23rd November 2025 I will admit I am pleased that the ELCE’s 71st Annual Synod went well. There were many positive comments in view of what appeared a daunting Synod – the largest amount of business in my time in the ELCE, a contentious topic raised,…
16th November 2025 I didn’t think about it as I left the UK and flew to Germany. I was wearing a poppy. I wore it when I wore my jumper. (It was cold for me most days.) No one at the Wittenberg conference commented on…
9th November 2025 I’ve had an interesting time since arriving back at Heathrow. I waited at the airport for my luggage to arrive. It didn’t for a long time. When it did arrive, it was not on the carousel the sign was broadcasting. While I…
2nd November 2025 Last week, I was in Wittenberg for the LCMS’ International Church Relations Conference. I have been to Wittenberg before. Most of our worship services were in St Mary’s (the town church) but one service was held at All Saint’s Church (the castle…
26th October 2025 “Worldwide people in more countries are living better lives and expressing more hope for the future than they had in years.” This was the first line of some analysis from the polling company Gallup as explained on BBC’s ‘More or Less: Behind…
19th October 2025 The ELCE’s pastoral conference met this week in London. It is good to get together. I’ve been known to say that the ELCE is a PhD waiting to happen because ELCE pastors come from different Lutheran churches around the world with their…
12th October 2025 I laughed and laughed! My life is ‘controlled’ by algorithms – and in this case they don’t make sense but I didn’t care. (I just saved £180 on my insurance!) My insurance premium rose over 12% and before the automatic renewal happened,…
5th October 2025 The family story of how our third child has his name – Michael – is part of our family lore. Charlotte and I were choosing names as you do and it came down to a short list for a boy or a…
The ILC World Assembly met last week under the theme ‘Unity in Christ: Confession and Cooperation in a Fragmented World’. It was a gathering of more than 130 people from 55 countries from 61 Lutheran churches – and those were the official folk! There…
21st September 2025 When people ask me about Ascension I describe our comings and goings in the phrase we used at the beginning – “we’re a home for some and a ‘whistle stop’ for others”. We have folk who live in Suffolk or Norfolk permanently…
