The Marlpudlian online

An All Saints Church Marlpool publication

Author: Editor

Christianity

The Bible Myth

There are between 7 billion and 12 billion printed copies of the Bible worldwide with around 100 million printed every year. The complete Bible has been translated into more than 700 languages and substantial parts of it into more than 3,000 languages. It is far ad a way he most published ‘book’ in history.

And yet!!

New data reveals that more than 500 million Christians worldwide face Bible access restrictions, as laws imposed by governments hostile to Christianity and socioeconomic barriers prevent many who would like a Bible from having one. 

The Bible Access Initiative released its 2026 Bible Access List gives an updated look at Bible access around the world. The report examines 106 countries, identifying both places where Bible access is explicitly restricted and countries where people face socioeconomic barriers that prevent them from obtaining Scripture. 

The report found that Afghanistan has the strongest restrictions on Bible access, followed by Yemen, Somalia, North Korea, Eritrea and Mauritania. The Bible Access Initiative classifies all six countries as having “maximum restrictions” on Bible access.

Turkmenistan, Libya, Sudan and Iran round out the top 10 countries with the strongest restrictions. Those four countries, along with Comoros and the Maldives, are categorized as having “extreme restrictions.”

Countries classified as having “severe restrictions” include Algeria, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Niger, Burkina Faso, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Morocco, Syria, Bhutan, Azerbaijan, Mali, Oman, Brunei, Myanmar, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Chad, Iraq, Central African Republic, Malaysia, Laos, India, Kuwait, Ethiopia, Cuba, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Mozambique, Bangladesh, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Vietnam, Nepal, Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Cameroon, Venezuela, Togo, Turkey, Lebanon, Tanzania, South Sudan, Malawi, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Kenya are identified as having “considerable restrictions.”

Another group of countries, including Nicaragua, Russia, the Ivory Coast, Ukraine, Rwanda, Colombia, Uganda, Senegal, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Benin, Angola, Sierra Leone, Mexico, Burundi and Liberia, are categorized as having “some restrictions.”

The restrictions extend beyond government bans or censorship. The report cites “persecution through government controls, extremist violence, and family and community pressure,” while also identifying socioeconomic barriers such as poverty, poor infrastructure, illiteracy, lack of electricity and limited internet access.

Bible shortages are particularly acute in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria and India, each of which has a shortage of more than 10 million Bibles, according to the report.

Uganda, Tanzania and China each have Bible shortages ranging from 5 million to 10 million. Indonesia, Angola and Mozambique round out the top 10 countries with the largest Bible shortages. Those countries, along with Malawi, Rwanda, Madagascar and Kenya, are each short between 3 million and 5 million Bibles.

Countries with Bible shortages of 1 million to 3 million include the Ivory Coast, Burundi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Haiti, Cameroon, Cuba and Ghana. South Sudan, Chad, Benin, Burkina Faso, Egypt and the Central African Republic have shortages ranging from 500,000 to 1 million Bibles.

The report’s findings challenge the idea that the Bible is universally accessible simply because it can be found online or purchased in many parts of the world.

“We often hear that the Bible is more accessible than ever, but we must not confuse availability with access,” said Bible Access List co-creator Wybo Nicolai in a statement reacting to this year’s findings.

“Persecution-related Bible access restrictions can make accessing Scripture difficult or dangerous, while socioeconomic barriers can put a Bible beyond people’s reach,” Nicolai said. “Even where Scripture is available digitally, limited internet coverage or unsafe online environments can still prevent people from accessing it.”

In the west we take access to the Bible for granted. Many copies sit on shelves or in cupboards, unread and disregarded. If we do require access to a bible we can reach any number of translation online for free.

But almost eight times the entire population of the UK of our Christian brothers and sister across the world either have no access or very limited access to the Bible.

Christianity / Topical

Words of wisdom from an Israeli Jew

Why do we read the Book of Jonah on Yom Kippur?

Commentators — predictably — differ. But I believe one crucial reason is because of the book’s warning against dehumanizing others in the course of seeking our own redemption.

This year, the biblical text, traditionally read as the haftorah during afternoon services, must challenge us to feel true compassion for Palestinians — and wonder why so many of us have, during the past two years of war, been averse to doing so.

The Book of Jonah begins with God commanding Jonah to warn the more than 120,000 people of Nineveh to repent for “their wickedness” before divine wrath overturns the city. Jonah refuses and flees, boarding a ship with, according to one midrashic tradition, the intention of dying by suicide. He would rather die than see the idolatrous city survive.

After a series of trials, including a raging tempest and a sojourn in the belly of a great fish, Jonah finally capitulates to God and delivers God’s warning to Nineveh. But he is devastated when the city’s king subsequently proclaims a national campaign of repentance, which saves all its people. He mourns that outcome as a “great evil,” castigating God’s “grace and mercy” and “forgiveness of evil.”

The text provides no explicit reason for Jonah’s hatred toward the residents of Nineveh. Though commentaries have long sought an explanation, I believe its absence shows its irrelevance: There is never an excuse to deny God’s mercy toward other human beings.

Yom Kippur is a day as much about others as it is about ourselves. We confess our wrongdoings during prayer in the plural, as “we”; pound our chests in synchronicity; and request forgiveness directly from those we hurt. The holiday insists that teshuva, or repentance — a centerpiece of Yom Kippur — is a universal opportunity.

The end of Jonah’s story reinforces that message. After Nineveh repents, a dejected Jonah seeks shelter beneath a gourd tree that God provides. The next day, however, God sends a worm to destroy the tree, deeply grieving Jonah — a scene that sets up God’s final, fierce rebuke.

“You pitied this gourd tree, which you did not toil in, nor grow, which came and went in one night,” God says. “Should I not pity the great city of Nineveh, of more than 120,000 humans — who do not know right from left — and its many animals?”

In God’s rebuke to Jonah is an essential lesson for this Yom Kippur: To seek compassion for ourselves or those we love while denying it to others is a cruel hypocrisy.

This year, as I read the Book of Jonah in shul, I will think about the many times I have heard people who claim to defend Israel speak about civilian Palestinians in Gaza with a harshness reminiscent of Jonah’s toward Nineveh. As the war has raged onward — and starvation, destruction and suffering have devastated the strip’s innocents — many people who, like me, love Israel have indicted all the victims as guilty terrorist supporters.

Some, like Betar USA, an extreme Zionist group, have even gloated about the tragedies. “There are no innocents in Gaza,” the group has posted to its 30,000 followers on X. Others, like Israel’s far-right ministers, have advocated for uninhibited violence. Just last Sunday, Likud minister Nissim Vaturi said, when asked about the differences between Arab terrorists and civilians, “there is no such thing.” These voices are performing an offense just like Jonah’s, by demonizing those whom they personally deem unworthy of mercy.

On Yom Kippur, a day filled with fasting, confessions and prayers for forgiveness, I hope that reading Jonah’s story will remind us that we are not the only ones asking to be saved — nor are we the only ones worthy of being saved. Palestinians are worthy of safety, security and peace. They, too, deserve not just God’s compassion, but also our own.

When we don’t see that truth in regard to civilians in Gaza, we don’t just dehumanize them; we betray the reciprocal principle of divine compassion.

The Talmud tells us that we earn God’s mercy by bestowing kindness upon others. For anyone withholding mercy, it warns, “the heavens will not bestow mercy upon them.”

After God rebukes Jonah, the story abruptly ends. Jonah’s response is never recorded. The reason, perhaps, is that God is posing the question to us: Do we expect the creator to treat the lives he created with cruelty? If not, then why do we treat them as such?

Sruli Fruchter, a contributing columnist to the Forward, is a rabbinical student at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.

Community / What's Happening at All Saints

We have a new lift!

At last we have a brand new lift (disability platform) installed and fully operational finally restoring access to our first floor hall for those unable to use the stairs. You will notice that there is still some cosmetic finishing to do but that’s all it is – cosmetic. This will be finished over he next coouple of weeks but in the meantime it has no effect on the lifts operation

This is a major milestone for us as we can not only use our self contained hall (it has its own fully fitted kitchen and disability toilet) for a number of our ow activities but we will also be able to make it available to community groups for whom it would otherwise have been inaccessible.

Will will soon be holding an open day to enable prospective users to see and experience the facilities that we have available at All Saints.


Watch this space for more details

What's Happening at All Saints

We’re Moving Forward

So what’s happening at All Saints NOW?!

As a building, All Saints appears to be in a pretty good state. However, this is something of an illusion. The lift (disability platform) has been broken beyond repair for several years, the main church heating system has been condemned, the roof is leaking – and this is just the big ticket items!!

Looks bad doesn’t it? – And indeed it is.

So what’s to do? First of all, let’s be clear – there is not a big pot of money available for us to dip into. Some grants may be available but every Church of England church has to stand on its own feet. Nor has any church the right to exist because ‘it’s always been there’.

Is there a need for All Saints church in Marlpool?

As things stand, All Saint’s congregation is small – the building is capable of holding ten time the average congregation, There are a few groups using the building during the week but these are also small, in total the building is used on average for between 10 and 15 hrs per week in total (there are of course exceptions to this but these are infrequent). The cost of running the church is around £27,000 pa excluding the the vicar and the vicarage, which are funded centrally. The cost of carrying out all the remedial work required is estimated to be somewhere in the order of £250,000.

Looked at from this perspective suggests that making a big financial commitment to the All Saints building, even if the money was available, would not be a very good investment. But ……

What of its potential?!

Rather than wring our hands in anguish we at All Saints have grasped the nettle and initiated a course of actions:

  1. We have taken a leap of faith and invested in the installation of a new lift. We have funded this partly though a grand, partly from personal donations and partly from our own limited reserves. This will be installed on 6th-7th July. By taking this action we open up the first floor hall to users who are unable to use the stairs.
  2. Once the lift is in place we will actively be seeking out groups for whom this would be an ideal space.
  3. We have invested in a feasibility study to establish the viability of a carbon neutral heating system for the whole building.
  4. We have carried out a cost v benefit analysis of installing a PV (solar) system for electricity generation
  5. We have considered a number of possible options for operating as a church without the existing building
  6. We are currently carrying out a Mission strategy initiative which we have called ‘Reaping the Harvest 2026’ to identify develop and implement a means of effectively presenting the Gospel message in our communities. We’ve included ‘2026’ to remind ourselves that this is not a talking shop looking towards an ever moving future but a call to imminent action.

By the end of 2026 we expect to have moved forward significantly.

Will we manage this?

WATCH THIS SPACE!!

All Saints Church / What's Happening at All Saints

A Big Change at All Saints -Update

As of Tuesday 31st March 2026, Revd Karen Padley is no longer the vicar of All Saints church, nor is she priest-in-charge of the churches of St Lawrence Heanor, St Andrew’s Langley Mill andSt John’s Aldercar.

The following statement gives the reasons for this development

Rev Karen Padley has been removed from office as Priest in Charge of St Lawrence Heanor, St Andrew Langley Mill, and St John Aldercar, and Vicar of All Saints Marlpool, by an Independent Tribunal established under the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003, and is prohibited from ministering as a priest in the Church of England for three years.

The result of this is that these parishes are now in vacancy. During this time the responsibility for the continuation of ministry is assumed by the Churchwardens and the Area Dean, together with the assisting clergy of the parishes, who will be fully supported by the Acting Archdeacon of East Derbyshire and colleagues in the Parish Support Team.

The Diocese of Derby has offered pastoral and practical support for Karen at this time.

Further to the above statement, the full decision of the tribunal has been published on the Church of England website. This can be found via the following link.

Click to access determination-of-penalty-the-revd-karen-padley-31.03.2026-4128-9322-9160-v.1.pdf

What happens now?

All Saints, together with the other three churches are now in what is referred to a ‘Vacancy’
During this time the responsibility for the continuation of ministry is assumed by the Churchwardens and the Area Dean.

Unless stated otherwise, Sunday Worship will continue as usual as will the other services and activities of All Saints.

As you can appreciate, this sudden removal of our vicar came as something as a shock to the All Saints congregation and to the wider community. However, the ministry of the church in Marlpool continues.

Community / Something for everyone / Topical

The Middle Ages weren’t all bad

When people think of the Middle Ages, it often brings to mind grinding poverty, superstition and darkness. But the reality of the 1,000-year period from 500 to 1500 was much more complex. This is especially true when considering the peasants, who made up over 90% of the population!

For all their hard work, peasants had a fair amount of downtime. Add up Sundays and the many holidays, and about one-third of the year was free of intensive work. Celebrations were frequent and centred around religious holidays like Easter, Pentecost and saints’ days.

But the longest and most festive of these holidays was Christmas.

In reality, the popular belief that the lives of peasants were little more than misery is a misconception. They enjoyed rich social lives – maybe richer than ours – ate well, celebrated frequently and had families not unlike our own. For them, holiday festivities didn’t begin with Christmas Eve and end with New Year’s.

The party was just getting started!

Daily life in a peasant village

A peasant was not simply a low-class or poor person. Rather, a peasant was a subsistence farmer who paid their lords a portion of what thy produced as a form of taxation. They also provided labour, which might include bridge-building or farming the lord’s land.

In return, a lord provided his peasants with protection from bandits or invaders. They also provided justice via a court system and punished people for theft, murder and other crimes. Typically, the lord lived in the village or nearby.

Peasants lived in the countryside, in villages that ranged from a few houses to several hundred. The villages had communal ovens, wells, flour mills, brewers or pubs, and blacksmiths. The houses were clustered in the centre of the village along a dirt street and surrounded by farmland.

A 14th-century thatched cottage in what is now West Sussex, England. David C. Tomlinson/The Image Bank via Getty Images

By today’s standards, a peasant’s house was small – in England, the average was around 700 square feet (65 square metres). Houses might be made of turf, wood, stone or “waddle-and-daub,” a construction very similar to lathe and plaster, with beamed roofs covered in straw. Houses had front doors, and some had back doors. Windows were covered with shutters and, rarely, glass. Aside from the fireplace, only the Sun, Moon or an oil lamp or candle provided light.

Strange sleep habits

The day was dictated by seasons and sunlight. Most people rose at dawn or a bit before; men went out to their fields soon after to grow grains like wheat and barley. Women worked in the home and yard, taking care of children, animals and vegetable gardens, along with the spinning, sewing and cooking. Peasants didn’t have clocks, so a recipe might recommend cooking something for the time it took to say the Lord’s Prayer three times.

Around midday, people usually took a break and ate their largest meal – often a soup or stew. The foods they ate could include lamb and beef, with cheese, cabbage, onions, leeks, turnips and fava beans. Fish, in particular freshwater fish, were also popular. Every meal included bread.

Beer and wine were major components of the meal. By our standards, peasants drank a lot of alcohol although the alcoholic content of the beer and wine was lower than today’s versions. They often napped before returning to work. In the evening, they ate a light meal, perhaps only bread, and socialized for a while.

They went to bed within a few hours of darkness, so how long they slept depended on the season. On average, they slept about eight hours, but no consecutively They awoke after a “first sleep” and prayed, had sex or chatted with neighbours for somewhere between half an hour and two hours, then returned to sleep for another four hours or so.

Peasants did not have privacy as we think of it; everyone often slept in one big room. Parents made love with one another as their children slept nearby. Married couples shared a bed, and one of their younger children might sleep with them, though infants had cradles. Older children likely slept two to a bed.

Dreaming of a medieval Christmas

Life certainly wasn’t easy. But the stretches of time for rest and leisure were enviable.

Today, many people start thinking about Christmas around the beginning of December and any sort of holiday spirit fizzles by early January.

In the Middle Ages, this would have been unheard of.

Advent— the period of anticipation and fasting that precedes Christmas — began with the feast of St Martin on 11th November.

Back then, it took place 40 days before Christmas; today, it’s the fourth Sunday before it. During this period, Western Christians observed a fast; while less strict than the one for Lent, it restricted the consumption of meat and dairy products to certain days of the week. These traditions not only symbolized absence and longing, but they also helped stretch out the food supply after the end of the harvest and before meats were fully cured.

Christmas itself was known for feasting and drunkenness – and it lasted nearly six weeks.

Dec. 25 was followed by, the 12 days of Christmas ending with the Epiphany on 6th January which commemorates the visit of the Magi to Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Gifts, often in the form of food or money, were exchanged, though this was more commonly done on New Year’s Day. Game birds, ham, mince pies and spiced wines were popular fare, with spices thought to help warm the body.

Though Christmas officially celebrates the birth of Jesus, but is also incorporated pre-Christian imagery that emphasized the winter solstice and the return of light and life. This meant that bonfires, yule logs and evergreen decorations were part of the festivities. According to tradition, St Francis of Assisi created the first Nativity scene in 1223.

Christmas ended slowly, with the first Monday after Epiphany being called “Plough Monday” because it marked the return to agricultural work. The full end of the season came on Feb. 2 – called Candlemas and celebrated the presentation of Jesus at the Temple by Mary and Joseph in accordance with Jewish law. On this day, candles were blessed for use in the coming year, and any decorations left up were thought to be at risk of becoming infested with goblins.

With the coming of the Industrial Revolution and the gravitation of peasants from villages to towns, working hours got a lot longer and free time a lot less.

A picture of a typical Medieval Christmas party

Community / Recent Posts / Soap Box / Topical / Uncategorized

Child poverty – The Victorian era revisited?

We may be one of the richest nations in the world but child poverty is still prevalent across the UK today. But don’t take my word for it. See below a summary of a damming report from experts in children’s health.

This briefing describes how rising levels of child poverty are impacting professionals working on the front line of children’s health, based on a survey of 371 paediatricians.

  • 99 per cent of paediatricians responding to the survey reported that poverty is contributing to ill-health among the children they treat. Many respondents raised concerns about how poverty is impacting children’s nutrition as families lack the money to provide a healthy diet, while some described situations where poverty is causing children to develop life threatening conditions.
  • 96 per cent of respondents said that poor housing conditions are affecting the health of the children they treat. They told us how damp housing is causing serious respiratory health conditions in children and that these symptoms are difficult to remedy unless their housing situation improves.

While the NHS is free at the point of need, patients may need to pay for transport or parking, and miss work to attend appointments. Ninety-five per cent of respondents said that poverty is preventing children from attending medical appointments. They told us how this meant that children’s conditions are at risk of worsening and leading to the need for emergency care.

  • Paediatricians told us that poverty is impacting their day-to-day practice. Despite their best efforts to manage the health impacts that poverty has on children, it feels like an uphill battle.
  • Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and Child Poverty Action Group are calling for the government to take bold action in the delivery of its forthcoming child poverty strategy. At a minimum the strategy must:
  1. Introduce binding targets to reduce and eliminate child poverty over the short, medium and long term.
  2. Invest in social security, starting with abolishing the two-child limit, to begin reversing the rising levels of child poverty.
  3. Unfreeze local housing allowance and end the benefit cap to help families secure housing that meets basic decency standards.
  4. Help families cover the costs of attending hospital and accessing healthcare by introducing an enhanced Young Patients Family Fund.

For anyone wanting to read the full report, it is available online but the summary is stark enough. Of course children aren’t the only priority but surely they should be right there at the top of the list?

All Saints Church / Christmas / What's Happening at All Saints

Carol Service with a difference

Have you managed to get to a Carol Service this Christmas? Or maybe listed to or watched Kings College traditional Nine Lessons and Carols?

If not or even if you have, check out All Saints Church Marlpool’s online Carols by Candlelight

King’s college it isn’t! As you’ll see, it’s a home spun collection of recordings of members of All Saint’s church involving a cross section of our church family.

Click on the link below and sit back and enjoy

https://youtu.be/7jOTseGuQfk

All Saints Church / Can we help you? / Community

Need help over Christmas?

We know that Christmas can be a tough time for a lot of people. If you are one of them, you’re not on your own.

But it can feel like it! Everywhere seems to be closed down and no one is answering the phone.

Well not everyone. Maybe ringing one of the numbers below might help?

NHS 111 Service: Non-emergency medical help and advice. Open 24/7, including all holidays.

Age UK – 0800 678 1602 (8am to 7pm)

NHS Mental Health Crisis – 111, ( 24 hours a day)

Ability – 0121 630 2015 (9.30am to 11pm) Ability’s Life Opportunity support line will be open throughout Christmas Day for anyone with a disability.

Papyrus – 0800 068 41 41 (24 hours a day) The Papyrus suicide prevention helpline is another number that can be called any time on Christmas day for young people who need it.

Refuge – 0808 2000 247 ( 24 hours a day) The helpline for women who experience domestic violence will be open for the entirety of Christmas day.

Beat – 0808 801 0677 ( 4pm to 8pm) Problems with eating disorders can be exacerbated by Christmas Day, with roast dinner being a central part of festivities for millions of families. Beat’s Eating Disorder helpline will be open in the evening for anyone who needs support.

Shout – 85258 (24 hours a day) Not everyone feels comfortable talking over the phone with someone. If you would prefer to text, the confidential service Shout can be reached by texting the number anytime over Christmas.

National Domestic Abuse Helpline 0808 2000247 for free and in confidence. 

Galopruns the national domestic abuse helpline 0800 999 5428 for members of the LGBT+ community.

Men’s Aid 0333 5670556 provides advice and support to men who have been abused. 

Childline0800 1111 You can contact Childline about anything. There website offers lots of different ways to access support. 

Hourglass 0808 808 8141 a confidential helpline providing information and support to anyone concerned about harm, abuse or exploitation of an older person. 

The Samaritans You can call the Samaritans to talk about anything that’s bothering you on 116 123 They will listen without judging or pressure to help you work through it.

The Silver Line: 08004708090 Offers support and friendship for older people. Open 24/7, including all holidays.