Christianity
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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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Newman: One step enough for me
Last month I wrote about John Henry Newman’s love of the colours and scents of Devon. In December 1832, with his Devon friends Robert and Hurrell Froude, Newman set off from Falmouth on board the packet ship Hermes bound...
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Life as the sum of relationships
Has the lockdown made you reflect on the importance of friendship, our relationships to one another? One man who thought deeply about this was Mandell Creighton who succeeded Frederick Temple as Bishop of London in 1897. Temple said of...
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Prayer as hearing the voice of Christ in the silence
When C.S. Lewis’s wife, Joy Davidman, died, in 1960, the priest who took the funeral service was hardly able to get the words out through his own tears. His name was Austin Farrer and I am currently a fan of his writings. Farrer’s...
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What was the bishop doing in Ilfracombe?
Lord William Cecil was the second son of the former Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury. His time at Oxford, which he enjoyed, suggested that he may not have inherited his father’s brains since he only managed a third class degree in...
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The power of love
What were you doing on Saturday 19 May this year? I think it’s quite likely that you were one of apparently two billion people throughout the world who watched on TV the wedding of Harry and Meghan in St...
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The mystery of time, space and God
When Rev. Michael Rogers moved earlier this year he told me that he needed to get rid of many books as there wouldn’t be room for them in his new home. So I decided to pop round to the...
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The genius of Henry Francis Lyte
Last month I wrote that Devon hasn’t produced many well-known hymn writers. But one of the greatest arrived in Devon from Hampshire early in 1822 at the age of 29 and, with his family, moved to Bramble Torr, a...
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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...
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