Happy Christmas Dear friends, Sometimes things in the Universe line up. Saturn and Jupiter lined up this week for the first time in 800 years, making a very bright star low on the south western horizon. If you were a Persian astronomer two millenia ago you’d have seen something similar in the direction of the Holy Land. We now know the mechanism…

How to have a great Christmas Dear friends, Many thanks to those of you who contributed to my recent appeal for the schools in Checkendon and Stoke Row. The weighty “results” will be presented tomorrow, after their respective Christmas services (zoom, of course). It is great to be able to give a little encouragement to those who do so much to sustain…

A jab of joy Dear friends, Today we can look to the skies (if the fog lifts) and remind ourselves that the sun is shining up there somewhere. As the very first people receive the new Covid vaccine the hope is that the blanket of fears and restrictions can eventually be eased. We have many miles to go yet  – probably until…

Something cheery this way comes Dear friends, As we emerge from lockdown to….lockdown… it can be galling to think that we might have to do this all the way to Easter. However, looking back, we’ve come a long way, and looking forward there are some things we can each do to live and grow throughout this winter. A marathon is run just…

Keep this email safe, or print it out (just this once), Dear friends An Advent Journey Advent begins this coming Sunday – 29th November, and I invite you to join me online every day at 8.30pm from Monday 30th November until Christmas Eve, for a devotional ten minutes. We’ll be making the journey to Bethlehem and meeting some of the Bible characters…

Advent Hope Dear friends The liturgical season of preparation and waiting for Christmas begins on Sunday 29th November. This year it does feel like Advent has been extended backwards into November, as we enter week 3 of the second lockdown. We know that Christmas 2020 will be different. But it will be none the less real. Christ did come, did teach, was…

It is almost week two! Dear friends, Thank you to all of you who came along to the zoom remembrance services offered across the Team on Sunday. I have had a lot of positive feedback for my service, for which many thanks indeed. In case you have not had a chance to make a donation to the Royal British Legion, you can…

We can do this Dear friends, On Thursday we will be entering another national lockdown, ostensibly for four weeks, but this very much depends upon how quickly Covid hospitalizations can be brought under control, and the measure of transmission of the virus reduced again. Our Churches have had once more to suspend live worship services, but I have been expecting this for…

Home working is hard ….with a demanding “special advisor”. Dear friends, Thank you for your ongoing support for your local church as together we attempt to navigate these strange uncharted waters. Everything remains rather constrained; the shape of “work” has changed for almost everybody, even for those of us who worked from home “in the olden days”. However our pets, at least,…

Autumn Gold Dear friends, As I write this the morning sun is slanting low and catching a larch tree by the gate almost at ninety degrees. This particular tree is normally unnoticed; it is a bit scrappy and I have to pull the ivy away from the base every year. But this morning the tree is vibrant, the leaves almost entirely yellow,…