Some years ago, I spent Advent in the Manchester Royal Infirmary as a patient. I’d been in hospital since October, by Advent I was recovering from surgery and waiting for test results. Miles from home, barrier-nursed in a side room, uncertain and anxious of what might lie ahead, it was a strange Advent... not the kind with candlelight services and carols, but one of ward life, the smell of disinfectant, and long nights broken only by the soft sounds of nurses’ footsteps. Duri

Some years ago, sailing into Plymouth harbour, the boom vang on my yacht snapped. Boom Vangs are small things, but of crucial importance if you want the boat to move in the way you wish it to, because it connects the wheel to the sail, via a device known, amusingly, as a ‘tabernacle’. The snap came about fifty metres from the harbour wall, beyond which all was still and calm and the onboard motor would have been quite sufficient, with the sails down, to pootle into the marina

As we approach the end of the liturgical year, many of the readings encountered at Mass may seem rather apocalyptic, looking towards the end…..the end times; end of an era. The context of today’s gospel is that we are coming to the end of Jesus’ ministry. We are fast approaching the cross. Apocalyptic scripture may seem devastating; it is very often imagery based and yet while it seems to be very violent and full of suffering, there is also always a message of hope alongside

I hope that what we do here, how we witness, is of some consolation to those who visit occasionally. Sometimes at baptisms and funerals, I occasionally think ‘why did you want the service in a church’, because it can seem as though I am the only person in the room who believes in what we are doing. Maybe people feel some consolation from the fact that there are those who still believe. Do Christians actually believe in life after death? It depends on what is meant by life. On

Some time ago, there was a meeting looking at regularising the rites of deliverance in the Church of England. As most of you will guess, I was at the meeting. I was reasonably quiet, because I had successfully argued for ‘other occasional texts as may be needed’ to be inserted into the Canon, and indeed, ‘Other Occasional Texts’ pretty much sums up the entire liturgy by which I live and minister. At one point, the insurance company were saying that we would be unable to pract