Reflections

Ordinary saints

Last week many churches celebrated All Saints Day. It’s good to remember that saints are not perfect people who float about doing good, with shining halos like in stained glass windows. Saints are people struggling to follow the way of…

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Rooted and grounded

This week we focussed on a wonderfully rich passage from the Letter to the Ephesians. It is important to me because when I was in my last church as Vicar we reflected on this passage, and out of it came…

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layers of healing

Tomorrow is the day that we remember St Luke in the church. We know more about Luke than any of the other gospel writers. He travelled with St. Paul on his journeys, which he writes about in the book of…

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Project Grow

Yesterday we had our first Project Grow gardening session in the Edible Garden here at FCH. Gardens are great places to think about our life with God, and our garden here is full of reminders too. The Edible Garden is…

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Band of Brothers

Today the church remembers Ini Kopuria, who was born about 1900 on the island of Guadalcanal, near Australia, part of the Solomon Isles. Ini was apparently an independent young man. He rejected the route planned for him into teaching and…

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Up and away?

Today we’re thinking about the Ascension of Jesus. Here is the way Luke tells the story in the book of Acts… On one occasion, after he had risen, while Jesus was eating a meal with the disciples, he emphasised that…

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Open to the flow

A longer reading this week, but it’s worth it: I wonder what you make of that story? The orthodox church in Ethiopia looks back to this encounter as their foundation. There’s a sense of dynamism in the whole story –…

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The call

I spent the last week or so following the Way of St Francis in Italy, ending up at Assisi. We were very lucky with the weather… sorry! We stopped at various points linked with the life of St Francis, and…

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Play and passion

I wonder if you have any particular memories of Palm Sunday…? One of my memories is from when I was vicar of a group of rural churches in Lincolnshire. We met at one of the Village Halls and gathered around…

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