Dirty Church Dear friends, However you care to describe it (Scruffy Church, Grubby Church, Messy Church?) Checkendon Church needs some tender loving care right now in the sprucing-up department. Please join me this coming Saturday from 10am-12noon for a spot of hoovering, mopping, polishing, dusting, tidying, pruning, sweeping, weeding and edging. All ages and stages are very welcome! Please bring your choice…

Simple Gifts Dear friends “Simplicity is the only thing that can sufficiently reorient our lives so that possessions can genuinely be enjoyed without destroying us.” So wrote Richard Foster in the 1970’s. Outside my window the blue tits come close and flutter noisily, sometimes bashing the pane with their wings. They want me to notice that the fat balls have all gone,…

Welsh Fire Dear friends Gifted speakers change lives. They can both motivate, and inspire. A few well chosen and carefully thought words can make all the difference, for both good, or ill. This last week America mourned the death of the Revd Jesse Jackson, whose life and mission was spent carrying the torch passed to him by Martin Luther King. It is…

Pray for Ezekiel Dear friends, Sometimes it is easier to pray for just one person than a whole country. So, may I ask you to pray this week for Ezekiel Kondo, the Anglican Archbishop of Sudan? He and his team have recently been able to return to Khartoum from their enforced internal exile at Port Sudan. The civil war in Sudan has…

One unnaturally born was how St Paul described his status as the Apostle to the Gentiles. All the other apostles had been with Jesus during his time on earth. They had walked, talked, eaten, travelled and ministered with him. Importantly too, they had been called by Christ to follow, and been witnesses to his resurrection from the dead. St Paul could say…

Dry January Dear friends, Uncle Steve, just outside Tunbridge Wells, is without water again. A combination of very hard frost, ageing pipework, a few power cuts have caused a domino effect, and the network is down. An outraged customer base are blaming ineptitude at Southern Water, but actually their overall performance is moving in the right direction. Few are addressing the elephant…

The Tyndale Bible Dear friends, A very happy new year to you all. In amidst all of the celebrations and prophecies of doom there is one anniversary this year which is worthy of note, because it is foundational for the English speaking world. For 2026 marks the 500th year since the publication of William Tyndale’s translation of the Bible into the English…