Dear Friends

I can see clearly now the rain is gone.

I can see all obstacles in my way

Those famous lines summarise it seems quite neatly what all of us at the moment are hoping and praying for during this time of a global pandemic. I heard a leading British Virologist describe the current position in the UK as “a pandemic within a pandemic”. During such times the ability to see clearly what lies ahead seems tantamount to impossible.

Happy New Year! The month of January takes its name from the Roman God Janus who had two faces so that he could look both backwards and forwards at the same time. I wonder how many teachers and parents down the centuries would have loved to have emulated Janus and literally have had “eyes in the back of their heads.”

Dear Friends

In the bleak midwinter?

As I write this the country is enduring a spell of unseasonably warm weather which is entirely confusing many of the spring flowers in the garden. The prospect, that the winter of 2020/21 will be meteorologically a long hard “bleak” winter seems rather unlikely to say the least.

Dear Friends,

A Thanksgiving for Harvest Thanksgiving?

As you read this, we’ve entered the autumn of this quite extraordinary year, John Keats’ famous season “of mists and mellow fruitfulness”. Despite the familiarity of Keats’ well known and familiar words, this particular autumn is a time in which so many of our old certainties and preconceptions have crumbled into dust, for many it feels as if the mists are impenetrable and the mellow fruitfulness has been eaten away from the inside by unseen adversaries. This feels like a time when nothing is quite what it appears.

What’s the Story?

I wonder what the abiding memory of this tumultuous year will be in the future? How will commentators and especially historians define and describe 2020.

Dear Friends

“Regulations, regulations!”

How are you coping with the continuing Covid-19 regulations? I hope that by the time that you read this, you’ve become accustomed to wearing a face mask irrespective of which side of the border you live on. A few weeks ago I chaired three PCC meetings on three consecutive days and what a joy it was to see the faces of people I’d only spoken to on the phone for so long.

Dear Friends

Black Lives Matter ………..All Lives Matter

As I write this the Prime Minister has just announced a further easing of the Coronavirus restrictions in England. As well as providing a fascinating insight into devolution in action these past months have also taught all of us I suspect a valuable lesson in self-reliance and what is actually important to us and to our lives.

Welcome to the Sundays after Trinity

Under normal circumstances, when I sit down to write this letter at the beginning of the season after Pentecost, we’d all be looking forward with excitement, apprehension or a combination of the two to a summer season crowded and highlighted by the myriad events which provide the backdrop to the British summer from Garden and Village Fetes via concerts, talks, sports fixtures, agricultural shows and presentations.

Dear Friends,

“Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father” (Jn. 20:17)

Above the altar in the chapel of St. Mary Magdalene in Chichester Cathedral is a painting by Graham Sutherland entitled “Noli me tangere” (Touch me not) it is a comparatively recent example of a long list of artworks attempting to depict the moment which St. John describes of the risen Christ’s meeting with Mary Magdalene on the morning of the Resurrection.

From Calvary to Coronavirus

Under normal circumstances when I sit down to write at this time of year, I would be focussing solely on the end of lent, Passiontide and the joyful triumph of Easter and inviting you to journey with us through this most significant moment in the Christian year.

As I write this the news headlines both locally and nationally are dominated by reports of serious flooding in the aftermath of the second major storm in a week. The River Wye in Hereford is at a level higher than ever recorded and the myriad heartbreaking stories of people’s homes and livelihoods being destroyed in a deluge of stagnant water and mud tear at the heartstrings.

Dear Friends

Jesus Bids Us Shine”

It seems to me that February this year is very much a time of looking both backwards and forwards. 

The month begins with the celebration of Candlemas on February 2nd which this year falls on a Sunday.  Candlemas also known as the Presentation of Christ in the Temple is 40 days after Christmas. 

Peace Perfect Peace

A few weeks ago, I was fortunate to welcome members of the Diocesan Guild of Bell Ringers to Kington Church.  It was an enormous privilege to be able to welcome and above all thank exponents of this ancient and noble craft some of whom, of course, ring the bells of our own Churches.

Dear Friends

To See Or Not To See, That Is The Question

As I write this;  it’s the middle of November, the country seems to be experiencing a flood of almost Biblical proportions with yet more appalling scenes of devastated and deluges homes and businesses.  We’ve also just embarked upon the second General Election campaign in two years and the first December General Election in a century.

Dear Friends

It seems entirely a truism to observe that November is the month of remembering.  From it’s opening days dedicated to All Saints remembering those thousands of unknown and unnamed Christians who were examples in their own communities but are largely unknown beyond.

Betjeman’s Britain

Those of you who’ve attended some of our concerts during the summer months may well have heard me read the poem “The Diary of a Church Mouse, Christmas, The Church’s Restoration or Blame the Vicar” by the great late Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman.