Diamonds on the gate Dear friends There were autumn jewels festooning the church gate at St John’s on Remembrance Sunday, which halted me in my hasty tracks to the morning service there. Dewdrops on the cobwebs garlanded the Commonwealth War Graves notice and sparkled in the morning light, which was angled just right at that moment. Nature still notices, I thought. The…

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,”…

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…

Suffer the little children Dear friends, I remember as a small boy being taken to Trosley Village Hall with all the other youngsters for a “clinic”. In different rooms of the hall cheery nurses would administer different vaccines. Word pretty quickly got around that the worst place was the kitchen, where it seemed everyone would come out crying. Sure enough, there was…

Holiday Reading Dear friends One of the joys of time off in our contemporary culture is being able to “unplug” from the online world where it interfaces with “work”. The instant availability, and the expectation of such by consumers and clients, add a layer of pressure to life that was unknown even twenty years ago. Sometimes, for our sanity’s sake, it is…

Spiritual Strength. Dear friends, Have you wondered why it is that some churches, some places, and occasionally some people, seem to attract others? People visit – sometimes on a deliberate pilgrimage, or sometimes they “just have to go,” but can’t really articulate any reason. There is a great sense of peace, comfort, security, and “homecoming”. We are, I believe, intuiting the often…

Office space required Dear friends The Team Ministry is looking for an office space! After over twenty years at The Grove, Stoke Row, and with thanks to the kindness and hospitality of the Robin family, the property is now being sold, and we need to find a new home. The Team office is the place of work for Mary Daniels, our part…

The future of warfare Dear friends, One of the most memorable Dr Who adventures from my childhood was Terry Nation’s “Genesis of the Daleks”. Tom Baker, as Dr Who, complete with floppy hat and flowing scarf, finds himself on the planet Skaro, where two civilisations are locked in perpetual battle, both under huge concrete domes, hurling missiles at each other across the…

Tail End Dear friends, A wonderful English idiom for “the last bit”, we (happily, unless you are winter lover) reach the dog days of January, knowing that whilst February’s arrival does not necessarily auger any improvement in the weather, nevertheless the days lengthen, and the month ahead is often strangely short, hastened by the school half term and the opportunity presented by…