I hope that you had a blessed Christmas season and that 2022 will be a better year for all of us. The new calendar year is a time to begin afresh …
Welcome to the Ipswich Circuit of the Methodist Church of Great Britain
News (Page 160)
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C 16th January 2022 Lectionary Readings: Isaiah 62 v1-5; Psalm 36 v5-10; 1 Corinthians 12 v1-11; John 2 v1-11. The generosity of God. John wants his readers to be in no doubt that Jesus is the Son of God. Three times in the first chapter, Jesus’ true identity…
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. One of my earliest school memories, to my shame, is when I was sent to the headmistress’s office after playing “tag” in the playground and being a little too enthusiastic.…
In the world, I believe that there are two kinds of people, early birds and night owls and I fall very much into the first category. I love early mornings and can get through a huge amount of work before the rest of the world wakes up and since the dawn of the digital age,…
Over the holiday period I watched both of the Paddington Bear films. I find them very entertaining and the special effects make Paddington very real, but if you look below the surface there are so many moral issues involved in these films. Paddington was a refugee from Peru who was looking for a better life…
Poems can express our feelings and help us reorganise them. I am in awe of poets who manage to allow me to think differently about a situation with a few well-chosen lines. This poem by Mark Strand takes us into those feelings we often have in winter, rearranges them and can help us utter a…
Just after sunrise on the shortest day I went out for a walk, wondering what to ‘think’ and to share on 6th January. This day is known as Epiphany and on this coming Sunday we reflect on The Baptism of The Lord. And then it was there – a setting moon in a clear blue…
A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light, and God appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with…
Psalm 119 v 33.Teach me, LORD, the way of your decrees, that I may follow it to the end A Scottish shepherd stood waving his arms on the lush green hillside. His flock had broken away and was straying across the road while motorists honked their horns further adding to the sheep’s bewilderment. From the top…
Live wires : powerful stories of changed lives by DJ Carswell 10Publishing, 2013 134 pages £5.99ISBN 978 1 906 173 135 Live wires is a collection of 15 individual stories of real people. Whatever their background or circumstances, all of them have had an encounter with such good news (they were introduced to Jesus somehow…