“If in doubt, burst into tears!” Of course, not for all situations, especially if you are being goaded – but often it takes tears to show how much we are hurting. And often people need to know. It was vicar-evangelist David Watson who taught me this some 40 years ago. His church in York was leading the way in charismatic renewal as well as large-scale evangelism. He was a key player for the Kingdom until cancer took him in 1984, as it happens my first Sunday as a vicar

Blokes of my age and era are notoriously bad in keeping in touch. I find, like Peter Kay the best way for keeping track of old friends is by watching Crimewatch UK. But then I get the occasional break. I bump into my old running rival Colin in a bookshop in Manchester or a church member tells me his nephew Doug as at school with me. This week I made contact after 50 years with James, who worked with me as a counsellor at YMCA Camp Brooklyn, Pennsylvania over the summer

The conservatives are the liberals while the liberals are now the conservatives! It’s all about the importance of church buildings, the geographical location of church congregations at a place on a map, over against the growing importance of cyberspace, the world of interconnected digital technology. All this has come to the fore during the current Lockdown as churches have variously resorted to Zoom, Facebook and YouTube (or a combination of all three) for worship, teachin

If you haven’t already done so, load the app today, now! #TKC Prayer is a key component of Your Kingdom Come, a global prayer movement that invites Christians around the world to pray for these 11 days between Ascension to Pentecost for more people to come to know Jesus. When Archbishop Justin launched Thy Kingdom Come in 2016 its main aim, as I recall, was to encourage Christians to pray together, in their church building. However, here we are four years later with our c

You will be pleased to know that I fertilized our lawns yesterday with Eric’s lawn spreader using some of his Fisons fertilizer which he kindly gave me. For Eric (#8) is an expert on lawns – he is responsible for maintaining our local crown bowling greens. Also yesterday I wheeled over our wheel chair (which had belonged to my mother-in-law) to Jan who lives opposite now recovering from her fall. We had already lent Charles at number 2 her zimmer frame, following his acc

“A.A. saved my life. Can it work online?” asks a contributor in this morning’s New York Times. You may be familiar with the work of the tremendously influential Alcoholics Anonymous, founded in 1935 in Ohio with the stated aim of enabling its members to "stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety. Over the years I have become impressed with this mutual aid fellowship. Certainly one person I know became a disciple of Jesus through its ministry. He was totally co