I made a cup of tea and settled down to watch the news on television. Although outside the sound of fireworks was telling me that it was barely November, my TV had updated itself. It was nearly Christmas, it was saying, and it had added a channel that would allow me to watch as many sugary, sentimental Christmas films as I liked just to prove it. That, of course, along with all the snowy, tinselly commercials telling me where I should be doing my Christmas shopping this year, and what I should be buying.
From the Vicarage
Bats in the Belfry
Tuesday, May 16
I have never forgotten the Sunday morning, just a few weeks after I arrived, when I climbed into the pulpit and began my sermon with the story of the three vicars who had bats in the belfry. If you were there, you probably remember how it goes. If you weren’t, sadly I don’t have space here to tell you how it ends. In any case, it hasn’t seemed quite so funny since it turned out that I also have bats, not just in the belfry but in other places too – and they’re not housetrained, either.
The case of the newspaper cutting...
Tuesday, Jan 17
I recall a session during my training for ministry on Dealing with the Press. It was about how to write articles like this one, and perhaps more importantly how to stay out of The News of the World, though nobody actually said that.
Happy Christmas!
Monday, Dec 5
By the time you read this the mad rush to post Christmas cards, finish Christmas shopping and visit friends and family before the 25th will be in full swing.
Welcome to Autumn...
Tuesday, Sep 27
By the time you read this autumn will have arrived. The leaves on the trees will be changing colour - and at church we shall be preparing for Harvest Festival.
Rewind to summer just for a moment, and memories of warm summer evenings sitting in the garden, with the scent of lilies and gardenia – oh yes, and another scent, too. You know the one - the smell that wafts in from the fields from around mid-August as the farmers Plough the Fields and Scatter something on the land – remember?
Catching 'em all...
Tuesday, Aug 30
It’s true! St Anthony’s Church in Alkham really is haunted! As we had coffee after the service a few Sundays ago, two younger members of our congregation excitedly produced an i-Pad which clearly showed a picture of me standing in the church with a spook looking over my shoulder. Moments later, the same i-Pad revealed that the churchyard was full of them! You couldn’t see any of them without an i-Pad of course.
Brexit and Biblical wisdom...
Saturday, Aug 6
I wonder – in years to come, will the Referendum result be like the death of John F Kennedy or 9/11? You know – people will always remember where they were when they heard the result?
What's in a name?
Wednesday, Jun 15
Perhaps you have heard – the nation’s new polar research ship is to be named the RRS Sir David Attenborough rather than Boaty McBoatface, the frivolous suggestion of a former BBC radio presenter that the majority of those who took part in an online poll to name the vessel seized upon, and apparently would have preferred.