Small steps Dear friends, …..faithfully walked, add up. The Covid battle rages around us in Intensive Care Units, hospital wards, care homes, and now GP surgeries and vaccination centres. We are moving from a responsive and defensive footing to a proactive and aggressive stance; treatments have improved, and each vaccination begins the slow removal of potential hosts for the virus to infect.…

Two Words Dear friends, These are very dark days. You have heard it said, “stay at home”. But I say to you…get outside. Yes, you have to walk by yourself, or just in your household. But fresh (or freezing) air, exercise, and even the tiniest glimpse of sunlight can do wonders for your wellbeing. This week, on the lanes, I have seen…

Happy New Year 2021 Dear friends, Did you make any New Year’s Resolutions in 2020 – last year? If you did, perhaps you were surprised to find how many you achieved. Whether it was to get fit, make-over the garden, redecorate the entire downstairs, befriend a lonely neighbour, learn Spanish, or just talk to your children/parents , many of us found the…

Newsflash Sunday worship for 3rd January will be online only A Service of the Word with Revd John  10am        188 513 761 and 019797         Morning worship with Bible readings and prayers. Morning Praise for Epiphany with Revd Linda 10am.   871 2462 6815 and 324899 Morning Service with Revd James 11am     Please email James to receive your invitation. Morning Prayer with Revd Kevin …

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…