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Autumn
As I write, the rain is incessant and is forecast to continue all day, so perhaps this is not the best time to write about the wonders of nature. However, we have had some very pleasant autumn days and I have really noticed the colours in the leaves. After the drought in the spring and…
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Remembering
When I was at vicar school memories were fresh of the TV comedy series “Rev”, about a hapless vicar trying to run a parish in London. Most people thought this was a comedy; I thought it was a training manual. A decade later, I am still following the instructions I learnt from it. One episode…
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1st November; At the End
November is a month for remembering, particularly the dead. It starts with the two Christian festivals of All Saints and All Souls and then moves to Remembrance Sunday. Somewhere in the mix is All Hallow’s Eve, “Halloween”, with alleged links to memories of a pagan past. In our society today we largely try and avoid…
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Bishop Marianne Budde on Hope
Some may recognise the name of Marianne Budde; she is the Bishop of Washington who preached at the inauguration of President Trump back in January; her sermon, on Christian values, did not go down well with the president. These are extracts from a blog she wrote in June; I would encourage you to read it…
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The Faith of Benjamin Britten
A new exhibition has recently opened featuring art associated with the iconic 20th century composer, Benjamin Britten. I do not particularly like his music but he was a towering figure in the cultural life of this country in the mid-20th century. He was commissioned to write religious music, especially “War Requiem” for the consecration of…
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Lord it’s Hard to be Humble
I recently received an email from a clerical colleague. It was an invitation to a meeting. Immediately there came another email from the same colleague, trying to correct the date for the meeting. Unfortunately that date was still wrong. I took some delight in replying to point this out, until I recalled that earlier in…
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The Common bond
The day after the killing of two worshippers at the synogogue in Manchester, a day that will almost certainly see more civilian casualties in Gaza, it is difficult for me to find any words. But this morning, I heard the Bishop of Manchester, Dave Walker, speak out about what perhaps is the worse danger of…
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Hypatia, Charlie Kirk and Martyrdom
Hypatia is not a person who is well known, but in 415 in Alexandria in Egypt, she was a celebrity. She was a leading philosopher, noted for her learning. She was also a pagan. In that year, she was attacked by a mob and killed; some attributed her death to rabble-rousing by the Bishop of…
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A Little Church
I’m in the middle of harvest festivals at the various churches at which I serve and a friend recently sent me this poem by EE Cummings. It speaks to me. I am a little church (no great cathedral) far from the splendour and squalor of hurrying cities – I do not worry if briefer days…
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The Chapel
This weekend is Ride and Stride, the annual fund-raising event for the Shropshire Historic Churches Trust. I offer one of my favourite poems by R.S. Thomas by way of response. The Chapel A little aside from the main road, becalmed in a last-century greyness, there is the chapel, ugly, without the appeal to the tourist…
Benefice of Highley with Billingsley, Glazeley and Deuxhill and Chelmarsh
Knowing Jesus and Making Him Known
