Coming home from a meeting a few weeks ago, I inadvertently timed my journey through the heart of the town to coincide with the end of a football match at Portman Road, not my best idea ever. The match had only just finished and I was thankful that the crowds of fans now filling the…
Based on Luke 19: 1-10 I love reading biographies and auto biographies and have quite an extensive collection of books, audio books and digital books. Perhaps I’m just nosy, but I want to know what drives people, how they become successful, how they overcome hurdles and even survive against all the odds. I particularly like…
Based on Luke 9: 12-17 Many years ago, before I became a minister, I was asked to preach in an Anglican Church, I processed down the aisle with the vicar and the dignitaries of the Church and went very confidently to the seat I had been allocated, facing the congregation. Without thinking, I sat, in…
Based on Luke 19: 12-17 For many years St Andrew’s Methodist Church in Undercliffe, Bradford had a Church Conference Weekend during November at Green Gables Hotel in Scarborough. Scarborough Weekend was an important part of my Christian journey and played an import role in my formation into the person I am today. I owe a…
Lent 2 Jesus serving with gladness Based on Luke 4: 16-19 One of the great pleasures I still get out of life is meeting strangers who don’t know what I do for a living, one of my greatest desires is to be normal and be accepted in the way most other people are, rather than…
We are at the start of our journey through Lent, and we are using “Holy Habits: Following Jesus” written by Andrew Roberts for our Lent reflections in the Ipswich Methodist Circuit this year. I have decided to pick up the themes for our Sunday Thought for the Day’s Lent 1 Based on Luke 4: 1-13…
On two separate occasions, I have ventured to the summit of Mount Snowdon in North Wales. The first time we went as a family sometime around 2001 and the second time about five years later when just two of us made our way up the mountain. I hasten to add before you get the wrong…
The big news of Wednesday 1st February was the possible sighting of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) or “The Green Comet as people have called it. The only problem was that it was only visible in the middle of the night so most folk were fast asleep when the phenomenon occurred. Fortunately my son in law…
A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across a programme on the BBC “Take a hike” the concept is nothing new, five total strangers, meet up and over the course of a week, they share a common interest, taking it in turn to plan the events of a day at a time. In secret, they…
We have a wonderful event at one of the Churches in the Ipswich Circuit. Tea and Toast happens on a Friday morning and offers a free breakfast to people in the large residential estates around the Church, and it is good to see families from the neighbourhood coming into the Church and having a lovely…