We had a week beside the sea, last week. Nothing quite like the North Sea in October! Blustery Norfolk skies and coastal walks are the perfect combo. Another bonus was the chance to catch up with some serious reading. The…
In recent weeks, I've started a weekly column over at The Rabbit Room to share tiny corners of the classical music world with other corners of the webbyworld. The idea is to break things down into manageable morsels, with each…
There is a fine line between global-sized passion and totalizing imperial zeal. When that fact goes unacknowledged by Christian movers and shakers, we have a problem. A serious problem. The former is motivated by a clear sense of the world…
"He's BEHIND you!" resound the shrill cries of 500 families. All part of the Christmas ritual of that peculiar British staple; undoubtedly one of the odder cultural phenomena of these islands. Welcome to the world of Panto(mime): hard to encapsulate…
Sacred Treasure Some good advice for leaders on running meetings - one of those elements of the omnicompetence that is expected of ministers that you don't get taught. No wonder the kingdom belongs to such as these: a baby sees…
That exclamation—O Tempora! O Mores! (Oh the times, the customs!)—is one of Cicero’s few linguistic legacies extant today, propped up by those with a classical bent or aspiration to one. Perhaps Robert Harris’ page-turners have kept his flame alight, despite…
Sacred Treasure 75 years on from VJ Day - Phil Whittall has a powerful piece refuting the arguments that the Bomb was justified Michael Kruger has a very helpful and concise piece on distinguishing between 3 different types of legalism…
When I did the Echoes from Eternity edition of Irina Ratushinskaya poems, I mentioned that I would post the texts of some of them. So, voilà. All are taken from the 1988 Bloodaxe Books anthology Pencil Letter. THE WHITE-HOT BLIZZARD …
The news from Beirut this week was horrendous. It was all just so NEEDLESS. A catalogue of criminality, responsibility-avoidance coupled with the impotence of those who were concerned because they could see there was a problem. For a country in…
Sacred Treasure Steve Guthrie has a fascinating series on Music and the Holy Spirit over at Rabbit Room. In 4 parts, with this the first: The Sound that Breath Makes My friend Ziya Meral has a powerful piece on President…
So I realise this the second time this year I've homed in on this poem, but I come back to it again and again. Which is kinda appropriate actually. I just can't help it. It is so rich, so layered,…
Thanks to a kind invitation to speak at this year's Oak Hill School of Theology, I've been pushed into thinking more deeply about what it means to be created in God's Image. This was the 3rd event in a series looking…