King of the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex and one of the outstanding figures of English history, as much for his social and educational reforms as for his military successes against the Danes. He is the only English monarch known as 'the Great'.
Alfred was bor
Blog: Pictures-Books-Reflections
The Bible
Posted on by James Woodward
The disappearance of the Bible from European culture is self evident: once it was part of the intellectual and imaginative make up of poets, novelists and artists. Even if only a few knew the original languages in which the Bible was written, there was for the English speaking c
Rome and Canterbury
Posted on by James Woodward
I am, of course, not alone in feeling dismayed by the recent announcement by our sister church, Rome, about the deal to offer Anglican a way into a move to Rome. It feels like an act of aggression at worst - at best, a rather predatory move. It leaves me with al kinds of quest
Lawyers?
Posted on by James Woodward
I have always felt a certain amount of ambivalence towards lawyers - based on experience and a little envy at the sheer injustice of a society that pays them so much for their work!
Imagine then the circumstances whereby I choose to buy a lawyers memoirs! Putting money in the di
Theological Reflection
Posted on by James Woodward
I am busy at the moment beginning to prepare to do some scoping for a new book on theological reflection - a movement away from some of my usual topics !
Here is a starter thought:
'Christians are not reticent about expressing their opinions such matters, and one countless oth
seeking out?
Posted on by James Woodward
Spirituality is concerned with seeking out what is real in human life.
Change?
Posted on by James Woodward
She taught me this above all else; thing’s which don’t shift and grow are dead things.They are things which the witchery people want. Witchery works to scare people, to make them fear growth. But it has always been necessary, and more than ever now , it is. Otherwise we won
love is a place
Posted on by James Woodward
brightness
love is a place
& through this place of
love move
(with brightness of peace)
all places
From e.e.cummings, love is a place.
St Luke
Posted on by James Woodward
Who was St Luke?
Luke wrote two books of the Bible: a Gospel and The Acts of the Apostles; together they make up just over one-quarter of the New Testament.
Almost all that we know about Luke comes from the New Testament. He was a physician (Colossians 4:14), a companion of Pau
Faith
Posted on by James Woodward
Faith
I want to write about faith,
about the way the moon rises
over cold snow, night after night,
faithful even as it fades from fullness,
slowly becoming that last curving and impossible
sliver of light before the final dark
James Lees-Milne: The Life, By Michael Bloch
Posted on by James Woodward
Thackeray defined snobbery as "to meanly admire mean things". Another definition might be a judgment made by arbitrary standards, for example extrapolating moral worth from social position. From this vantage point, James Lees-Milne (1908-97) was certainly a snob. He genuinely d
In Praise of….
Posted on by James Woodward
The Anglican Priest!
Clergy Consultation ot St Georges House
Windsor
To try and speak of God is, unavoidably, to work with words and images carved from the world’s wood, the territory of the familiar.’ Nicholas Lash may be right. But speak of God we must and to speak of him c
The Promised Land?
Posted on by James Woodward
The Promised Land
So much of our work and our ideas are bent toward arrival in the promised land.
We might be on a pilgrimage of identity in work, but it is almost always the prospect of arrival that keeps us going rather than the journey itself. We aim for a certain geni
Edward the Confessor
Posted on by James Woodward
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor was a man of great prayer - rather like a crowned monk. He was hailed throughout his life as a gentle, loyal and devoted king.
A confessor is a saint who suffers for his faith but is one step short of martyrdom. Edward suffered for his
Elizabeth Fry
Posted on by James Woodward
Elizabeth Fry (nee Gurney) was born in 1780 into a well-to-do Quaker family in Norwich. As a child she did not enjoy the Quaker meetings and made her delicate health an excuse for missing them. Later Elizabeth became one of the Plain Friends whose religious observance w
Thomas Traherne
Posted on by James Woodward
Thomas Traherne
1636-1674
Thomas Traherne was born the son of a Hereford shoemaker, in about 1636. Thomas had a good education and entered Brasenose College at Oxford University from 1652, achieving an M.A. in arts and divinity in 1661. In the meantime, he was admitted in 1657 t
Slow?
Posted on by James Woodward
Moments of speed and urgency but dependent on a felt perception of the larger pattern. The ability to close on something and then let it go. The key seems to be to a find a restful yet attentive presence in the midst of our work, to open up spaciousness even in the centre of re
Green
Posted on by James Woodward
green
Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less,
Withdraws into its happiness:
The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find;
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas;
Annihilating all that's made
To a green thought in
The Military Knights of Windsor
Posted on by James Woodward
The Military Knights of Windsor claim to be the oldest military establishment in the Army List. Formed by King Edward III shortly after the Battle of Creçy, the foundation consisted of Knights who, having taken their private armies to France to fight for the King, had been taken
William Tyndale
Posted on by James Woodward
"If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the Scripture than thou doest."
- Tyndale, in response to a clergyman opposing his translation of the Scriptures into the vernacular
William Tyndale was born around 1495 in Eng