A few months ago, my daughter passed her driving test. First time. A proud Dad moment. One of the basic rules for any driver is mirror, signal, manoeuvre – or MSM. And yet, if we give the benefit of the doubt on the first, it often seems that many don’t Read more…
It was Oscar Wilde who said ‘Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.’ Far be it from me to call my books ‘art’ but life it seems is paying some resemblance to their titles. There are elements of Life with St Benedict with the sad, impending closure of Read more…
The Vicarage had never heard anything quite like it: the three most prominent swear words in the English language all in the same sentence (and none of them began with B or S). The lorry driver was clearly having a bad day – and it wasn’t even half past eight. Read more…
Just over three years ago I had the privilege of being invited to preach at Portsmouth Cathedral. Among those gathered was Angela Tilby, former BBC religious programmes producer and known for being a somewhat provocative columnist for the Church Times. The Cathedral was marking the launch of a ‘Living Well’ Read more…
‘Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, Turn and face the strange’. In my last job I was (and knew I was) very fortunate to work alongside people who were supportive, encouraging and had a default answer of ‘yes’. The last three years have been a stark reminder that not everyone else is like that! Coping Read more…
A Summer sunny afternoon needed a ‘thinking walk’, as Winnie the Pooh called them. To be honest though, it was more of a ‘ranting walk’. As our churches emerged from the intensity of the pandemic restrictions, the criticisers and complainers had gone back to normal too. Whether lay or ordained Read more…
One of the benefits of being asked to write book reviews (aside from getting a free copy, of course) is that I get to read ones I wouldn’t naturally pick up off the shelf – or, given the demise of so many Christian bookshops in recent years, off Amazon, Eden Read more…
Many years ago, I lived in a flat at the top of the Vicarage of a large church in Bristol. In those five years I saw and experienced first-hand the 24 hour a day demands, intrusions and joys of such a place. From sharing Christmas lunch with the vicar and Read more…
The last couple of decades has seen many changes in the way we live and work. The 2010s saw a significant increase in the number of people working from home. Now, there have always been people who could do elements of their job where they lived (teachers, for example) but Read more…
‘Behind the scenes’ documentaries have been part of TV viewing for decades and, with the growth in streaming alongside hundreds of channels, there are a multitude of different settings for the cameras to spy on. One series I’ve enjoyed recently has been Channel 4’s The Yorkshire Jobcentre. Given my own Read more…