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At Sunday School I was taught about Jesus – his birth, his miracles, his disciples, his teaching his death and his resurrection. I was taught about who he was in familiar pictures – the Good Shepherd, the Bread of Life, the Living Water. I learnt that he was a prophet, a priest, a sacrifice, aContinue reading “The Outlaw”

Earlier this week a grandmother brought her granddaughter to our church parent and toddler group. She sent the little girl’s mother a picture of her enjoying ‘snack time’. She mis-typed the message; the child was enjoying ‘smack time’. A small detail makes a big difference! This morning, I finished ‘Exodus’. It starts with Israel asContinue reading “Paying Attention to Small Details”

Last night we went to Norwich to watch ‘2:22 A Ghost Story’. The West End production had excellent reviews… …Jenny believes her new home is haunted. She hears something every night at 2.22. Her husband Sam believes that there must be a rational explanation. Old friend Lauren and her partner Ben come for dinner. There’sContinue reading “What Do You Believe?”

King Charles’ film ‘Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision’ was launched last night in Windsor Castle. King Charles and Queen Camilla were joined by royalty and celebrities… In ‘Finding Harmony’ the King reflects on the decline of nature worldwide, organic farming, biodiversity loss, deforestation and climate change, saying: “…we are actually nature ourselves, we are aContinue reading “Finding Harmony”

Yesterday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On January 27, 1945, the Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp was liberated. In this camp alone, more than one million people were murdered, most of them Jews. We listen to those who came before us… We preserve the memory of the Holocaust… We share those storiesContinue reading “Nostra Aetate”

‘My happiest hours are spent with three or four old friends in old clothes tramping together and putting up in small pubs — or else sitting up till the small hours in someone’s college rooms, talking nonsense, poetry, theology, metaphysics over beer, tea and pipes.’ …words attributed to C.S. Lewis …meeting with J.R.R. Tolkien andContinue reading “Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary”

When I worked in school, Michael Morpurgo was one author that children liked to read and teachers liked to promote. In a 2017 interview he said: ‘Wherever my story takes me, however dark and difficult the theme, there is always some hope and redemption, not because readers like happy endings, but because I am anContinue reading “The Story’s Happy Ending”

My earliest memories are linked with church. Our ‘tin tabernacle’ with wooden walls and a corrugated iron roof, was my second home. Every Sunday morning, we sung old hymns from a little black book. Most I haven’t seen or sung for many, many years. About thirty years, ago one of these little-black-book songs ‘reappeared’. CharitieContinue reading “Before the Throne of God Above”

Margaret’s life and Thursday’s funeral are still on my mind. The family have written: ‘A dear mum, nanny and great-nanny, she was deeply loved and will always be missed. All who knew her will remember her kindness, her naughty sense of humour and her love for her family.’ Margaret was much loved and valued inContinue reading “Valued in Life and Death”

Yesterday was Margaret’s funeral. Many came to remember her, and celebrate her life. We heard her life-story; family members brought their memories and paid tribute to the person she was and the positive influence she’d had on her life. I shall remember her nickname ‘Naughty Nanny’. There were readings, hymns and prayers as reference wasContinue reading “Yes, Jesus Loves Me”