When I was on retreat at Mucknell Abbey at the beginning of December, Fr Stuart Burns recommended a book I hadn't heard of before: David F. Ford’s The Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary. It promises to be an excellent read, touching on many of the themes I now realise I need to pursue about John’s Gospel. Ford urges that the Church and the world need a new ‘Johannine Renaissance’, rediscovering, or more deeply discovering, Who Jesus is, and Why Jesus Now? 

I've owned a copy of this book for several years, but have only now got around to reading it. To War with Whitaker, by Hermione, Countess Ranfurly. (Slightly Foxed edition) It's a war book with a difference. It's not about the military campaigns and battles. It's a woman's diary, written during the 6 years of the Second World War, but not edited and published until 1994.

It's disconcerting in an age of instant communication of so many things (that often don't even need to be communicated) when you come across a notice of something that happened several years ago, that you would have liked to know about sooner. So it was this afternoon, when I opened the Winter Newsletter for alumni of my old school (Latymer Links: …

It’s time to tax the super-rich. Demand a Wealth Tax today.

The Authorized / King James Version of the Bible isn't exactly known as a book full of laughs. But I got a chuckle from it yesterday, seeing something I've never seen or thought of before. In Numbers 22, part of the story of Balaam and his ass: 27And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff. 

…and I blew it. I'm currently reading the Bible in great whacks, using Grant Horner's Bible Reading Plan It assigns 10 chapters of the Bible to read every day, each from a different part of the Bible: Gospels, Law, Epistles, Wisdom, History, Prophets. Professor Horner devised the scheme in 1983 as a new believer, wanting to learn as much about the Bible in as short a time as possible.

Well it wasn't exactly a Lenten observance, but something that grew out of a dissatisfaction with how things were. That's kind of what Lenten observances are supposed to be about, isn't it? But I'm referring, specifically, to my different computer setups. Ever since I was the proud owner of a ZX81, I've been fascinated by computers and what they can do - and how to make them do it.

Christmas Night ... and I had one of my recurring nightmares, that never fails to wake me up. I dream that I'm trying to crawl or squeeze or climb through a narrow place that I can't get my head through. I've often wondered whether this is some deeply ingrained memory from a preconscious state, of the trouble and danger of being born.

One of the things I do remember about that St Albans diocesan clergy conference in 1971, was one of the small discussion groups I was part of. One of the chapters in the book of preparatory reading, included the thought that, in order to engage with contemporary culture, Christians would need to be 'people of the borderlands', as Jesus was.

In the course of nearly six decades of adult life, with numerous changes of address, most of them upsizing to a larger house, but latterly including a major downsize, we've acquired large numbers of books. Anyone who thinks 'too many' is clearly not One Of Us - for We all know there is no such thing as too many books. Nevertheless, there comes a time when downsizing means there will not be enough shelf space for all of our books...

Christmas crib at St Nicholas, Marston It's that time of year again. When all the working clergy (God bless 'em. Who'd want to be one of them, just now1 ?) are planning for the annual influx of Christmas worshippers, and trying to think of different events and services to draw them in. Here's my advice, guys: don't bother with all those wizard wheezes for new and innovative and 'relevant' services.

Long, long ago, I used to think I was a 'Conservative Evangelical'. Maybe I even was one. All through theological college, while I was studying for my B.A. in Theology, and other qualifications for ordination, I somehow felt that I had to 'hold the line' against the liberalism (or whatever?) of modern academic theology. I have no idea where this came from...