Welcome to Holy Faith, a website which aims to help people on their Christian journey. Content is frequently added so it will continue to grow.  Enjoy your visit and please come again!

About Holy Faith

This website provides resources and support for people who would like to know more about Christian faith and practice or who teach others. You’ll find free resources for reading online or printing. The materials are rooted in traditional Anglican Catholic teaching but it is hoped that all who visit this website will find something to help them on their spiritual pilgrimage.

The fish, which is an integral part of the logo, is a symbol going back to the days of the Early Church.  The letters of the Greek word for ‘fish’ form the initial letters of ‘Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour’ in Greek.  So the fish is a reminder of our early Christian heritage and it sums up what the Christian Faith is all about.

Website administrator

In the interests of transparency, here is some information about the website administrator.

My name is Stella Pendleton and I trained and practised as a children’s nurse, a general nurse and a midwife.  A good deal of my professional life was devoted to education.  Along the way I gained two degrees - a Bachelor of Humanities and an MA in Education.  Over the years I have written a large amount of educational material and have developed website management skills.

My father, grandfather and great grandfather were all priests in the Church of England.  At the age of 15, my great grandfather on my mother’s side became an evangelist with the Christian Mission, which was renamed the Salvation Army in around 1878.

When my father, Mervyn Pendleton, died he left a great many resources and these have formed the foundation of much of the content of this website.  However, in updating materials and editing them for the different medium of a website I have also drawn on many other resources.

The idea for this website came to me several years ago but it was not until I retired in 2009 that it could start to become a reality.  More background information is available on pages 20 and 21 of the Chichester Magazine.

Dedication

At the end of my father’s three-year Catechism course for children (presented in this website as an Introduction to the Christian Faith) he typed the words: "AD MAIOREM DEI GLORIAM” – meaning, “For the Greater Glory of God”.

This is the dedication of the Holy Faith website.  May it help people of all ages to know Him more clearly, love Him more dearly and follow Him more nearly in this life, and see Him face to face in Heaven.

Prayer of St Richard of Chichester

THANKS be to you, O Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the cruel pains and insults you have borne for me;
for all the many blessings you have won for me. 
O holy Jesus, most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother,
may I know you more clearly,
love you more dearly
and follow you more nearly, day by day.  Amen.

Copyright

• no alterations are made;
• the copyright is included and Holy Faith is clearly identified as the author;
• the references are included;
• the materials are made available to others completely free of charge; they must not be used for commercial gain. 

Acknowledgement

I am extremely grateful to Mike Dixon for permission to use his beautiful photograph of the east window of St Andrew's Church, East Lexham, Norfolk.  The images used in the design of this website are taken from the lowest tier of the window and depict the Annunciation, the Epiphany and the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. The whole window may be viewed here Many other lovely photographs taken by Mike can be viewed at the Norfolk Stained Glass website and the website also includes information about stained glass in general as well as the stained glass of Norfolk in particular. Permission to use any photographs should be obtained from Mike Dixon via the Norfolk Stained Glass website.

Using the website

At the top of each page, under the main heading, you'll see three buttons.  These enable you to save pages as PDFs, print them, or email the link to someone else who would be interested.  Above the right hand vertical menu, there is a letter A flanked by two arrows which allow you to make the print size of the pages larger or smaller. Just below these arrows is a search facility.  Simply type a word or phrase in the ‘search’ box and press ‘Enter’ on your keyboard. For a bird’s eye view of all the website content, visit the site map.  If you have any problems finding your way around the website or you find any links that don’t work, please contact Holy Faith.  It would also be very helpful to know how you’re using the materials – you can use the contact button for this feedback as well.

Privacy policy and cookies

In order to maintain a high quality website it is essential to gather information about how visitors use the website; for example, how often they visit, how long they spend on the website and the sections that are the most popular.

So from September 15th 2011, the Holy Faith website has started to use Google Analytics, which is a web analytics tool that helps website owners understand how visitors engage with their website.  Google Analytics provides website administrators with a variety of reports about how visitors interact with their website so they can improve it.

Google is a company that takes privacy very seriously and safeguarding your privacy is extremely important to Holy Faith.  So please be assured that Google Analytics collects information anonymously.  It reports website trends without identifying individual visitors.

All website owners using Google Analytics are required to have a privacy policy that fully discloses the use of Google Analytics:

“This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”).  Google Analytics uses ‘cookies’, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyse how users use the site.  The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States.  Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage.  Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.  By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.”