Christianity
-
The Devon hymn-writer who prepared a lantern for Christ
Next month sees the Ilfracombe Victorian Celebration from 13-17 June, with Victorian Songs of Praise at Pip and Jim’s on Sunday 17 June. Devon hasn’t produced many well-known hymn writers but Sabine Baring-Gould was an interesting and remarkable exception...
Continue reading this entry → -
Stories with the ring of truth
Every Easter when I re-read the stories of Jesus appearing to his disciples on the first Easter Sunday, I am convinced that no one could have made them up. Perhaps the most touching is the account of Jesus appearing...
Continue reading this entry → -
The secret of George Müller’s happiness
When I was young we used to sing a quaint hymn which began, ‘With harps and with viols there stand a great throng in the presence of Jesus, and sing this new song …’ It had a catchy tune...
Continue reading this entry → -
George Muller’s Ilfracombe retreat
We are grateful to the Victorians who built the paths which take us up Capstone Hill in Ilfracombe. If you took a stroll there, say in 1865, you might have seen a tall, slim gentleman, in his sixtieth year,...
Continue reading this entry → -
Boniface and the story of the Christmas tree
St Boniface, who was born in or near Crediton around the year 675, went on to play a central role in the conversion to Christianity of what we now call Germany. But he is also important as we think about...
Continue reading this entry → -
Richard Hooker and the Anglican way to worship
Heavitree, when I grew up there, had been for many years a suburb of Exeter. But when Richard Hooker (1554-1600) was born there, Heavitree was separated from Devon’s county town by fields and meadows. Richard Hooker proved to be an...
Continue reading this entry → -
From Berrynarbor to Salisbury
John Jewel was born in Bowden Farmhouse, just south of the village of Berrynarbor, on 24 May 1522. He attended Barnstaple Grammar School before going on to study at Merton and Corpus Christi Colleges in Oxford becoming a Fellow...
Continue reading this entry → -
From Devon to Canterbury
In the entire history of the Church of England there has only been one father and son who have both become Archbishop of Canterbury – and they have a strong Devon connection. The father was Frederick Temple, one of whose...
Continue reading this entry → -
Loving Jesus and living the inward life
Continue reading this entry → -
George Muller on how to live a happy life
120 years ago, in 1895, when he was 90 years of age, George Muller preached this sermon in Bristol. He gave it the title “How to live a happy life”. When he speaks of being happy for seventy years...
Continue reading this entry →
