Hey, it’s a Friday! I only realised this when I opened my Gmail account to find an email from Alexia, reminding me of all the wonderful things she can do for me. Each Friday. Oops. So here goes. We watched a great movie last night from Netflix, Don’t look up. It’s a “We-are-about-to-be wiped-out-by-a-comet” film, not my normal genre. In fact, I well recall watching Armageddon, the 1998 American science fiction disaster film. I had no choice – it was the in-flight move

Christmas Eve! One of the many sadnesses of leaving childhood behind is that this day is no longer one of unbearable excitement. Such was the tension then that with my friend Brian we devised ways of making the day pass so much more quickly. Seeing how far we could roll a car tyre comes to mind. If only we could jump straight from 23rd to the 25th without this unnecessary intermission. Strangely all those years later I can recall our Christmas Eves so much more than the

Reading the obituary of playwright Ian Curteis in yesterday’s Times, one sentence unexpectedly jumped out right from the screen. “As a Christian I find the casual expletive ‘Jesus’ or ‘Christ’ momentarily sickening,” he wrote, “not because of its sound, but because of the cauldron of belief it encapsulates for me.” The obituarist added: “It added to his reputation as an outsider at the BBC, a man whose ‘diversity’ was a little too rich for the corporation’s blood.” Mayb

“And it came to pass in those days, …” Well, these days I’ve been preparing for Christmas, Christmas 2023. It’s hard work, challenging and hugely rewarding. And I guess I will be the main beneficiary. I’m talking about my contribution to the Bible Reading Fellowship notes, New Daylight for Christmas two years hence. The editor has commissioned me to write eight pieces chosen by me from Luke 1-3, each day of between 360 and 380 words to include the Bible reading itself. As

Clearly a terrifying experience for a member of the congregation at our daughter’s licensing at Lambeth Palace this Monday. He tweets: I bumped into the Archbishop of Canterbury last night in Lambeth Palace on my way to the loo and had no idea what to say so asked where the toilet was. I knew where it was. The literally the only thing my brain could muster while meeting the actual Archbishop. I guess the last person you would expect to bump into at Lambeth Palace would b