I was invited to our Boys Brigade awards evening last night. I suppose I go along maybe once a term to help out with craft activities or to gatecrash their carol service. I always enjoy it – we have a small but lovely group of enthusiastic boys and some excellently dedicated leaders who put together…

 As I write this, I am in the middle of preparing a service to celebrate the start of Ipswich Town’s new premiership season. I was reminded of the Chelsea song ‘Blue is the colour’. That led me to think about blue in nature – and there isn’t much – a few flowers – no fruit…

Something I’ve been doing this holiday is participating in a book challenge. I’ve always loved reading and I always used to envy my children taking part in the library reading challenge – being encouraged to read six books in as many weeks and then answering questions on them to receive a small reward at the…

I love scones. However, they must be the most controversial treats available. People can’t even decide how to pronounce them – is it scone to rhyme with ‘gone’ (favoured in Northern England, Scotland, Southern England, Home Counties and East Anglia) or scone to rhyme with ‘tone’ (Eastern Midlands, Ireland, Essex, Cornwall)? The source of the…

Psalm 63: 1 O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You; My soul thirsts for You, my body longs for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water. This verse has played over and over in my mind, as I have gradually watched the playground near my house turn…

This morning, I attended the first of four sessions I have signed up for to learn how to answer cryptic crossword clues. Every summer, I have promised myself that I would try to teach myself to do these puzzles. I have bought books to help me and books of puzzles that have two sets of…

Saturday afternoon I was in the kitchen pottering around and a smiley face appeared at the window – my four-year-old neighbour. Waving to him and looking out past him, I motioned to him to stay where he was as I made my way to the front door. We greeted each other and I scoured the…

Thinking about neighbours ……. The residents on the road on which our church is built have recently started up a Neighbourhood Watch Scheme which we have been invited to join. As well as traffic issues such as speeding and parking, the organisers seem keen to make it more like a community hub where we can…

At the end of last month, I attended the Religion and media Conference at Methodist Central Hall in Westminster. The keynote speech was given by the Archbishop of York on how religion is central to life and vital for rebuilding trust in the media. He said, ’We prize honesty, truth-telling, kindness, the importance of penitence…