Passing on the Baton The Olympic and Paralympic Games scheduled for Tokyo in 2020 are now rescheduled to take place in July 2021. This global event is due to take place in very restricted circumstances because of the pandemic. There will be no overseas’ spectators and this is particularly difficult for the families and friends […]

Some thoughts on being indispensable! It must be about twelve or fourteen years ago now, I was invited to accompany a small group from Ireland to spend three days with Jean Vanier, the founder of the L’Arche communities for adults with learning disabilities. Jean was based in Trosly Breuil just north of Paris, before he died in […]

Hope in Sadness One of the privileges of parish ministry is that one gets asked to give the address at people’s funerals. The way I usually try to do this is to reflect on the things that were important in a person’s life and try to share something of the Christian hope. This has been […]

Pilgrimage Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day and normally I would be leaving the house early for the annual Diocesan pilgrimage in Downpatrick. A bus normally takes people from the Cathedral to Saul where a Holy Communion Service takes place. After that Communion Service, many people make the pilgrimage from Saul back to the Cathedral, where […]

Giving Birth Maybe because it’s Mothering Sunday this Sunday, or maybe because I was at a meeting last Monday about funding projects working in the poorest countries in the world, I find myself thinking about the idea of giving birth. I didn’t realise that Sierra Leone is the most dangerous country in the world to give […]

International Women’s Day Yesterday was International Women’s Day and I thought I would take the opportunity to pay tribute to three generations of women who have influenced my life for good. The first is my mum, pictured on a special day at Centre Court, Wimbledon, as she marked a special birthday with a day trip […]

The Census and the Importance of Being Counted I recently received my census information in the post as I suspect many reading this did, too. Sunday, 21st March is census day and on that day we are asked to give information about who is part of our household. The information collected in the census is used […]

Exploring Faith in New Ways I was sent some photos recently by someone who was clearing out some stuff. They came from a time when Sunday school was taught in different ways and this photo was of a lovely scroll exploring the difference between bishops, priests and deacons. In the Anglican Church tradition they are […]

What’s going to be your legacy? I have a friend in the church who shares my love of sport. He reads lots of sporting biographies and autobiographies and other sports related books and he often kindly passes them on to me. I then have the opportunity to enable them to go on further. A few […]

Some Memories from University Days One of the groups of people who have been profoundly impacted by the current pandemic are university students. For many, university or third level courses represents a time when people leave home for the first time, they make new friends and, perhaps, join various clubs and societies to broaden their horizons. It’s all very different at the minute with […]