Building Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City by Tristram Hunt Weidenfeld & Nicholson £25, pp472 There is a great deal to admire about Building Jerusalem – its scope, its clarity and the enthusiasm with which it celebrates its subject. He has devoted much of his preface to an assault on the way in […]
Futurism
Posted on by James Woodward
Thanks to the generosity of friends in Solihull I have membership of the Tate and was glad to escape from the pressures of work to see the exhibition of some of the Futurists work in the glorious building. Tate Modern celebrates the centenary of this dramatic art movement with a ground-breaking exhibition. The colour and […]
Holiday Reading (2) Florence Nightingdale by Mark Bostridge
Posted on by James Woodward
Florence Nightingale is a strange figure, both too frequently written about and too little understood. Mark Bostridge is the ideal assessor – measured, temperately partisan, yet never losing a sense of perspective over this whirlwind of ambition; this astonishing, formidable, and frequently supremely arrogant and irritating woman. Florence Nightingale was born into a quintessentially […]
Holiday Reading – Westminster Abbey by Richard Jenkyns
Posted on by James Woodward
One of the delights of being unable to pass by a bookshop(especially if it is secondhand where bargins are to be had) is the sheer delight of discovery. This latest purchase added to the holiday reading written so beautifully by the professor of the Classical Tradition in The University of Oxford. Part of the […]
Gregory the Great
Posted on by James Woodward
Pope St. Gregory I , better known in English as Gregory the Great, was pope from 3 September 591 until his death. Gregory is well-known for his writings, which were more prolific than those of any of his predecessors as pope. He is also known as Gregory the Dialogist in Eastern Orthodoxy because of his […]
Is anything private anymore??
Posted on by James Woodward
This is a kind of kiss and tell book that both attracts (for the gossip I confess but also the sheer wonder at how on earth he managed to get away with so much) and also repells. Is anything private – what of the seal of the confessional? We find him rubbing shoulders with a […]
Ten things
Posted on by James Woodward
Ten good things about holidays…… After a couple of days the alarm clock and watch become unnecessary You can take all morning to read the newspaper Drinking at lunchtime is a possibility and soem days a necessity Time for experimentation with all those odd fragments of recipes rescued from Sunday papers in the hope of […]
Aiden
Posted on by James Woodward
Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, the Apostle of Northumbria (died 651), was the founder and first bishop of the monastery on the island of Lindisfarne in England. Holy Island is one of those places which many people have heard of but have yet to make a pilgrimage to. It is one of the most important sites […]
What love sees is true?
Posted on by James Woodward
St. John tells how, at Cana’s wedding feast, The water-pots poured wine in such amount That by his sober count There were a hundred gallons at the least. It made no earthly sense, unless to show How whatsoever love elects to bless Brims to a sweet excess That can without depletion overflow. Which […]
Happy Holidays
Posted on by James Woodward
Even Bloggers need a rest and some inspiration…… see you in September after a well deserved break! Here are some images that will give you some idea as to what I shall be looking forward to!!
what we do?
Posted on by James Woodward
don’t go back to sleep Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don’t go back to sleep. People […]
Does the C of E have any moral leadership?
Posted on by James Woodward
This comes from the pen of Bruce Anderson and is published in the Independent on 3rd of August 2009. I think it deserves reflection and conversation. Death is often messy. The same is now true of aspects of the law relating to death. To assist in a suicide – including one in which death […]
The Marvelous
Posted on by James Woodward
The annals say: when the monks of Clonmacnoise Were all at prayers inside the oratory A ship appeared above them in the air. The anchor dragged along behind so deep It hooked itself into the altar rails And then, as the big hull rocked to a standstill, A crewman shinned and grappled down […]
Transfiguration
Posted on by James Woodward
O God, who on the holy mount didst reveal to chosen witnesses thy well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty; who with thee, O Father, and thee, O […]
Oswald
Posted on by James Woodward
Today the Church commemorates Oswald. The Baptsim of St Oswald Oswald’s father Æthelfrith was a successful Bernician ruler who, after some years in power in Bernicia, also became king of Deira, and thus was the first to rule both of the kingdoms which would come to be considered the constituent kingdoms of Northumbria (Bernicia […]
Well Being in Dying
Posted on by James Woodward
Have a look at this web page which is the fruit of collaborative work with Pauline Smith: www.wellbeingindying.org.uk www.wellbeingindying.org.uk
Too Old for what?
Posted on by James Woodward
Oliver Popplewell is annoyed. Why? At 75 he is obliged to retire from his post as a High Court Judge. He then embarks upon an adventure and ther eis the result! Sir Oliver Popplewell became, in his own words, officially “judicially senile” after a distinguished career at the Bar, as a High court judge specializing […]
Joy
Posted on by James Woodward
Let a joy keep you. Reach out your hands And take it when it runs by, As the Apache dancer Clutches his woman. I have seen them Live long and laugh loud, Sent on singing, singing, Smashed to the heart Under the ribs With a terrible love. Joy always, Joy everywhere– Let joy kill […]
William Wilberforce
Posted on by James Woodward
Today the Church gives thanks for the life and work of Wilberforce William Wilberforce (24 August 1759 – 29 July 1833) was a British politician, a philanthropist and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780 and […]
Mary, Martha and Lazarus
Posted on by James Woodward
John 11:1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is […]