Christianity
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John Stott: embarrassed by a New Year honour
John Stott (1921 -2011) studied modern languages at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with double first-class honours in French and Theology. He was ordained deacon in 1945, became curate at All Souls Church, Langham Place, London (1945-1950), then...
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Christina Rossetti’s ‘snow on snow’
I’m sure that this Christmas we shall all enjoy singing Christina Rossetti’s fine verse: In the bleak mid‐winter Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak mid‐winter, Long ago. But is...
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Bishop Polycarp
At Pip and Jim’s church in Ilfracombe, in sermons and in our home groups, we are exploring the first part of the book of Acts. This has included the story of Stephen the first Christian martyr (Acts, chapters 6-8)...
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The Bishop and the American
Writing this piece while on holiday in France has reminded me how I struggle with speaking in a foreign language. Not so Joseph Barber Lightfoot, who became Bishop of Durham in 1879. Greek and Latin were his favourite languages, though...
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The bishop and the miners
When Michael and Alison Rogers moved out of Pip and Jim’s vicarage in Ilfracombe, Michael decided he couldn’t accommodate all his books in their smaller retirement home. So he marked some shelves in his study as books which were available...
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A thing most wonderful
William Walsham How (1823-97) was educated at Shrewsbury School and Wadham College, Oxford, where he graduated in Classics before reading Theology at Durham. A small man who needed a platform in the pulpit so that the congregation could see...
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Remembering an inspirational family
The Wesleys were a remarkable family and dynasty. In 1741 John Wesley began his ministry of travelling and preaching that took him throughout Britain, covering an estimated 250,000 miles, mainly on horseback. He was not always well received, frequently facing...
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When Queen Victoria was overruled by her local church
Cosmo Gordon Lang made his third visit to Queen Victoria in January 1899. She talked to him about her love of Balmoral and of her attachment to the Church of Scotland which was not diminished by an incident she...
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Christmas with Billy Graham
I should love to have been a fly on the wall when, in 1955, Rev John Stott, Rector of All Souls Church, next to the BBC in Langham Place, London, arranged a meeting between Billy Graham and C.S. Lewis, then a...
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Cosmo’s memories of Queen Victoria
Our present Queen was confirmed by Cosmo Gordon Lang in 1942 in one of his last acts as Archbishop of Canterbury. Maybe, during confirmation classes, Lang shared with the Queen his recollections of spending time with her great great grandmother,...
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