Through a glass darkly – 181
Susie and I didn’t get to Dunbar as planned; it was raining that day. But I went on the bus the following week, on a day that was bright and sunny and cold. I called in at the perfunctory Thursday prayer meeting at the Peace Pole outside St Anne’s; walked along by the sea to…
Through a glass darkly – 180
Not so many years ago September and October brought the prospect of autumn travels. For a decade or so I was involved with Men’s Retreats at the monastery at Maredsous in Southern Belgium. The prime mover was my friend Armin Kummer, and the retreats gathered a mixed group of men from Holy Trinity, Brussels, and…
Through a glass darkly – 179
Disappointment “Do not be anxious about anything,” Paul writes to the Philippians, “ but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Disappointment is something common to all our lives.…
Through a glass darkly – 178
A hospital stay I came out of hospital last Thursday evening after 8 nights in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Along the road at Little France. [Named from French members of the entourage brought to Edinburgh by Mary Queen of Scots, who took up residence at nearby Craigmillar Castle.] It was the longest that I have…
Through a glass darkly – 177
Birthday blessings Another year, another birthday ! It seems that 81 is the new 80. We hobbled along the road for coffee at the Earl Grange cafe. [See official birthday photo.] And sat in the sunshine talking to 2 people that we knew and 2 people that we didn’t know. Then home to lunch in…
Through a glass darkly – 176
Journalling: then and now ‘The unexamined life is not a life worth living.’ Is a quote usually attributed to Socrates. I was clearing out my three in-trays and I came across a jumbo-format ring-bound exercise book labelled Journal. At the first M.Th residency at ICC, Glasgow, in 2006, Peter Neilson told our M.Th cohort that…
Through a glass darkly – 175
Rabbis wrestle for the soul of Judaism Something very unusual happened last week. I found three things of interest in the Church Times. Two things were only of minor interest: Dr Mark Barwick is retiring as Chaplain of St Alban’s, Strasbourg, on June 1st. And the Ven. Dr Peter Hooper is standing down as Archdeacon…
Through a glass darkly – 174
The days go slowly, but the years go faster. It is ten years ago this week that we made our first and only trip to the States. It was a package tour with Great Rail Journeys, a kind of retirement prize after I had just done eighteen months [post-retirement] locum work at Holy Trinity, Brussels.…
Through a glass darkly – 173
Madeleine Bunting: The Plot: a Biography of My Father’s Acre I have been reading a difficult to categorise book by Madeleine Bunting, a former Guardian journalist. The book is an oblique history of her father and the small plot of land that he loved on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors. Her father, John…
Through a glass darkly – 172
I made the mistake, a few years ago, of buying a book that got rave reviews in the Church Times. The book was The Nazareth Manifesto by Sam Wells, the prolific and very effective Vicar of St Martin’s in the Fields. It was a disappointing book, but two things stay with me. One was a…
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