Heritage is a valuable thing. The Jews looked back to the Exodus, as well as the Mesopotamian man of Chaldean Ur, Abram, whose father was a pagan, for their sense of origin and being. Abraham was therefore an ‘Iraqi.’ “Hebrews” –descendants of Eber. We look back to 1852 when St Paul’s was built inside and from the timber stand that was Papanui…

Some of us are spending this lockdown time in getting ‘things sorted’. Having ‘sized down’ into our Ryman’s villa 5 years ago, I thought that we had jettisoned pretty well and it felt really good to be nicely lightened. As I use some of this time to check cupboards (and the garage!) I can almost hear The Teacher — Ecclesiastes — saying…

I once spent some years working in an international organisation in a major European city, in a job often fraught with political tension. I found it a stressful environment, although it had many good and interesting features too. In such an environment it was easy to ‘forget’ God—the constancy of pressure was such that work-life became something of a blur. But one…

Deep down in my soul runs a favourite hymn which we used to sing frequently in Nelson Cathedral when I was Curate. The congregation had a passion for it, and sang it with thoughtful sincerity. (Evensong has always been my favourite Sunday Service.) The hymn is based on Mark 1:32+. At even e’er the sun was set, The sick, O Lord, around…

A couple of weeks back we had a beautiful sunset. The sky was all orange and red and yellow and pink and changed colour every minute or two. We are lucky to have brilliant sunsets here in Canterbury. It made me think of the words of that beautiful old song ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’. Let me take you on a brief…

I normally believe and proclaim that today is by far the most important day of our lives. After all, it is when we get everything done. It is the one we live in. But who am I to argue with Hollywood legend John Wayne about that? He does make a very good point. The Duke once said “Tomorrow is the most important…

This was the outside of our front door. It’s a fly. Earlier in the week I left for work and the fly was there. Since then we have had a southerly squall, torrential rain and wind. The next day I went out in the morning. The fly was still there. It had not moved. There is a lesson for us in this.…

A way to pray Our Lord himself gave us a format for prayer in Matthew 6: 9–13. It is an amazing prayer, with every aspect of our lives and needs sown into it. The Lord’s Prayer can be used as a basis for prayerful meditation, and provides a framework for prayer at any time. Try taking each step separately and pondering on…