Sing to the Lord a New Song We continue a series that seeks to take inspiration from the words of newer hymns and songs. You don’t need me to tell you that Psalm 23 has resonated with readers of the Bible down through the ages and, today, we consider the first of three songs based…

I recently went to see a film called the Christophers which, by the way, I would heartily recommend. It stars Ian McKellen as a painter renowned for two series of paintings called the ‘Christophers’ but who has lost his muse and not painted anything of note for thirty years or so. I won’t give any…

The present conflict between America and Iran has been portrayed in some quarters as a ‘Holy War’ and that troubles me greatly. Why? I believe we should do all we can politically to remove brutal dictators and regimes, but this should never be at the expense of the innocent people they themselves are oppressing. Jesus…

(Photo by Zulfugar Karimov on Unsplash) (Photo by Zulfugar Karimov on Unsplash) In October 2025, the BBC reported that UK visitors to the online pornography website Pornhub had fallen by 77% in the three months since age checks were introduced. These came after the Online Safety Act placed a legal requirement on such sites to…

(Photo by Phil Hearing on Unsplash)     Back in the 1980s I was fascinated to read a book called ‘The Lost Villages of Britain’ by Richard Muir and the greatest honour I can pay it is to say that it remains on my shelves to this day when many other books have  gone. It whetted my…

(Image © Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash) I can remember Standing by the wall And the guns shot above our heads And we kissed as though nothing could fall And the shame was on the other side Oh, we can beat them for ever and ever It’s funny how you can hear a song countless times…

Sing to the Lord a New Song Welcome to a new series that seeks to take inspiration from the words of newer hymns and songs. The Goodness of Jesus Come you weary heart now to Jesus Come you anxious soul now and see There is perfect love and comfort in your tears Rest here in…

Many people, not least schoolchildren, rejoice at the sight of a mid-winter snowfall but not so my wife – and that applied even when she was a school child! Indeed, on one of her first schools days as a 5-year old she tells me that she had to crawl up the school drive on hands…

If you follow football you will almost certainly be aware of a recent giant killing in the FA Cup when the holders, Crystal Palace, were knocked out by non-league Macclesfield Town who play their football six divisions below the Premier League. You may also recall a similar thing two years ago when Ipswich Town  lost…

I went to the cinema recently and had a wonderful surprise. I saw a poster advertising a film due out at the end of March. The film is called ‘The Magic Faraway Tree’ and it’s based upon a series of children’s books by Enid Blyton. The reason I looked at the poster with delight is…