I blame Andrew. It’s 17th August, 2012 and I am on the beach at Swanage enjoying our family holiday.  Away from the parish. Relaxed. Then...

In this era of dismal and dispiriting news, the message of the angels has a particular resonance: “I bring you good news that will cause...

Of course, there was no donkey.  Neither was Jesus born the very night Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem.  And no cave, either. We...

The familiar intro and then Gloria, Gloria, Gloria, Gloria in excelsis Deo in excelsis Deo! So here we are once again in London, to...

Waterloo. Where I spent 15 of my early years, attending Waterloo Grammar School, running for Waterloo Harriers, supporting Waterloo Rugby...

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task” declared the remarkable Helen Keller, “but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as...

“Excuse me, is this the Gallery?” We’d just called to Cedar Farm for a coffee en route from the crematorium.  However, the coffee shop...

Tail end Charlie sounds like a fun character from a pantomime. In reality, the very opposite – one of the most dangerous assignments...

We were delighted to hear that our teenage niece had started attending her local church in North Vancouver. As it happens we knew the...

So Rachel Reeves has been found out, a lesson for us all. Me especially , The Financial Times made an analysis of her book, The Women Who...

Perceptions are everything. Canadian novelist, Robertson Davies, was spot on when he observed: “The eye sees only what the mind is...

On my autumn hoodie I wear a gold-coloured pin, a small lion. I can see it now, at the back of the chair opposite. Not the lion of...

This morning’s most perceptive frontpage was not from the usual broadsheets nor from the mainstream tabloids but of all the national...

Sometimes good news catches you off balance. That certainly was our experience earlier this week when we turned up at an unfamiliar...

The big problem of global warming is that it is not a problem for me, not in my lifetime. The very opposite, in fact: warmer summers,...

Ken: I just don't know who I am without you. Barbie: You're Ken. Ken: But it's Barbie and Ken. There's no just Ken. That's why I was...

“Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord.” This coming Sunday for the first time in aeons, I will be leading a service of choral...

“When things go wrong, don’t go with them,” so observed Elvis. Or someone else – quite a few would lay claim to this quote. But things...

He may have been the richest man in the world – but even so, I felt I owed him one, and so we visited the humble home in which he was...

It was painful to watch. You may have seen the item on last night’s BBC News at Ten from Pakistan, how an enraged mob in Jaranwala set...