As some of you will know, I spent some time in hospital recently. It’s amazing what you think of in that situation, and one of the pictures which kept coming into my head was of an icon I was shown during a Quiet Day at Otley Hall. Icons are images used in the Orthodox Church…
Singing the Faith No 409 – Let us build a house where love can dwell….. We started a Prayer Space, just a small area in the church, where people could go whatever the time of day to be quiet, to read from books provided, to use simple art materials left around and express their…
Bible reading Matthew 23: 37-39 The mother hen who keeps her brood safe. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For…
There were a lot of women after the 1914 -18 War who never married. There were not enough men to go round and some women simply never met anyone to equal the ones they had lost. At the top of our Road as I grew up lived the Misses A. Both had been engaged as the…
In Lent we have space to think about Mothers and Mothering. Here are some thoughts which come to mind, possibly to make the meaning of Mothering Sunday a bit deeper? 1. She gave me my first Bible She was a lovely woman, Mrs. C, and she lived next door to me when I was little.…
Based on Matthew 14:22 – 36 Which took more courage? To leave his home and livelihood to follow Jesus or to step out of a boat onto a deep, rough sea to get to Jesus? This is what Peter did. I’m not sure I’d have had the courage to do either. Of course Peter had…
So who is your favourite singer? For many of my age the answer could include one or more of the Beatles or the Rolling Stones or someone else from that amazing range of talent we grew up with. I was always a bit different – I’d possibly say the Scottish rocker ,New Romantic and co-Founder…
John 1: 1 “In the beginning was The Word…..” Have you ever really thought about how powerful words can be? It’s hard to believe the pen really is mightier than the sword when we see all the pictures and reports of violence which stream across our television and computer screens; yet eventually there has to…
Jonah really welcomed that great weed – or gourd in some translations – which gave him some shade while all around was exposed to blistering sunshine. At least we’re told he was grateful for it. But he just accepted it was there – he hadn’t planted it, he didn’t water it or do anything to…
What do you think about Mary the Mother of Jesus? In the Middle Ages Mary was always shown as golden- haired, clothed in white and blue with white skin; she would quite literally be placed on a pedestal in so many shrines and churches . The idea was believers needed her to pray for them…