Keeping it local On the way home from the school run, which I do 3 times a week, I like to tune in to Ryan Tubridy on RTE Radio 1. It’s a way of keeping me in touch with my roots with its mixture of news, current affairs, human interest stories and interviews. Ryan is […]
Learning to Praise One of the things we have all been missing terribly in church is the permission to sing our hymns and songs together. There is something incredibly powerful and moving about singing the words of those special sacred songs. I’m sure I’m not alone when I recall the hairs standing up on the […]
Shining a light We watched an amazing documentary on the BBC iPlayer during the week about Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff and his struggle with bulimia. Freddie is a TV presenter these days presenting the popular car show, ‘Top Gear’, alongside Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris. Prior to his television career, he was a top class international cricketer with […]
Together we are stronger As we think together in these blogs about what it is to be a ‘church without walls’, one of the commands of Jesus we frequently refer to is the importance of loving our neighbour. Even for those who have no church background this is not an unfamiliar teaching. While Christians have […]
Technology – Friend or Foe? One of the things that has become very apparent over the past 6 or 7 months is our increasing reliance on technology. Many people through lockdown were forced to order their groceries and prescriptions online. Schools and universities delivered their lessons and lectures online and Zoom technology became the way […]
In praise of care in the community During the past 6 months or so since starting this blog I have felt a deep well of gratitude within my heart for different individuals and professions. I have written blogs about my family, about the church, about shopkeepers and the NHS. I have written of individuals who […]
Life interrupted In recent years I have become a great fan of podcasts. If I’m on a long car journey I will try to download a few on my phone or, if I’m doing some chores in the kitchen, it’s great to be able to tune into all sorts of interesting shows. Sometimes it’s talks […]
Some lessons from the West Wing It was a very special thing on Friday past to do my first full solo school run in almost 6 months. With our working schedules I normally do the school run 3 days a week and last Friday was the first day both our children were back to school […]
Thank you NHS and Thank you Church One of the vivid memories many of us have from lockdown is the Thursday night clap for the NHS. People would gather in their neighbourhood on their doorsteps to clap and bang saucepans to say thank you to all our NHS and frontline workers. I used to ring […]
Making the most of our time A couple of months into the pandemic, Bishop David recorded a message for Select Vestries which we were asked to listen to on the same night, right across the diocese. One of the things he said, which stuck with me, was about making the most of our time and investing in things […]