Honour your parents Dear friends, The days lengthen. Sunrise creeps before 6am. Lent progresses with the invigorated steps of the pilgrim who knows the destination is drawing nearer. (The word derives from the Anglo Saxon root “lencten”, meaning “get longer”.) The fourth Sunday of Lent this weekend brings not only the start of British Summer Time but also Mothering Sunday. The fifth…
The Bitterest Pill Dear friends, ….is, in matter of fact, about 100-150ml of a clear liquid. Were you to ask the contents, or for an ingredients list, you’d get a vague reply. “Oh, a bit of this, and a bit of that.” Were you to ask whether it would work, and how long it would take, you’d get an emphatic “oh yes,”…
Walk in the Light Dear friends It has been a blessing to see the sun, at long last, over the last few days. We emerge, blinking, into the light, after a winter gloom that has gone on for far too long. We can only hope and pray that the world at large gets the message – that there are other ways of…
The New America Dear friends, If you, like me, were astonished and horrified by the so called diplomacy of the week that is passing, may I offer you an insight that a good friend shared with me. This is a Brit who works for a very large US company, and who has spent at least half of his working life in the…
Dust and Ashes Dear friends, “Dust you are, and to dust you shall return. Turn away from your sin, and be faithful to Christ.” These are the words spoken at the imposition of a cross of ash on the forehead of the penitent at the start of Lent. The ash is normally sourced from the Palm Crosses of the previous year’s Holy…
From the heart Dear friends, It is still dark and gloomy. Winter drags its feet with a week of grey and icy wind from the east. The national mood is perfectly summarised by the Southport families, speaking over the weekend for the first time about the horrific murder of their young girls last July. They are “looking for the light.” Their story…
Nameless Fears Dear friends, There is a small and battered paperback hiding among the others on my bookcase. The spine is broken, and there are pages waiting to fall out at the first opportunity. I picked it up second hand in Blackwell’s as a student, and it has somehow survived the various cullings and clear outs that have happened down the years.…
The Black Map Dear friends, I was on the phone at the weekend to a former colleague, who lives in Yorkshire. She is in her eighties, and was telling me about her favourite uncle, who was a solicitor, and who during the war drove ambulances for the British Army. “I only found out after he had died that he’d been one of…
An Ezekiel Moment. Dear friends, As Israelis and Palestinians dust themselves off, and see what shape and direction life and circumstances hold for them, separately or together, there is a corporate holding of breath amongst those who care in the international community. Is there a will for peace? Or will the men of violence find a way to shoot the white dove…
The Beta Candidate Dear friends, You may have been wondering why, until now, I’ve made no comment about the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The whole sorry affair is an object lesson in many different ways, and far more complicated than can be simply surmised here. I can tell you that I have never met Justin Welby, or spoken to him,…