A Tale of Three Holy Lands
Tomorrow I lead a group of 36 pilgrims, drawn from the diocese and beyond, as we set off on a pilgrimage with a difference. As well as visiting the well-known sites associated with the ministry of Jesus in Galilee, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, we are also visiting the Kingdom of Jordan, sometimes called ‘the other Holy… Continue reading Pilgrimage to the Holy Lands
Lancashire Telegraph – 8 Sept 2018. Note: the article mysteriously appeared in yesterday's paper with a photo of Gill rather than me, and missing the last sentence! ‘If you think religion belongs to the past and we live in a new age of reason, you need to check out the facts…’ That was the eye-catching… Continue reading The world is becoming more religious, not less…
Lancashire Telegraph – Saturday Sermon - 3 March 2018 A mother told me recently how she had saved up to buy her young son a football shirt for his favourite team for Christmas. On Christmas morning when he ripped open the present he burst into tears. Distraught, his mother asked what was the matter. ‘It’s… Continue reading Who says that gambling advertising doesn’t influence the young?
Sermon preached at St. John's Whittle-le-Woods and Clayton Brook Community Church This week we have all been shocked once more by images of mayhem from London, with an attempt to blow up a crowded commuter tube train, filled with people who have no other way to get into work in the capital, and leaving 29… Continue reading A Difficult Road – Luke 9.51-end
A meditation given in Blackburn Cathedral Colossians 1.1-8; Luke 4.38-end Today the Church remembers Allen Gardiner, founder of the South American Missionary Society, who died around this date in 1851. In Colossians 1 Paul is writing to a young church he hadn’t founded – it had been founded by Epaphras, mentioned in v7, who had… Continue reading Failure or Faithfulness? A reflection on the life of Allen Gardiner
I have been learning quite a bit about living with depression over the last month from a close family friend, Aneurin Howorth, who has been staying with us. Aneurin (or Nye for short) has been doing a wonderful job as a volunteer assistant helping me with my work for the last four weeks. Nye’s dad… Continue reading Coping with Depression – reflections with a friend on the story of Elijah
This week Gill and I went to see the film ‘Dunkirk’. It is a moving story about ordinary people in ordinary little boats doing something extraordinary – something so extraordinary that the rescue of a third of a million soldiers under bombardment on the beach, surrounded by advancing German armies, became known as ‘the miracle… Continue reading If you want to walk on water… Accrington St. John and Huncoat
Saturday Sermon – Lancashire Telegraph, 5 August 2017 I have just bought two tickets for the first Blackburn Rovers’ match of the season, against Doncaster. Years ago I had a season-ticket, when we were in the Premiership, but these days buying tickets for the Rovers is a triumph of hope over experience. However I suspect… Continue reading Saturday Sermon – Lancashire Telegraph
1 Kings 3.5, 7-12; Romans 8.28-30; Matthew 13.44-52 As a famous song by the Spice Girls put it, ‘What do you want? What do you really, really want?’ If you could have one wish granted in the world, what would it be? Discuss in twos… [anecdote of Chris Smith, former culture secretary….in the week… Continue reading St Andrew’s Burnley
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