Priestley’s Progress Dear friends, Easter approaches, reminding us that God is not dead, and that hope, life, and joy may yet be found amidst the unravelling of the global orchestra. The new music is however from an old score, just one we’ve not heard in our generation. The writer JB Priestley toured England in 1933 surveying the carnage of the Great Depression…

Wisdom and foolishness. Dear friends, It is difficult to know where to look; the broken remains of the city of Mandalay; the devastation in Gaza; the death and destruction ongoing in Ukraine; the economic tsunami sweeping across the Atlantic. Yet we have been here before. In many ways all we are seeing is a return to normal service; it was the peace…

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…

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 Best Time Dear friends, It is the Eve of the Christ Mass. In this time of noise, and not a little chaos, there is yet, amidst all the shouting and clamour, a still, small voice. The baby’s cry, that can reach a mother’s heart, the whisper of God on the night air. Footsteps across the hillside, a light in the distance,…

Day by Day Dear friends As the winding early road of Advent morphs into a four lane motorway, candles are lit with seeming abandon, and, in this week, the school term comes crashing to an end, (to the relief of teachers, and the possible dismay of parents), I invite you to consider Advent in a fresh way. Most of our contemporary approach…

Scars and bruises Dear friends We each of us bear the marks of our existence, both in our spirit and in our flesh. The longer the time we are granted on this earth the more of these testimonies we accrue. Some are given to us – like war wounds – and some we choose to carry ourselves. Everyone’s story is unique and…

All change Dear friends, Wherever the Conservative Party has been sent, it seems they are being joined by the Democrats from across the water. Mr Trump and Mr Starmer can soon look at each other across the table, each from strong positions of popular support, although the polarities that they represent may well make real communication or any kind of collegiality rather…