto promises appeared first on Turn the Page.

Robert Cumming was not the first art critic to be puzzled by Filippino Lippi’s famous 15th century painting Virgin and Child. It depicts Mary cradling the infant Jesus on her knee with two saints, Dominic and Jerome, praying in the foreground. But the picture’s perspective seems all wrong. The hills in the background look as if […] The post Viewpoint appeared first on Turn the Page.

In the blockbuster movie Gladiator, Maximus is a Roman General betrayed by Caesar’s son Commodus. Reduced to slavery Maximus fights to survive and eventually comes face to face with Commodus once more at the Colosseum in Rome. He has worn a mask to fight but Commodus commands him to reveal his identity. Maximus turns, removes […] The post Hidden hero appeared first on Turn the Page.