The 4th Sunday after The Epiphany
It was a split second … ok, maybe a bit longer … 2 seconds max. I nearly drove … straight into a wall! I had parked the car facing a wall and noted when I parked that my front wheels were on the smallest…
Author: Ascension
The 3rd Sunday after The Epiphany
Sometimes you just have to smile when people are surprised – maybe a little perplexed or uncertain – to see me outside where I ‘should be’; when I seem out of place. So when I turned up at a local pub one evening for…
Observing The Baptism of Jesus
I was simply shocked, surprised in the way of hearing something but thinking ‘No, that can’t be right’! I heard that the trade in illegal wildlife, smuggling native flora and fauna was a most lucrative business (estimated at $US20 billion per year) but fourth…
Observing The Festival of The Epiphany
Last month in the space of three days I had two awkward moments when the person behind the counter handed me back my money. Well, in each case, a coin. One occasion I tried to deposit at the bank 1EURO instead of £1. On…
The First Sunday After Christmas
I have spent the last couple of days looking intently into the face of a very small person as he gurgles, ‘talks’, looks and smiles. Yes, the doting grandfather has received a video clip – just over a minute in length. Obviously enthralled I…
The Festival of Christmas
Over the last few months I have increasingly felt a link between Christmas and Holy Communion. It has been encapsulated in the first line of Christina Rosetti’s poem, ‘Love came down at Christmas’. The incredible message and truth of the Incarnation – God embodied…
The Third Sunday of Advent
I was sitting in the bus from Heathrow on my way home – quietly looking at the landscape as we drove past. It was all familiar – nothing I hadn’t seen before – and yet having just left Australia I was seeing it in…
The Second Sunday of Advent
I had a good time away for numerous reasons but the main one was being with family. It was simply good to get a sense of how everyone is doing – seeing them in their surroundings or hearing about them – and sharing our…
First Sunday in Advent
Lo, how a Rose e’er blooming from tender stem hath sprung! Of Jesse’s lineage coming, as men of old have sung. It came, a floweret bright, amid the cold of winter, When half spent was the night. This advent hymn was first printed in…
The Last Sunday of the Church Year
I know that my Redeemer lives; What comfort this sweet sentence gives! He lives, He lives, who once was dead; He lives, my ever living Head. One of the hymns I remember singing during this time of the year is “I Know That My…