News (Page 172)

BUTTERFLIES

In Eddie Askew’s book he tells us of a friend who had a really refreshing holiday on a narrow boat on a canal.  They watched the life all around them and noticed that the butterflies were flying faster than they were going. Years ago I went on a week’s holiday on a narrow boat holiday,…

Lectionary Reflections – Sunday 2nd April 2023

Palm Sunday                                                 Year A                                     2nd April 2023 Lectionary readings: Isaiah 50 v4-9a;      Psalm 31 v9-16;      Philippians 2 v5-11;      Matthew 27 v11-54. Majestic humility. The (second) prophet Isaiah was preaching during the time of exile in Babylonia. The OT reading, appears to be related to an individual, possibly the prophet himself. It could also relate…

Clogged

My husband was recently complaining how it was really hard to push the plunger down on our cafetière – only posh coffee in our house! So I set to, with a pair of pliers to dismantle it, only to discover layers of coffee sludge and calcium carbonate blocking the filters. After a good scrub, and…

Lent 5 – Jesus Making Disciples

Based on Luke 19: 1-10 I love reading biographies and auto biographies and have quite an extensive collection of books, audio books and digital books. Perhaps I’m just nosy, but I want to know what drives people, how they become successful, how they overcome hurdles and even survive against all the odds.  I particularly like…

Good friends

I have decided to start my Spring cleaning. I was looking through a pile of old CD’s and I found one by Rita MacNeil which was released in 1990. I remember buying it because I really liked her song “Working Man” but the words of some of the other songs are really thoughtful. One in particular…

Light:

These days we block out natural light with curtains and blinds whereas in the ancient world, people organised their activities around the pattern of daylight. According to Genesis, light was the first thing created ; in Revelation the Holy city  ‘has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of…

Buds and Hope

Well, there we are. Last week I wrote about a lovely spring day while today I write after the snow and rain of yesterday with a lowering sky outside daring me to try anything foolish, such as gardening. The transition from winter to spring can often see a few reverses. One of the subtler signs…

3 Years!

Three years ago today, we published our very first Thought for the day. Rev. Derek Grimshaw finished this very first thought with the following paragraph. “I am going to try and commit myself to writing a daily message to be posted on our new website.  I am of a mind that we can use the…