Making Invitations Meaningful Many of us will have experienced social occasions where we sometimes feel ill at ease. Maybe it’s because we don’t know many people there and we feel a bit shy or awkward about striking up conversation with people we don’t know very well. Sometimes, too, we struggle when we don’t quite know […]
When you are undone by your children One of the lessons I find I am learning more as I get older, is that often my children are my greatest teachers. I know in my head that I’m supposed to be the one who sets an example and models good behaviour, but there are times when […]
Finding the Joy in Service It’s always a special thing when people have looked after you well. If you have enjoyed a meal out or been lucky enough to stay a night away, it’s a special thing when you see how much people have tried to make your experience memorable. When volunteers do something like […]
Openness to New Experiences I wonder would you consider yourself adventurous or open to new experiences? Sometimes we miss out on things by virtue of taking too cautious an approach. When we take the opportunity to do something a bit different or outside of our comfort zone we can be exhilarated and surprised. I remember […]
Go On Saz Pants! (The Power of Encouragement) It’s the time of year when we hear about the BBC Children in Need annual appeal. Each year, huge sums of money are raised to support charities and organisations doing vital work with children throughout the UK. Most years they get some of the presenters involved in […]
How will you be remembered? Sad news reached us this week of the untimely death of one of Conor’s primary school teachers who died after a courageous battle with illness. She was Conor’s teacher in P5, and we never met in person, as the pandemic meant we could not gather in person in school for a […]
A Bit of ‘Behind the Scenes’ One of the aims, or intentions, of this blog is to demystify what happens in church to those outside it. Sometimes people have a sense that church is not for them because of some misinformation they have picked up along the way. There is a perception also that church […]
A Window into Someone’s World I’ve always enjoyed memoirs, autobiographies and biographies. Some of them are more revealing than others and they can give us a real insight into someone else’s world, what makes them tick and how they have built their career or navigated some of the challenges they have faced. We tend to […]
A Man of Wonder I was saddened to hear of the death of Manchan Magan on Friday past. Manchan was an acclaimed writer, podcaster and documentary maker, and he died at the age of 55. I loved the series of documentaries he made about travelling Europe by train about 18 months ago. During the making […]
Theological Education Sad news reached me at the weekend about the death of Canon Billy Marshall in the Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough. Billy had been a formative influence on many generations of clergy as he lectured in Anglicanism, and was Vice Principal of the Church of Ireland Theological College for many years. Not only […]