I happened to be speaking on the subject of singleness exactly a month before lockdown was introduced. With hindsight I might have included some material on singleness in a pandemic but I wasn’t a sufficiently good prophet to foresee what would take place. However, the experience of being on my own in a flat for […]
Back in March Boris Johnson talked about turning the tide on the virus in twelve weeks. To be fair to him, he didn’t promise life would return to normal by the end of June- but I suspect many of us assumed that would be the case. So we began to have in our minds a […]
In a parallel universe somewhere I am currently in Heathrow Airport, about to fly out to Kenya to speak at a couple of conferences next week. It is one of a number of events that I was looking forward to this year that will no longer happen. And my own experience in this regard is […]
What do you preach during a pandemic? I’m conscious that is probably not one of the most pressing questions for many people at this time. But I have been struck by how important our online services have been for people. We have even by joined by those who don’t normally attend church. As a result […]
The question is beginning to be asked: what should we learn from the coronavirus pandemic? There are wise answers around- we need to be better prepared for such eventualities. More profoundly we need to reflect on how we value certain groups. The vital individuals over the last few weeks have been cleaners, hospital porters, carers […]
“Two men looked through prison bars/One saw mud, the other saw stars” That little ditty has been running through my mind a bit over the last week. I suppose lockdown naturally brings jail metaphors to mind. To be honest I am beginning to regard Port Meadow as a fairly pleasant prison exercise yard. You wander […]
It is the odd mixture that strikes me at the moment. Deep tragedy mixed with the strange amusement of a novel situation. Yesterday I conducted a funeral for a lady (that I didn’t know) who had died in her 80s. There were two others present and the service ended up taking around 10-15 minutes. I […]
None of us will ever forget last night. The time when the Prime Minister was forced to order us to stay in our houses. “Surreal” is a word that I have heard a lot over the weekend. We struggle to believe what is actually going on. How can life change so much so quickly? And […]
Last autumn the elders decided that our vision verse for 2020 would come from 2 Corinthians 1:9. The apostle Paul had faced various difficulties and persecutions- to the extent he felt like he had been sentenced to death. But he notes that these happened that “we might not rely on ourselves but on God who […]
I’ve always enjoyed preaching. To proclaim God’s Word to people is a massive privilege. But there is another aspect of my role that I’ve started to appreciate more. To sit opposite somebody as they talk about personal issues- some of which they haven’t really discussed with anybody else- is also quite a humbling experience. I’ve […]