Arun Arora

Columnist

Arun Arora is the vicar of St Nicholas Church, Durham.

Arun Arora is the vicar of St Nicholas Church, Durham.

Latest articles from Arun Arora

Honouring those set apart for their dedication and service to the least, the last and the lost

ON Monday the Church of England calendar commemorated and remembered three very different people who all died on October 12. Wilfrid of Ripon died in 709 and had a colourful ecclesiastical career which began with his education at Lindisfarne monastery, included being one of the main players at the Synod of Whitby, as well as appointments as Bishop of York and Bishop of Hexham.

Arun Arora: Has smart TV killed cinema in 2020?

ONE of the joys of my time at university was being the film reviewer for the student magazine. This meant going to the premieres of new releases every week sitting with four or five others in a practically empty cinema in Birmingham’s Odeon Cinema on New Street, a particularly apt venue given that the Odeon chain was founded in Birmingham in the 1920s by Oscar Deutsch, who named his chain Odeon as an acronym for “Oscar Deutsch Entertains Our Nation”.

Arun Arora: Remembering to love our neighbours

SIX months ago the first lockdown of the coronavirus was met with a kind of modern day “blitz spirit” with more than 750,000 people signing up to a call for volunteers for the NHS in just four days. As a result of the huge response, the group of vulnerable people identified as requiring support in England was expanded, with 2.5 million at risk people benefitting from the care of neighbours and strangers who recognised we were all in this together.

Arun Arora: The benefits to all of a level playing field

RECENTLY I was talking to a friend about two particularly memorable games that he was involved in as a young rugby player. The first was memorable for all the wrong reasons due to the inexperience of the referee who was presiding over his first game. The ref’s uncertainty meant that the match soon descended into a physically violent game which included one player being knocked unconscious and stretchered off. The rest of the game was played in an atmosphere of insecurity, fear and ugliness due

Arun Arora: Is gossip more damaging than Covid?

“POPE declares gossiping is a plague worse than Covid” – so ran the headlines earlier this week after the Pontiff went off script during his weekly address delivered from St Peter’s Square at the Vatican. In his remarks the Pope warned of the impact of gossip and lies in destroying communities.

Arun Arora: The steps we can all take to nurture our planet

THERE are precious few upsides to be found in the Covid pandemic but one of them may yet be the benefit to the environment. In May of this year the International Energy Agency estimated that as a result of Covid the world will use six per cent less this year – equivalent to losing the entire energy demand of India.

Arun Arora: Despite Aston Villa staying up, God is not partisan

BACK in 2014, the Church of England issued a prayer for the England football team playing in the World Cup in Brazil. It was a familiar prayer written by Nick Baines, the Bishop of Leeds, which has been on the lips of every England football fan for generations and ran to two words and three dots: “Oh God …”.

Arun Arora: Bombings a reminder of the dangers of radicalisation

THIS week marks the 15th anniversary of the terror attacks in London on July 7, 2005. That day began with heavy showers. The early morning rush in London started as normal, but at about 8.50am there were three almost simultaneous explosions on the London underground. An hour later, at 9.47am, there was a fourth explosion on the top deck of a London bus. Fifty six people, including the four bombers, died in the terrorist attacks and 784 people were injured, with many sustaining life changing inju