Midwinter spring is its own season… When the short day is brightest, with frost and fire, The brief sun flames the ice, on pond and ditches, In windless cold that is the heart’s heat, Reflecting in a watery mirror A glare that is blindness in the early afternoon. And glow more intense than blaze […]
Councils ‘will struggle with ageing population’
Posted on by James Woodward
Social care is currently means-tested in England Councils will struggle to cope with the financial challenge posed by England’s ageing population, a watchdog says. The Audit Commission said the £9bn a year social care bill will double by 2026 if current practices continue. The warning comes as ministers are considering a revamp of the funding […]
Lament
Posted on by James Woodward
The sound of lament is heard throughout Scripture. It is more than a cry of grief, more than a purely human reaction to a distressing event or oppressive situation. It is both a protest against the pain of the present time, and also a timeless expression of the weeping voice of God, in whose image […]
Ash Wednesday
Posted on by James Woodward
Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent for Western Christian churches. It’s a day of penitence to clean the soul before the Lent fast . Roman Catholic, Anglican, and some other churches hold special services at which worshippers are marked with ashes as a symbol of death and sorrow for sin. Ash Wednesday services […]
Pancakes!
Posted on by James Woodward
Ingredients For the pancake mixture: 110g/4oz plain flour, sifted pinch of salt 2 eggs 200ml/7fl oz milk mixed with 75ml/3fl oz water 50g/2oz butter To serve: caster sugar lemon juice lemon wedges Method Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl with a sieve held high above the bowl so the flour gets […]
Between remembering and forgetting?
Posted on by James Woodward
The process of writing and production is a fascinating one – but always exciting! Here is a preview of the cover – more reflections to follow!
The making of Modern Britain
Posted on by James Woodward
The onset of a head cold from hell caused a frustrating retreat and between a streaming nose and eyes gave me a chance to read a Christmas present. I am a great fan of Marr whose writing is engaging and energetic! Andrew Marr wrote this history of Britain, subtitled “From Queen Victoria to […]
Sound?
Posted on by James Woodward
A short taster of Lucy Winketts excellent new book: Our Sounds is our Wound The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book by Lucy Winkett Sound is also a powerful metaphor for describing our relationship with God. From the description of Creation in Genesis and the beginning of John’s Gospel, the action of God has been […]
Finding new walks
Posted on by James Woodward
One of the wonderful things about a getting to know a new place is the discovery of new places to walk and relax…. I have recently been discovering how the River Thames shapes the life of Windsor – Windsor began as a Saxon village. Windsor’s name is believed to be a corruption of the Saxon […]
Ways of Perception
Posted on by James Woodward
The Via Positiva is a spirituality of pleasure and delight in creation, of falling in love with life. It is the way we see most clearly in the wonder and discovery of young children, stretching their imaginations and intellect, exulting in their bodies, sharpening their senses, leaping to meet all the possibilities of life and […]
Dementia ‘losing out’ to cancer in funding stakes
Posted on by James Woodward
Dementia ‘losing out’ to cancer in funding stakes Each dementia patient costs the economy £27,647 each year Dementia now costs the UK economy twice as much as cancer but gets a fraction of the funding to find causes and cures, a report seen by the BBC shows. For every one pound spent on dementia research, […]
Presentation of Christ in the Temple
Posted on by James Woodward
All-powerful Father, Christ your Son became man for us and was presented in the temple. May he free our hearts from sin and bring us into your presence. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen […]
For Kinder lives?
Posted on by James Woodward
The Hebrew word hesed in the Old Testament, which is most often translated as mercy, is in fact a word that is so rich in meaning that we cannot adequately contain it in English. It holds within it qualities of love, faithfulness, kindness and solidarity. It has been expressed in various translations as ‘loving kindness’, […]
Fragile and threatened? A better Way…..
Posted on by James Woodward
We’ve all been there. We may well have been part of a group that gets infected by this kind of a mood and attacks collectively. Not, of course, that we would ever do anything life trying to throw someone off a cliff. But a little character assassination, a bit of damning with faint praise, a […]
Funerals
Posted on by James Woodward
A book review that appeared in last weeks Church Times Death: Our Future Christian theology and funeral practice Edited by: Peter C. Jupp November 2008; Epworth Press; Paperback; 300pages; £25.00; ISBN: 9780716206385 In an age dominated by consumerism, the physical and the ideals of strength and youth, it takes courage and imagination to […]
Transformation?
Posted on by James Woodward
The word ‘transformation’ literally means ‘across forms’. It has a sense of something over or beyond, or on the other side of existing forms. To walk the Via Transformativa is to struggle to find new forms to hold our creativity, new ways to touch the heart. It is the challenge that faces artists of all […]
Thomas Aquinas
Posted on by James Woodward
Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) lived at a critical juncture of western culture when the arrival of the Aristotelian corpus in Latin translation reopened the question of the relation between faith and reason, calling into question the modus vivendi that had obtained for centuries. This crisis flared up just as universities were being founded. Thomas, after early […]
Being at Home
Posted on by James Woodward
The effect of being cherished is to make us feel ‘at home’. That is to say, we experience a feeling of at-home-ness that does not depend on being in a certain place or with certain people, but is an experience of welcome, strengthening, acceptance, care. There are people with whom one can feel at-home-ness in […]
Is the Church in Decline?
Posted on by James Woodward
I understand the neccesity not to give way to cynicism or despair – and to see the postive even or especially in difficult times but it is difficult to read these statistics in any other way than that of decline. How the Church responds and especially its Bishops will be fascinating. From the Church of […]
Conversion of St Paul
Posted on by James Woodward
Acts 9:1-20 9Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3Now as he was […]