Just a very short reflection from me today. I have always been struck by v19, and Mary’s capacity to treasure what she sees and knows. It is a great gift, and one we have largely lost as a society. Everything is instant, and we move from one experience or morsel of useful info to the next. It … Read more
Just before Christmas a couple of years ago, I almost lost our car. I arrived for a school event at All Saints and parked up as the children were rounding the corner on the redway about a minute’s walk from the church. Although I was mostly set up already, I had about two minutes of … Read more
We live in a spiritual world. Yes, it’s material and physical as well – but we are also spiritual beings, able to connect with spiritual realities. We don’t necessarily see those realities very often, but we remain attuned to it. Even in our secular culture, the continuing fascination with ghosts, horoscopes, superstitions and the like, … Read more
A young man sits round an open fire at night, warming his hands and dreaming of revolution. He needs to think to stay awake – his job means that he can’t afford to fall asleep. By the standards of the time he’s not particularly religious: can’t afford to be, his work consumes all hours, and … Read more
And so we get to the crucial moment in the story – Jesus is born! Most of us know the story inside out… or at least we’re fairly sure we do. Images of how the nativity happens are so full of our minds, it’s almost impossible to imagine it any other way. We’ve seen it … Read more
If you’ll allow a brief return to a day we’d probably rather forget: on 23rd March 2020, the UK entered a full national lockdown for the first time in 100 years. One immediate effect of this was that all church buildings were shut. No services of any sort could be held. What would happen to … Read more
On this day in 2018, the writer C.J. English published the bestselling book ‘Rescue Matters’. It charts the astonishing story of Keith Benning, who, using his own garage to house those rescued and with just a small team of volunteers, over four years rescued 4,000 dogs from terrible situations: unwanted, starving, mistreated. As the subtitle … Read more
I don’t know about you, but it’s not easy to name a child. It was a bit more straightforward with our first child Amelie, but for our second, we spent weeks batting around various names. We didn’t know if it was going to be a boy or a girl, so we had to have at … Read more
Blessed are the self-sufficient, for they will never need help from God, or anyone else. Blessed are those who have no problems, for they will avoid pain and discomfort. Blessed are the assertive, for they will usually get what they want. Blessed are those who don’t want to be too good, for they will avoid … Read more
Shared experience is a powerful thing. So much of what binds us together as humans lies in what we can share – in a sense, we were made for it. It is particularly powerful when people who have experienced similar challenges or opportunities find comfort and inspiration in each other. In today’s passage we see … Read more