Clik here to view.
FRETFULNESS TRANSCENDED
Life’s fretfulness is transcended. The different and the novel are sweet, but regularity and repetition are also teachers Mary Oliver – on Prayer SHARING IN A HOUSE COMMUNION with someone temporarily...
View ArticleClik here to view.
SATISFIED
FORTY MILES on my trusty Kalkhoff today – Greystoke, Berrier, Caldbeck, up, round and over to Bassenthwaite, the old Penrith railway cycle path, down to Keswick and back up to Greystoke in just over...
View ArticleClik here to view.
NEWALA PILGRIMS
please click photo or here for Newala blog post MORE NEWS from Newala today. Time’s flying – though busy weeks have been jam-packed full of activity. A quieter – ? – reflective week ahead. It’s going...
View ArticleClik here to view.
MATTERDALE DEER
A MORE MODEST 16 miles run down to Matterdale and back this evening. Indoors for much of the afternoon with my books (so not suffering!), whilst heavy rain replenished Cumbria’s Lakes, it became a bit...
View ArticleClik here to view.
HEALING THE DIVIDE
A FEW DAYS OFF and again I’ve been grateful for the breathing space that affords time for the perennial “what, exactly, am I doing, and why?” And I think that maybe that’s what priests and pastors are...
View ArticleClik here to view.
WARMTH OF LOVE
LOVELY COLLECT in the Weekday Missal today: O God, you have prepared for those who love you good things which no eye can see, fill our hearts, we pray, with the warmth of your love, so that, loving you...
View ArticleClik here to view.
QUICK SHADOWS
AUTHENTIC FAITH? – where is it to be found? What makes for authenticity? – the kind that children instinctively understand when it’s present, and shrink from when it’s not. Is the worship we’re...
View ArticleClik here to view.
BELOVED
HERE’S PAST-MIDNIGHT DISTILLATION of many a prayer or conversation I’ve been privileged to share across the years – and thresholds ecclesiastical, pastoral, practical and theological. Wisdom counsels...
View ArticleClik here to view.
SUNSET RAY
LABOUR ENDS with sunset ray, and rest comes for the weary. May we, the angel reaping o’er, stand at the last accepted, Christ’s golden sheaves, forevermore to garners bright elected …
View ArticleClik here to view.
A CACTUS OF PANIC
I WANT UPFRONT to grant that I may be a useless parish priest – plain idle, maybe. Uninspired, too tired, too old (at 54) or impractical – head in the clouds. In need, after 30+ years of “the ordained...
View ArticleClik here to view.
WIND IN MY WHEELS
WIND IN MY WHEELS (hat tip to Josie Dew). And barely another sound. 16 miles round-trip via Mosedale – headed for the quiet and lovely (and, of course, oh so simple) Quaker Meeting House for coffee,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
CHARACTERISED BY JOY
THANKS BE TO GOD for the safe return home of Bramhall’s Newala pilgrims, bearing typically generous Tanzanian gifts – from a visit characterised by joy. Thank you to Bishop Oscar and the hundreds of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
YOU ARE SET FREE
SHE STOOD UP STRAIGHT … there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over...
View ArticleClik here to view.
OH I DO LIKE TO BE BESIDE THE DEE
MY PARENTS LIVE right next to the Wirral Country Park and so, Bank Holiday weather being altogether better than is usually the case for such a holiday, Willaston was the destination by car, from where...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PARLIAMENT RECALLED
BBC NEWS reports “UK Parliament is to be recalled on Thursday to discuss response to alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria” May it be, then, that every peace-loving child and woman and man upon...
View ArticleClik here to view.
METAMORPHOSIS
SONNET Bringer of joy you’re like a butterfly landing, Painful metamorphosis having gained you your wings, And admiring I stutter as I watch you flutter, Rest on the current, little miracle, rest...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A BUCKET OF LOLLIPOPS
MIMI, THANKS. You always have an eye for the best. This is priceless. And utterly, profoundly true. You know who – this is for you, because you know it’s true, and you make it true, too
View ArticleClik here to view.
SARUM
THIRTY FOUR YEARS ago today I travelled South by train to Salisbury, one of England’s most beautiful Cathedral cities, to be blessed by the immense privilege of three year’s residence at 19 The Close,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PAPA – ii
I WAS RATHER TOUCHED, a day or two ago, to read of a mid-August report, from the Zenit News Agency in Rome, about an unnamed visitor to Pope Emeritus Benedict in his new seclusion and home: “Pope...
View ArticleClik here to view.