My first proper bike, a two wheeler had a bright blue frame and splendid white mudguards. My dad had got it from a bloke at work because his son had grown out of it, I remember pushing it home, on that journey it was a tatty navy blue with no mudguards and I guess looking…
Dear Friends, I think that it matters little whether you are a royalist or not, the platinum Jubilee at the beginning of June is a landmark event in all our lives. Bearing in mind that our Queen was only 25 years old when her father died and she took the weight of being the head…
One of the biggest challenges of the current era seems to be that a whole range of familiar experiences have disappeared from our lives and I am finding it challenging and exciting as dormant memories are reawakened. This little chapel in the village of Conistone in upper Wharefedale has been important to me for almost…
We were woken abruptly last Sunday morning (8th May) just before 5am by a horrendous sound outside. We currently live opposite a building site and the main road has been closed to through traffic for the last five days, so the loud crash and grating noise outside caused us to wake immediately and look out…
We have a season ticket for Jimmy’s farm, just south of Ipswich where we live, and it is some of the best money I have ever spent, we get our money’s worth out of our ticket and visit the farm frequently. Over the last few years we have got to know some of the staff…
During the early summer of 2006, I was still a bit wet behind the ears and was so new to the work of being a minister, that I would give anything a go. One of the men in one of my churches who was fairly new to a life of faith came to me with…
Dear Friends, The seven weeks between Easter and Pentecost always feel a bit strange to me, it is as though we remain in a kind of hiatus, but I think that a bit like the season of Lent, we have an opportunity to reflect. I remember being at a meeting once where we shared Holy…
The Mayor of Cormorant Minnesota USA sadly died on Thursday 21st February 2019, just six months after retiring from office. Duke, the thirteen year old Pyrenean Mountain Dog had been the mayor of the village of Cormorant located about two hundred and sixteen miles north west of Minneapolis, with a population of around a thousand…
One of the features throughout my life has been early communion on Easter day. For many years we would go to chapel for the 8am communion service, which was followed by Easter Breakfast. My Mum was always in the kitchen and one thing that always tested her was how to boil a dozen or so…
My nine-year-old grandson is Spiderman mad at the moment, I try desperately to have meaningful conversations with him, but have never watched a Spiderman film or read the comic strip. I listen intently as he tells me the plot of the film in his inimitable expressive way. I have endured this experience several times before…