The tourist season has certainly started here and its worth pausing to consider the lure of these buildings:
Painting and sculpture, music and drama, architecture and liturgy: all these involve arranging the physical world in ways that lead beyond the visible. This explains why
Blog: Pictures-Books-Reflections
Cuthbert
Posted on by James Woodward
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Today the Church commemorates Cuthbert.
Although tradition says that Cuthbert was the son of an Irish king, it is most likely that he was born in the vicinity of Melrose, in present day Scotland, of poor parents. Certainly we know that he tended sheep on the hills above th
Food!
Posted on by James Woodward
The way people handle food is a good barometer not only their inner world but also of their generosity to others. Such generous hospitality brings happiness not only to the guest but also to the host. Eating good food is a pleasure, but sharing good food with guests brings deli
St Patrick
Posted on by James Woodward
St. Patrick's Breastplate Prayer
I bind unto myself today
The strong name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
I bind this day to me for ever,
By power of faith, Christ's Incarnation;
His baptism in the Jordan River;
His death on cross
A Good Death?
Posted on by James Woodward
In his living and in his dying. Michael knew the joy of contemplating God and the delight of living virtuously.
Without realizing it, such people are fulfilling St Benedict’s injuction to keep death daily before our eyes. They would be surprised if anybody called them morbid;
A healthy and moderate contribution to debate
Posted on by James Woodward
The Bishop of Liverpool is to be congratulated for his moderate and heartfelt  plea to get some of the Churches disagreements into a wiser perspective. See this report from the Diocese of Liverpools web page - and all the better coming from an evangelical!
Perhaps this image o
Evil?
Posted on by James Woodward
Each day here in St Georges Chapel we read or sing the Psalms. They uncover a world of struggle, of hope, of light and darkness. Above all they explore the world of evil.
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Evil is a mystery, something which cannot be grasped by rational thought, and whose existence and origi
Where do we find truth?
Posted on by James Woodward
The modern poet Cecil Day Lewis speaks of a poetic truth with ‘is not like scientific truth, verifiable’, but which operates upon us to bring about a ‘furtherance of life’. ‘The truth’, he says, ‘is in the passion'.
An ignorance a sunset
Posted on by James Woodward
My bedroom is high in the north wall of this great fortress and from the windows the sun in the morning and  evening reveals its special splendour reminding me of this wonderful piece of Dickinson
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An ignorance a Sunset
Confer upon the Eye --
Of Territory -- Color --
Circum
Cheese, fennel and herb soup
Posted on by James Woodward
Ingredients
 15g/½oz butter
½ onion, chopped
 ½ potato, peeled, cut into 1cm/½in cubes
1 bulb fennel, finely sliced
150ml/¼ pint hot chicken stock (vegetarians can substitute vegetable stock)
 small handful fresh parsley, chopped
1 free-range egg yolk
4 tbsp do
Edward King
Posted on by James Woodward
The Archbishop talks to Crosslincs (Diocese of Lincoln newspaper) about the legacy of Bishop Edward King.
While many Bishops of Lincoln have passed out of people's memories, just a few of the 71 bishops who have held the post remain firmly in the memories and observances of th
making us better?
Posted on by James Woodward
Extracts from a sermon preached this morning in Windsor -
On the Virtue of Prudence
 Getting to know people is fascinating! Sometimes we are introduced to others, often we introduce ourselves. The way we do that may be revealing. The most adept of social animals may help us
‘A Church in Bavaria’
Posted on by James Woodward
See the movement in the poem - and make the connections for yourself!
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Everything flows
  upward and over
      chalk-white walls
        with the ordered freedom
            of a trellised creeper
        wreathed and scrolled
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Michael Foot
Posted on by James Woodward
I heard Michael Foot, in person, three or perhaps it was four times in my life. It left an abiding memory. I remember his intelligence, his breadth of interests, his passion, his extraordinary appearance, his careful use of English, his humanity. All of these qualities are refle
Sea
Posted on by James Woodward
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WHEN the sea is everywhere
from horizon to horizon ..
when the salt and blue
fill a circle of horizons ..
I swear again how I know
the sea is older than anything else
and the sea younger than anything else.
From Carl Sandburg, North Atlantic
The sound of dissonance?
Posted on by James Woodward
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There are classical composers who write for the Church such as Judith Bingham, Judith Weir, Gabriel Jackson, Francis Grier and other who are writing music that is not afraid to be dissonant. But we have not moved fundamentally from the idea that harmony is good and disharmo
St Chad
Posted on by James Woodward
St Chad was the first bishop of Mercia and Lindsey at Lichfield. He was the brother of Cedd, whom he succeeded as Abbot of Lastingham, North Yorkshire, and a disciple of Aidan who sent him to Ireland as part of his education. Chad was chosen by Oswi, king of Northumbria, as bis
St David
Posted on by James Woodward
Saint David's Day
At school they told us
that it was the day
on which Jesus
and a host of angels
came to Wales.
There was sunshine
full of endless song
- and the sould of David
was borne away
to heaven.
I thought,
'He must have been
a good man
for God's Son
to come for him.'
intricate
Posted on by James Woodward
Intricate and untraceable
weaving and interweaving,
dark strand with light:
designed, beyond
all spiderly contrivance,
to link, not to entrap:
elation, grief, joy, contrition, entwined;
shaking, changing,
forever
forming,
transforming:
all praise,
all praise to the
gre
the face in the mirror
Posted on by James Woodward
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we are the face in the mirror
and we are the mirror itself.
Here, now, right now, we taste
the eternal. Yes, we are pain
and yes, we are the medicine for pain.
We are sweet cold water
and the jar, from which it pours.
Rumi