If you want to know the true meaning of Christmas, we’re told, be like the carrot in one of the cleverest TV commercials I’ve seen so far this year, based on Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Christmas is, apparently, about being good, unselfish, and prepared to share with others. At least that - along with encouragement to shop in a certain supermarket - seems to be the message of the advert.
From the Vicarage
The Camera Never Lies?
Saturday, Jun 25
Think of when you last went to a wedding, and you may remember how, between arriving at the venue and the reception itself beginning, there was perhaps an interlude when people could mingle, chat, have a drink and relax. We attended a wedding reception not long ago and, as we waited to go in, a photographer wandered around, taking snaps of the guests as they chatted.
The promise of Things to Come...
Wednesday, Apr 13
Like most clergy, I have plenty of very weighty, very serious theological books on my shelves – but also others which, although lighter and rather less serious, nevertheless contain pearls of wisdom.
Who was Stephen?
Monday, Dec 6
Christmas is coming – and this year Christmas Day, when Christians celebrate God’s gift of His Son to the world, falls on a Saturday. On the Sunday, however, the mood shifts, even before we’ve had a chance to recover from all those satsumas. It’s the Feast of St Stephen.
The End of The Tale of Peter Rabbit
Sunday, Aug 8
From the vicarage
I read that in Britain, more than three million pets were bought during lockdown. It’s easy to understand why – many of us look to our pets for love and companionship. We have a family of cockatiels, who seem to find someone arriving home as exciting as anything you can imagine.
Say One For Me...
Saturday, Jul 3
Say One For Me – it’s the sort of remark that churchgoers sometimes hear as they set off for church on a Sunday morning, usually from a neighbour who’s engaged in gardening or washing the car. It also inspired the title of a book that sits on my bookshelf about the fact that there are some people who may not choose to attend church themselves but are nevertheless glad that others do.
That was 2020 that was...
Saturday, Jan 2
Doing my other job, like everything else just now, is proving tricky. I was a supply teacher working in secondary schools until a couple of years ago. Now I work with children who, for one reason or another, find school tricky, usually spending an hour or two working alongside them in their homes. That worked until the pandemic came along - home tuition and social distancing don’t really go together.
Remembering...
Monday, Oct 26
My mother had two brothers. Both served in the Forces during the war; afterwards, the family relocated from London to Ramsgate. But the younger of the two took a job at a hotel in the Lake District, met and married my aunt, and settled at the opposite end of England to the rest of the family.