Shining a Light on World Mental Health Day Last Thursday was World Mental Health Day. It’s a day that could have slipped our attention. There were some items on the radio I heard as I was driving in the car. Many people are much more open these days in discussing our mental health, but there’s […]
Something Went Wrong! This week’s blog is coming your way somewhat later than expected. I had hoped to write it when I normally do but, when I switched on my computer to do so, the following message came up. Apart from telling me something went wrong, it gave an error code and, the bottom line […]
Praying for Overwhelming Events Sometimes the scale of the world’s needs can seem rather overwhelming. We hear of catastrophic storms, wars, floods, droughts and famines. We read terrible human stories of accidents and criminal activity. We hear of racially motivated attacks, and these stories make us wonder how to respond as a Christian, or if […]
Making Big Announcements One of the aspects of Church life that can be quite challenging is how to make big or important announcements. Very often, at the start of a service, we rattle through the events of the week, or we let people know about forthcoming events. The same announcements may also appear on a […]
Extending the Hand of Friendship A great hero of mine died earlier this year back in March. His name was Charlie Bird, and he spent his working life as a journalist with RTE, the Irish broadcasting network. He became their chief news correspondent and his was the face and voice that accompanied major global and […]
The Big Sing According to research done by the Singing Foundation website there is now considerable evidence to support the claim that singing really is good for you. It has physical benefits like improving your posture, lung function and regulating your blood pressure. There are other social and psychological benefits, too, like relieving stress, improving […]
The Beauty of Warm Hospitality Last weekend our son Conor was invited to a birthday party. It was his friend’s Dad’s 50th and they had invited him to come and stay overnight to share in the celebrations. When I arrived to drop him off, there were quite a few cars down the road where they […]
Defining Moments In the past few weeks many young people have received exam results which can feel particularly significant at this point in their lives. They may determine whether someone will return to school, or choose to pursue another path to further their education or training. They may determine what course someone will study, or […]
Welcome to the Family A delightful young woman reached out to me on social media about 6 weeks ago from the United States. Patti Springer was coming to Ireland with her Mum and Dad, Kelly and Dave, and her Aunty Pam, Kelly’s sister. She asked if it might be possible to come to one of […]
Joyful Homecomings The Olympic games in Paris ended with a spectacular closing ceremony on Sunday evening past. It involved the amazing athletes, various musical acts and the Hollywood actor, Tom Cruise, jumping from the roof of the stadium in a daring stunt using wires and escaping into the Paris traffic on a motorbike, taking the Olympic […]