My sister found this photograph recently and sent me a copy. I’m related to most of the people in the photo. My grandfather and my dad are in the middle of the picture, holding the mugs. Goodness, it’s like a different world! My grandfather and my dad are in the middle of the picture, holding…

Do you have a nativity scene in your home? Sometimes they come as advent calendars now with a different figure to add each day in the run up to Christmas. When I had my children small, we had a nativity and I remember often glancing at it as the preparations got more intense and the…

I recently had an interesting conversation with two colleagues who, like me, are beginning their retirement. The point for discussion was legacy folders and documents, both the physical sort and the electronic ones. For me, pressing delete on many hundreds of documents and even more emails was easy, but I am stuck with the bottom…

In the Northern hemisphere the seasons fit well into the churches calendar. As we descend into a time of limited daylight hours, dark mornings and evenings and cold conditions we remember in our churches the time of darkness that the Jews went through in the two centuries before Jesus’ birth. They came through a period…

I find it amazing that events spring to mind randomly. Such an occasion occurred recently as I listened to Graham Kendrick’s The Servant King. I was taken back to the time when I was working in an office when a new manager was appointed. He was the person whom many staff dreaded, and it didn’t take me…

As we approach the end of the year we look forward to another year, what will it bring? There are so many “bad” news stories in the media, it is tempting to say – “it can’t be worse than this year.” Hope, however gives us something to look forward to. “I hope for a white…

Last month, we had our District ministers’ retreat at Sizewell Hall. It was a wonderful time of reflection, prayer, and fellowship. I really enjoyed the sessions and some of the creative reflection activities we did there. In one session, we were given two colours of wool and asked to make something from them. I know…

I was in the process of writing this reflection, on the subject of train travel, when I heard about the horrific stabbings on the train on Saturday November 1st. In recognition of that significant event, I will pray for the victims as I close. My love of train travel goes back to childhood. Once I…

This is a question I’ve overheard several times during this past week. Our Church tree arrived last weekend and was set up on Tuesday. Hopefully it will be decorated by some of the younger church members on Saturday, ready for Sunday.  Every family has their own tradition as to when the tree goes up and…

Looking back just over a fortnight I am still thinking about something that happened, almost unnoticeable but significant. I prepared a short address for the Remembrance Sunday Service that included a reflection on the Latin words from which are derived the word ‘Armistice.’ On the Friday night I turned up at the Church to rehearse…