Her Majesty The Queen was born the year before my late father. For a couple of years before he died, Father was constantly speculating about whether this weekend would ever come. Whoever you are and whatever your views on royalty generally and the British Royal Family particularly, today no one can deny the human achievement…

A few years ago, I remember, I tentatively suggested that a Church I was working with may like to consider having a service on Ascension Day. We agreed to go ahead and for a year or two a faithful few gathered to remember this remarkable moment in our liturgical year. Now many of us let…

I have always been fascinated by old clocks; the intricacy of a mechanism is astounding but so is the precision of time keeping that is possible when all is well. We have inherited several clocks which tick away happily and require almost no attention apart from their weekly wind. The cogs in a clock movement…

When I was about 19 one of our farm hedgerows was cut down because it need to be rejuvenated. I walked past is recently and 40+ years later it is healthy and strong. All those years ago, a kindly man cut me a thumb stick from a fine piece of hawthorn as reminder of the…

A family member attended a funeral recently at which a hymn was sung that none of us had ever come across before. It has vanished from use and seems not to be in any of the resources I have access to, both printed hymn books or online. Thinking about old hymns reminded me of one…

Recent revelations about the behaviour of people working at the heart of Government and in leadership have caused a stir. We have been shocked, we say, by the parties in a certain famous street in London. Am I alone in being far more shocked by the way we have overlooked more serious issues? Early on…

Living in the British Isles with a maritime climate and never far from the sea it is unwise to predict the weather in advance; doing so is notoriously fraught with the risk of being wrong. Modern weather forecasting is more reliable than ever when looking a few hours ahead but after that becomes more prone…

On Easter Sunday morning some people will sing Charles Wesley’s ‘Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!’. It is a hymn and a statement of faith. The first line states what seems impossible. (Singing the Faith 298). Earlier hymn books contained a verse that says ‘who the strong man armed hath bound, now in highest…

Matthew 4:7 – ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’. When I was beginning my career my friends and I were relieved to have work, pleased if we were offered promotion and grateful for a pay rise. I started out at a time of high interest rates, high inflation and when employment…

When I was at school, in my mind I associated Lent with the hymn ‘Lord Jesus, think on me’ (H&Ps 533). I thought it was gloomy and unnecessarily puritanical when I was in my teens. As I have got older I have realised what a wonderful prayer it is and just as I came to…