Our house group have been studying the York Course over the period of Advent. The title of the course was “The Life in the comma” and involved watching a video led by  John Bell, of the Iona Community, in conversation with Smitha Prasadam, Bishop of Huddersfield and Lauren Windle, a journalist. John Bell explained that…

For the last two years my family have done a “secret Santa.” For anyone who thinks this is a cruel way of celebrating Christmas with young children, it’s actually a system where a group of people decide to rationalise spending on gifts at Christmas. Names are drawn at random and in “secret” and you buy…

Have you ever been so excited about something that you can hardly get the news out in time, you trip over your words? I remember the first Christmas my eldest son got really excited. His face when he got up and came downstairs was the best Christmas present I had that year. The bible reading…

 Matthew 1:1-17 The bible reading set for today is  a long list of names, 46 in total spanning 2000 years. Some are easy to pronounce, some more difficult. Some are well known, others more obscure. Some were people of heroes of faith, others had rather shady histories. Some were just ordinary people, whose names may…

Today is the day when the conception of Mary is remembered. As we continue on our Advent journey we give thanks for Mary and her role as the mother of Jesus.                                                                     The bible reading set for today speaks of a different aspect of parenthood- that of adoption. Paul writes of how we have all been…

When I was a young child, I would often lay awake at night and my imagination would run wild. My parents were trying to be helpful by leaving the landing light on so that my sister and I would not be afraid. However, the long shadows that this threw across our bedroom doorway only served…

I recently attended the funeral of a dear lady who had been a member of our church. She had moved down to East Anglia as she was living with dementia which had progressed to the stage where she was unable to continue living on her own. When I first met her it was clear that…

A few weeks ago, I had a fun night out with a group of friends to see ABBA Voyage, a show that celebrates the music of the ‘70s band, famous for winning the Eurovision song contest in 1974 with the song “Waterloo,” (for which the UK awarded them “nul points.”) They went on to be…

Sam was 24 when, on 3rd May 1917, he was making his way to the first aid tent, having received minor injuries on the frontline in the battle of the Somme. He was caught up in a bomb blast as he crossed the trenches and killed outright. “Fortunately” his body was recovered and he was…

Our accommodation during our visit to Northumberland was in a house as part of the Chillingham estate. The castle itself was not marked on our road atlas but the Wild Cattle centre was. These cattle are completely untamed, have been untouched by human hands and never had any veterinary interventions. The castle was like a…