Prisons Sunday (10th) marks the beginning of Prisons Week, which continues until the following Saturday (16th). An ecumenical Prisons Week Committee was formed in 1975 to encourage Christians to focus their thoughts and prayers, upon prisoners and their families, victims of offenders, prison staff and all those working for prisoners and their families. Recently we…

After cutting the lawn I sat down for a well – earned rest in the shade of our umbrella to enjoy a cup of coffee.  Suddenly from the next door I heard our teenager practicing on the piano.  First the scales and then she went on to practice the set pieces which she would be…

We have experienced many different things and changes during this long period of lockdown.  Some of these changes will be with us for many years to come, long after we are allowed more freedom of movement.  For example, many people now work all or some of their worktime at home and this has some great…

Sometime ago there was an International Arts Exhibition, and it included a tremendous range of modern technology, and some of it was quite spectacular, but also involved noise which was distracting.  The architects were set the massive task of preparing this exhibition and to create the atmosphere for each exhibit.  One problem they had was…

My mother once told me many years ago that it was during the 1st World War that some words of a hymn really did help her.  She was walking up the hill from Manningtree Station after saying goodbye to my Dad who was in the army and had been on a weekend leave.  My mum…

I suppose most of us has a secret “wish list”.  Some things on it may never come to fruition, but occasionally one of our wishes may come true. It happened to me some time ago.  On my wish list was that I would long to be in Rome on Easter Saturday to see all the…