Blog
-
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...
Continue reading this entry → -
What is happiness
What is happiness and how can we achieve it? Millions of words have been written and spoken on the subject over the centuries. Speaking on Woman’s Hour way back on 5 October 1965, writer and broadcaster Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990)...
Continue reading this entry → -
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing
I am sure that this Christmas, as at every Christmas, we shall enjoy singing ‘O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant’. Modern hymnbooks, including Complete Mission Praise, use a 1986 modernisation so that the first line reads ‘O...
Continue reading this entry → -
Celebrating Harvest and Christmas with Robert Hawker
I wrote this as we were preparing for our annual harvest festival at Pip and Jim’s church in Ilfracombe. In medieval England Lammas Day (1st August) was probably recognised as a thanksgiving for the first fruits of the harvest,...
Continue reading this entry → -
Blesséd be St Enodoc
A treasured memory of our holiday in Cornwall this summer was to stroll through St Enodoc Golf course, at Trebetherick, and revisit St. Enodoc Church. Situated in sand dunes east of Daymer Bay and Brea Hill on the River...
Continue reading this entry → -
Dudley-Smith: How is it between you and Jesus Christ?
On 15th August 2021, the set Common Worship Gospel reading was Luke 1:46-55, the Magnificat. This reminded me of this story: in May 1961, a 34 year-old man living in Blackheath, London, was sent a review copy of the...
Continue reading this entry → -
Exeter’s cleverest bishop?
The longest serving Bishop of Exeter in the twentieth century was Robert Mortimer. When I arrived at the preparatory department of Exeter School in 1952, he had already been Bishop for three years and when I left the main school...
Continue reading this entry → -
From Bishop Leofric to Bishop Jackie
When Bishop Jackie Searle came to Pip and Jim’s church in Ilfracombe on 13 June, preached, and celebrated communion with us, she was too modest to remind us that there was a Bishop of Crediton nearly 150 years before...
Continue reading this entry → -
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...
Continue reading this entry → -
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...
Continue reading this entry →
