It is hard to deny that for a political anorak like me the last few months have been riveting. You have that sense of living through the kind of thing that my successors as undergraduate historians could be writing about in centuries to come. There are, of course, a couple of down sides- occasionally I […]
With extensive plagiarism- and some changes- from Bishop Michael Curry: From the Song of Solomon in the Bible: Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. Many waters cannot […]
If people know two things about me they probably know that I am a Christian and that I have always been a bit of a sport obsessive. Scarcely a putt can be holed, a try scored, a race won or a wicket taken without me being interested in it. So I was struck by a […]
I am deeply thankful for the last six weeks of sabbatical and holiday. I’ve seen some remarkable places (the excuse for the random picture above) and enjoyed fellowship with a variety of churches. As it draws to a close I am trying to draw some threads together on what the Lord has taught me. Book […]
I thoroughly enjoy politics so the announcement of a General Election was a bit like Christmas for me. But I have to be honest- this campaign has been amongst the most depressing that I can remember. I have been disappointed by our Prime Minister- principally at the lack of open honesty. Calling an election having […]
We are coming to the end of our sermon series here on Christian Living in a Secular Society. I’ve enjoyed working on this series immensely, partly because it has enabled me to use one of my favourite words- nuance. The sermon I preached on 1 Corinthians 5 was probably the most important example of this. […]
Last Sunday I was preaching down at Crofton Baptist Church in the morning service and then was interviewed on the subject of same sex attraction over lunch. I found the day immensely encouraging, especially meeting the pastor there who is a son of a former pastor of the church here. The recording for the interview […]
I loved watching the Olympics. Yes- it disturbed sleep patterns (although others have informed me that it wasn’t compulsory to wake up in the middle of the night to watch Adam Peaty’s gold) but it was fun cheering on British success. And there are certain experiences that only the Olympics give. I was away with […]
I simply can’t recall a time when the political world has seemed so crazy. Life has quietened down somewhat since the referendum result but there is still a huge amount of uncertainty about the future make-up of Great Britain, the relationship with the rest of Europe and whether one of our main political parties will […]
In the last two posts I have argued that, despite the difficulties of handling the text, we need to read and preach Song of Songs more. We live in a culture where there is much talk about love and the song gives us an opportunity to speak about a love which is as strong as […]