Sunday 12 B, 20th June 2021 The promise of faith is not the calming of exterior storms but of the storms which, otherwise, go on within us. Jesus was quite happy to sleep through the storm that assailed the boat on the sea of Galilee, but responds to the cries …
Sunday 11B, 13th June 2021 Isn’t the whole world a parable telling us how everything moves from the lesser to the greater, from the smallest beginnings to a universe of overwhelming proportions too staggering for the mind to comprehend? And I’m taken once more to the small girl staring through …
Sunday 10B, 6th June 2021 family doesn’t matter and that it’s the next life, not this one, that does. And many purportedly good Christians have done just this, sometimes to justify the most appalling behaviour towards others, including fellow Christians. E.P.Thompson went to some lengths to point this out in …
Trinity Sunday, 30th May 2021 We live in a rural community but the ‘newcomers’ among us are not really part of it. It’s a world and mentality which has carried on for generations, working the land and looking at the land quite differently from us. We could be and, indeed, …
Seventh Sunday in Eastertide, 16th May 2021 How closely allied to the weather are our moods. Two weeks ago we were enjoying clear days – cold at night but dry and pleasant in the daytime, and now, at last, the rain has come, to the relief of the farmers and …
Sixth Sunday in Eastertide, 9th May 2021 I’m using the occasional day off to conduct a bird census in an area of overgrown fallen-down farmland and it’s thrilling, for me, to hear and see so many migrant birds returning to their territories from abroad, for many will be the very …
Eastertide Sunday 5B, 2nd May 2021 Jo. Did you ever know a prayer?Never know nothink, Sir.Not so much as one short prayer?No, Sir. Nothink at all. Mr Chalbands he wos a-prayin wunst at Mr.Sangsby’s and I heerd him, but he sounded as if he wos a-speakin’ to hisself, and not …
Eastertide Sunday 4B, 25th April 2021 A powerful surge passed through Olney on Thursday morning: two powerfully built dark grey limousines with darkened windows accompanied by eight or so police outriders, several in front clearing the way, as the cortege swept through. It was impressive to suddenly see this power …
Eastertide Sunday 3B, 18th April 2021 It takes time to emerge from ‘lockdown’, and courage too. The disciples are hearing stories now that something momentous has, indeed, taken place in Jerusalem. That the empty tomb signals not further loss but a fulfilment which changes everything. It’s as if the pandemic …
Eastertide Sunday 2B, 11th April 2021 Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe. That’s quite a graphic statement and very black …
