'Open Communion': a sign of disintegration, not progress

Many Protestant churches today accept and celebrate indiscriminate eucharistic sharing. Fr Ian of St Mary Magdalene parish, Blaenau Ffestiniog, questions the wooly thinking behind such a practice, which has come to enjoy growing support among Catholics.            

A typical group photograph after a typical Catholic First Communion Mass

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There's something about Mary

Consider this tale of woe, reported some time ago, on the website of the pressure group The Association of Interchurch Families.

'Two Iranian Ex-Muslims Speak Out: Israel’s Attack on Iran | Biblical & Political Perspective'

A Forum reader has suggested that others might be interested in the following interview on YouTube, conducted immediately after the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Iran on 13th June.

Photo from the Financial Times, 13th June, 2025. © Meghdad Madadi/Tasnim News/AFP/Getty Images

The interviewer, Mohamad Faridi, is President of Iranian Christians International, 'the first indigenous mission to Iranians outside of Iran'  (click here for their website).

The person being interviewed is Hedieh Mirahmadi Falco, who runs the Resurrect Ministry with her husband Andy (click here for a link to their website).

Here's the interview (click on the photograph):

Did Thomas the Apostle Really Go to India?

Ian Hampson of the Harlech Goleudy (Lighthouse) Church looks at some of the historical material about Saint Thomas the Apostle, whose missionary life began with questions and doubts about Jesus' resurrection  

St Thomas’ Cave, Little Mount, Chennai/Madras

Most of us know him as "Doubting Thomas" - the apostle who refused to believe in Jesus’ resurrection until he saw the wounds for himself. But there’s much more to Thomas than a moment of scepticism. In fact, according to a long-standing tradition, he may have taken the message of Jesus further east than any other apostle - possibly even to India.

The Universal Soldier: lamenting the passing of protest songs

Mary Howell, from St David in Seion Catholic church in Harlech, reflects on the strength of the anti-war movement in the 1960s and its apparent weakness today.

Anti-Vietnam War protestors in Washington, D.C., November 27, 1965

In the 1960s when I was a teenager protest songs were common. Nuclear disarmament and anti-war sentiment gained momentum to guard against bile from dictators and their followers’ mouths. World War 2, the Holocaust and the awfulness of the testimonies were a living memory.

Two Poems by Saunders Lewis

As we begin Holy Week this year Tim Griffin, who attends Holy Cross Catholic church, Gellilydan when he is in North Wales, introduces two poems by Saunders Lewis, one of the founders of Plaid Cymru, the Party of Wales. 

John Saunders Lewis, 1893 – 1985, left, photographed with D.J. Williams and Lewis Valentine.

‘O happy fault,…’: original sin and its consequences (4)

by Fr Ian

Punishment and Promise

The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise by Benjamin West (1738-1820)

Chapter 3 of Genesis concludes with an account of God delivering his sentence on Adam and Eve - and the serpent.

The serpent is cursed by God to ‘go upon its belly’ and ‘eat dust for all the days of its life’. Eve learns that from now on she will experience great pain during childbirth, that her relationship with her husband will be contaminated by lust and a struggle for dominance. Adam is condemned to onerous and frustrating work which will often be largely fruitless. (Genesis 3:14-19).