Category Archives: Uncategorized

So how was your Summer?  Did you get that break?  Was it a time of refreshment, renewal and inspiration?  Or a downer and a disappointment? In the third week in August A level results were, as usual, being trailed in … Continue reading →

Presland’s Fair came every year for the first Saturday in July, for the Flower and Produce Show in Carter’s Meadow.  The fair, the plants, the flower arrangements, the biggest beans, the certificates and the rosettes were all part of the … Continue reading →

Did you know that there is a United Nations International Day of Friendship?  I didn’t.  It’s coming up on July 30.  I came across it by accident and it set me thinking.  The Day was declared in 2011 by the … Continue reading →

Not so long ago I walked into church one Sunday and I was asked to confirm that I was doing the prayers – and I had completely forgotten!  My stomach sank.  Fortunately enough equilibrium returned for me to scribble thoughts … Continue reading →

Do you remember the old Gestetner duplicators?  Cutting stencils on the typewriter and patching mistakes with Tippex?  Black ink on your hands?  I remember no more parcels of Parish Magazines arriving from the Plaistow Press in East London.  My father, … Continue reading →

I think we’re all in search of wholeness, of a sense of completeness.  Not always consciously, of course.  But we do know when we are out of sorts, out of balance – with ourselves and with others.  Perhaps even with … Continue reading →

Human beings like to understand things.  We’re not so keen on mysteries.  If we understand it gives us some control – or so it seems.  We name and categorise things.  Hence all the “….ologies”, including theology, which, like all the … Continue reading →

“Is that it?” “What do you mean, is that it?” “The Jubilee.  Is it finished?” “Yes, we’ve had four days of it.” “I was hoping for something more.  It was good to give thanks and the pageantry and parties were … Continue reading →

It was at last Sunday afternoon’s Choral Evensong that I realised just how many words we use in a service.  Two lessons, three hymns, a sermon, prayers, a psalm, a couple of canticles and a creed.  Understandably, as human beings … Continue reading →

Through her sermon last Sunday, Janine set a big challenge.  She reminded us that our neighbour does not end with the family next door, the people in our street, or even the people in our town or country.  Every human … Continue reading →