My grandson, C, who is 11, has just opened his own banking account for which he will be fully responsible. He is very excited about this, very proud of his new bank card. He had to wait to get the letter with his card and then a letter with his PIN code and then a...
I am no gardener. In fact, I often laughingly define myself as the world’s worst gardener as I always pull up the wrong things and kill the plants I’m supposed to be nurturing. But despite this, I am still aware of the ongoing nature of most garden chores. I might...
My readings recently have been in John’s gospel. In the first chapter Jesus the living Word is introduced as God himself, the one who brings life to us and his transforming grace. Later in the gospel we see how Jesus works that out in practice. At the start of...
From the Open Ears Prayer Calendar for 19th August 2024 (Devotional): John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you: My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” When I moved to Dorset, two of my...
Examen the Details by Emily Owen ‘You guys really gotta stop asking athletes what’s next after they win a medal at the Olympics. Let us soak up the moment we’ve worked our whole lives for’ Simon Biles, Olympic champion in gymnastics, tweeted this...
A Thanksgiving service for the life of Julia was held in Wokingham Baptist Chirch.. The service was led by Mr Tony Brown, Chair of Torch Trust for the Blind. After the welcome and opening prayer, the congregation sang the hymn by Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend,...
Almost every day I have a special visitor who comes to my garden whom I’ve grown rather fond of; watching him gives me a lot of pleasure although I know that not everyone would be very pleased to see him because he is a fox. One person who would not be very pleased to...
Mitch Albom is one of my favourite authors. He has written many books, both fiction and non fiction, among them several number one New York Times bestsellers. He founded ‘SAY Detroit’, a consortium of nine different charities in his hometown, set up a...
We had such a wonderful time at our 50th anniversary celebration on June 15, 2024. Thank you to all who came; to those who joined via Zoom (apologies if this did not work well for you, we will aim to improve this for future in person events); to our speakers, Emily...
While leafing through a Greek-English Interlinear volume recently, my eye was drawn to an unusual compound Greek word I had never seen before. The “Heart-Knower” or Kardiognostes is commonly translated as “God who knows our hearts”. This compound word only appears...
