Mental health and the Churches

“Why are you so full of heaviness O my soul And why are you so disquieted within me?” The psalmist asks the same penetrating, painful and honest question three times in Psalms 42 and 43. The Psalms testify here and elsewhere that anguish…

The Great Identity Crisis

“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15.13) Jesus words from John 15 have a special resonance this evening: Remembrance Sunday. They are inscribed on many a war memorial or chapel built…

On the value of prophets and short sighted seers

I visited Greyfriars church in Reading yesterday for the 9.30 and 11.30 am services.  Greyfriars are part way through a sermon series on Micah and the sermon was on passages in Micah 2 and 3. 

A Beatitudes Hymn

I attempt at least one new hymn every year as the verse for my Christmas card. I’m under no illusions that they will endure. I love words and enjoy crafting them in different ways. The satisfaction is as much in the writing as in the singing...

The Mission Community of St Frideswide

On Wednesday of last week, I was able to license the Revd. Kate Seagrave as Mission Priest to St Fridewide’s church and parish in Oxford and to a new community in Oxford, the Mission Community of St Frideswide. The community will seek to live out what it means to be a Christ-like Church.

A Kimberley and Kuruman diary

I spent four days in Kimberley with over fifty people involved in links and partnerships across our two diocese. Here’s a snapshot.

Thoughts and prayers for the Diocese of Sheffield

My thoughts and prayers are with the Diocese of Sheffield following publication of Sir Philip Mawer’s report into the recent process of appointment of my successor.

Faith Communities and Climate Change

We are communities of hope whose values lead us to work for change, not against the findings of science but in tandem to bring about a more sustainable world.

Called to be Christ-like: contemplative, compassionate and courageous

I am writing to invite every church, chaplaincy, small group and school in the diocese to do something very simple but life changing over the next year.