Blog
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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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Prince Philip: master of the barbecue
Prince Harry paid tribute to his grandpa, the Duke of Edinburgh, as ‘master of the barbecue’. The Rev John Stott, who was Chaplain to the Queen, told me this story. In January 1983 the Queen invited him to preach at...
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Your essential guide to acronyms in Line of Duty
AC-12 Anti-corruption unit 12, where our heroes work to root out bent coppers within Central Police force. We’ve also encountered AC-3 and AC-9 in previous series. AFO Authorised firearms officer. A police officer who has been selected, trained and accredited by their...
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Brussels needs to shake off its remaining ill-will
When Lord Frost voted to leave the EU in 2016, he did so because he thought decisions about our country should be made by the people of this country. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph on 7 March 2021 he...
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The Devon men who shaped the infant Church of England
It is remarkable that two of the thinkers who shaped Anglicanism in the first 50 years of its existence were both Devon men, and one of them was actually born in our group of churches – John Jewel who...
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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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Queen Victoria gives Cosmo Lang her views on preaching and the sacraments
Last month I said that our present Queen was confirmed by Cosmo Gordon Lang in 1942 in one of his last acts as Archbishop of Canterbury. I went on to describe his first encounter with Queen Victoria, aged 80,...
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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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From Devon to the throne
Princess Victoria first saw the sea at Sidmouth. Her father (Frederick, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of George III) had come from Germany to England on borrowed money, and his creditors were pursuing him. A captain in the...
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