Best Pods of 2021

Lockdown has caused the proliferation of podcasts, with every Tom, Dick and Harriet taking to the pod waves. And, slightly awkwardly, I’m no exception.  But here are some of the favourites that have kept me going (usually when I’m doing menial jobs around the house or in the garden or car). Also when insomniac (in […]

Best Reads of 2021

Here’s a brief rundown of my favourite books from 2021: essentially those I awarded 5* on my Goodreads page. But just to be clear, it’s been an abnormally intense reading year because of my DMin research (in the area of theology and the arts), which, for sanity’s sake, I always need to offset with fiction […]

Twas Much That Man Was Made Like God

A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS! Here is one of my favourite sculptures anywhere.  A whacking great 4.5 tonne block of Portland Stone, with a new born baby boy on its surface and John 1:1 carved into its side. In the Beginning by Mike Chapman (Presented to St Martin in the Fields, London, in 1999 Holy Sonnet […]

Q Marks the Spot 158 (December 2021 Treasure Map)

Sacred Treasure Advent is upon us – do follow Malcolm Guite’s meditations through the season (taken from his book). Here’s the first from George Herbert’s The Glance. Ed Shaw and the CEEC folks have published a healthy, honest and real response to the abuse scandals. Hoping this will be the start of genuine change for […]

A Positive Outcome from the BA Stress!

GOOD NEWS! Regulars here will have read of my nightmare of being massively overcharged for a flight cancellation by BA last month. Well, a few friends retweeted. I was even on BBC Radio Berkshire to talk about it. But it was only when Jude Godden, caseworker for Tim Farron MP, got to work on his […]

Q Marks the Spot 157 (November 2021 Treasure Map)

Sacred Treasure The ever trusty Malcolm Guite reclaims All Hallows Eve in a sonnet. Thanks to the great Art & Theology page, I’ve discovered that there’s a TV series available online called Closer To Truth, which includes several hours engaging the biggest questions of life through the Arts. Looks amazing My boss, Paul Windsor, used […]

Reflections on ‘Bleeding for Jesus’

Many of us have been waiting for Andrew Graystone’s book about the John Smyth abuses and Iwerne camp culture for a while now. Well, it’s out; and it is dividing people along perhaps predictable lines. But my fear is that the many important elements within it are avoided because of some of the book’s problems. […]

Q Marks the Spot 156 (October 2021)

Sacred Treasure David Taylor has a really helpful and constructive piece out: 10 Beatitudes for the use of Social Media Eddie Arthur is excellent here, with Kwame Bediako’s great line that we are living through “the revival of a non-Western religion”. Anne Applebaum on Cancel Culture, Democracy and the New Puritans (long but important read) […]

A sorry tale of customer incompetence, corporate greed, and mealy-mouthed rhetoric

I’ve been very fortunate indeed because, as a doctoral student in St Louis, I’ve had a USA student visa throughout the pandemic. Which has meant that once total travel-bans were lifted, I’ve been one of the very few non-residential Europeans able to enter the States. Even though my travel for Langham more or less ground […]

I Am A Leader (a thought experiment)

Here is something I’ve been playing around with for a bit, a tangent to the O Tempora O Mores series. I’ll just post it here and see what you make of it Click to access Thought-Experiment-I-am-a-leader-FINAL.pdf

Q Marks the Spot 155 (September 2021 Treasure Map)

Sacred Treasure Where is good and evil in Afghanistan by Tom Bowring (c/o Psephizo) For important historical background, one can’t do much better than William Dalrymple’s brilliant account of Afghan history  Are Foreigners Still Needed in the age of indigenous mission? a Crucial question and one that far too few western Christians stop to consider. […]

The Disarming Compassion of God

Earlier this month, I had the honour of giving the Bible Readings at Week 3 of the Keswick Convention. In part because my day job is no longer serving a local congregation, and in part because the last couple of years have been so weird, this was the first time working on some new preaching […]

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