Reflections

Our reading today came from John’s Gospel, chapter 4: Jesus came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from…

Today is St Cuthbert’s Day – one of the great northern saints. The story goes that Cuthbert was looking after some sheep in the hills in the Scottish borders, and one day he saw a shaft of light coming down…

Here is a reading from Paul’s Letter to the Romans, chapter 7 verses 17 – 25, in the brilliant Message version of the Bible: If I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do…

Our Bishop, Bishop Rachel, wrote this week about Ash Wednesday. She began by noticing the way that in the argument in the Oval Office last week between President Trump, Vice President Vance and President Zelensky, there was a lot of…

On Sunday we attended the baptism of our great nephew Arlo in a village church in Somerset. The setting was quite traditional, but the vicar gave a lovely welcome to the families who had come for the baptism, and was…

I wonder what you notice about the two main characters in our reading? In Jerusalem was a man by the name of Simeon. He was an upright man, devoted to the service of God, living in expectation of the “salvation…

I believe that one fine day, that the power of love will rise above the love of power. We learnt this together at this year’s Carol Service – and did pretty well!  The words feel so relevant for this past…

I wonder what the heart of Christmas is for you? Call the Midwife, obviously… But not just the day itself – the meaning? In an email that Jo and I got this week, Simon Parke says this: Whatever our personal…