Phone a friend
“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me” Matt 10.40. I gave a sermon review earlier in the week but forgot to mention how impressed I was with my Mother-in-Law. We’d been talking about going to church on the Saturday evening and she suddenly looked at the clock […]
Femina (a book review)
This was a Father’s Day present bought by a Daughter, chosen by Son in Law from shop in Seaford. It was on my wish list. Its very good you’d be welcome to borrow it. Janina Ramirez is an excellent writer. You can’t go wrong with her. My favourite would still be her “Private Lives of […]
God plays jazz
That’s the sermon I would have preached. We had come to Ipswich to mow the lawn which has vigorously enjoyed ‘no mow May’. The United Reform Church here are very welcoming, songs are projected and the organist comes once a month so we sing courtesy of tech. The preach is a bold preach on the […]
The Navy vs Slave Traders (a book review)
Royal Navy versus the Slave Traders: Enforcing abolition at Sea, 1808-1898 by Bernard Edwards, publ 2007 If you like books like Hornblower but with a bit more history put in then you’ll love this. Its full of detail about what sort of boat did what where and when and with who as their captain, crew, […]
St Alban
Today we remember St Alban. It makes me pause and ask how did the Gospel came to this island. I’ve been re-writing my lectures and so here’s some of what I’ve been working on. Its hard to say when it started but there was a rather nasty bit of persecution that happened in 177AD in […]
Numbers
Since getting back from Jerusalem: Number of sermons written: nil No. of books read: Book of Numbers, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. Beard Theology, a book about the Navy and the Slave trade (look out for a book review on that) and a book of poems by Jude Simpson (Shambolic Mammal, very funny). Most surprising bit of bible: […]
Beard Theology – a book review
Father’s Day (tomorrow) started well yesterday when Someone came round and gave me a bottle of Glenfiddich that they’d be given but they don’t drink whisky and remembered that I sometimes do. I assured them that I do drink whisky but slowly and so it will take me a good while to get through this. […]
Mosquito
The photo shows a group of trourists, I think, who have popped into a nearby shop and for some shekels have bought the opportunity to dress up in the garb of the ancient Israelites as they came into the Land (see story of Joshua and Caleb spying out the land etc Numbers 13, 14). Note […]
The God who sees me
Hagar in Genesis 16 is feeling very alone, very hot, very lost. She is the only person, and a woman too, and a non-Jew too, who gives God a name. You’re familiar with God, God Almighty, the LORD God and so on. An angel comes to Hagar and gives her hope and she replies “You […]
Noise
I woke early, my last day on this first part of my sabbatical wondering where best to spend my last few hours. Obviously in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Shortly after 8am, the local shops of the soukh not yet open, I stride uninterrupted to this most holy site. Perhaps I will have time […]