Blog
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A story of gas and a beech tree
Dentists have been using nitrous oxide gas for over a hundred and fifty years to help relieve dental anxiety in patients. It was still common when I was a child. However, in recent years there has been a shift...
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What makes the truly great preacher?
If you were to enrol for a course at the City of Bristol College, and you were interested in art and design, or computers, or just wanted to relax in the college community café, you would find yourself in...
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Henry Chadwick and the road to happiness
Henry Chadwick (1920 –2008) was an academic, a theologian, a Church of England priest, a dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford – and as such, head of Christ Church, Oxford – and also, later, master of Peterhouse, Cambridge. A...
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China: a crunch question
Today, as I write this, the headline in a daily political podcast is: ‘The crunch China question. Should Britain turn to megaphone diplomacy and economic disengagement?’ Apparently Rishi Sunak believes not. In September 1853, at the age of just...
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Why Fletcher of Madeley turned down promotion
John William Fletcher (1729-85) was not English. His real name was Jean Guillaume de la Flechѐre, but as his English friends could never spell this correctly he consented to be known as John William Fletcher. Born in Switzerland, he...
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Daniel Wilson: keeping his Bishop busy
One evening, when Daniel Wilson rose from prayer after reading his bible, he said to a lady, ‘Oh! my dear child, if we could live much more in the spirit of Ephesians 4, we should be much happier. I...
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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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