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I wonder what you think about your home town (or village or city)?  On one level, we never really get away from it: if you have a passport, it’ll be recorded as your place of birth for your whole life.  And often our place of birth shapes us in ways we don’t always expect, and … Read more

To really understand a thing, you have to go back to its roots.  This is good rule of thumb for life, and it’s also true for plumbing the depths of scripture.  ‘The New is in the Old concealed; the Old is by the New revealed’ – that’s one way of understanding the relationship between the … Read more

Today’s passage is one of the most famous in the bible.  If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you will probably have heard lots of talks on it, and may feel that there isn’t much left to say!  However, I’m not going to give you a general guide to this passage, or … Read more

Ancestry is big business nowadays.  Millions of us now regularly use ancestry websites to track down our family trees, and overall the genealogy market is now worth over £3 billion worldwide.  Indeed, its popularity has even recently led to a change in the law.  In 2021, the way marriages are registered in the UK was … Read more

In a coronation service, always the most special part of the ceremony is the anointing.  Even in our supposedly secular age, at King Charles’ coronation last year, the Act of Consecration was deemed so sacred, that it was the only part of the ceremony which was kept hidden from public view and the ubiquitous TV … Read more

One thing that was striking about the recent accession of King Charles to the throne is the role of heralds in royal pageantry.  It’s not something we see much of in day-to-day life: but the fanfares which accompanied the proclamation of Charles as king – both in September 2022, or at his coronation in May … Read more

At its heart, Psalm 51 is about choosing humility in order to see life and renewal again – and as such, it also encapsulates the journey of Lent.  We choose to humble ourselves not to just be miserable for 40 days but in order that we may experience God’s presence again, his goodness, his mercy, … Read more

When he was a young preacher the great Christian leader and writer Dallas Willard would get very worried about delivering a sermon – would people like it?  Would it bear fruit?  While preparing one day, he received a word of encouragement from the Lord which dramatically changed his perspective and his future ministry: ‘Don’t worry … Read more

It’s been quite a journey – this amazing prophetic vision of Isaiah, which started in chapter 40 with the ‘voice of one calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord!”’ comes to a fitting conclusion today and tomorrow.  Day after day we’ve marvelled at promise after promise; and we’ve heard another voice, the … Read more