This week, the family of Mark Santer, announced his death
Our beloved father, Mark Santer, died at home on Wednesday 14th August. Over the last years and months, his numerous health issues were catching up with him.
He died peacefully at home with all of us at his
Reading Such a Long Journey : A biography of Gilbert Shaw, Priest
Posted on by James Woodward
I believe that I may have had at least two copies of this book written by Rod Hacking ( now a neighbour in Salisbury but then an incumbent in rural Ely) and published by Mowbray in 1988. What happened to them I know not - beware of lending books out - they have a habit of
On Digging Deep – a cluster of Books from Sacristy Press
Posted on by James Woodward
Perhaps you have some awareness of both the problems and possibilities that emerge from the way we articulate the shape and meaning of our religious convictions. What do you understand by God? How do we convey the presence, rationality and engagement of God amidst the com
The Shaping of a Soul by Richard Harries
Posted on by James Woodward
The Shaping of a Soul: A life taken by surprise
Richard Harries
John Hunt Publishing £18.99
(9781803411620)
I have read and now write about a man and his story from a privileged position. I worked with Richard as his first domestic chaplai
‘Its not about me’ : Reading Cottrell On Priesthood over a lockdown weekend
Posted on by James Woodward
I wonder what you are finding absorbs your time and attention during these strange hours and days? My table at home is gathering some small (and neatly organised) piles of books. Some associated with work and lectures to prepare. Some for pleasure and others (I hope)
Back to my Roots? The legacy of Brooke Foss Westcott
Posted on by James Woodward
I finished reading Isabel Hardman on turned to thoroughly researched life of Westcott. There were many resonances and connections. As the son of a miner the title was arresting. Ordained in Durham after theological studies at Westcott House Cambridge there were further
We need each other
Posted on by James Woodward
The truth is that we shall only understand the balance of severity and confidence, of the strenuous and the relaxed, in the context of the common life.
Every believer must have an urgent concern for the relation of the neighbour to Christ, a desire and willingness to be the me
A prayer of Lancelot Andrewes
Posted on by James Woodward
A prayer of Lancelot Andrewes
Guard Thou my soul,
Strengthen my body,
elevate my senses,
direct my course,
order my habits,
shape my character,
bless my actions,
fulfil my prayers,
inspire holy thoughts,
pardon the past,
correct the present,
prev
The Windows
Posted on by James Woodward
The Windows
Lord, how can man preach thy eternall word?
He is a brittle crazie glasse:
Yet in thy temple thou dost him afford
This glorious and transcendent place,
To be a window, through thy grace.
But when thou dost anneal
Easter eve
Posted on by James Woodward
Glorious Collect for Easter Eve
Grant, O Lord, that as we are baptized into the death of thy blessed Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
so by continual mortifying our corrupt affections we may be buried with him;
and that through the grave, and gate of death, we may pass
Holy Saturday
Posted on by James Woodward
When Death Comes
When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse
to buy me, and snap the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;
when death comes
like an iceberg between the should
Silence
Posted on by James Woodward
‘Silence’, said Seraphim, ‘is the cross on which man must crucify his ego’;
‘Silence transfigures a man into an angel; it is the spiritual practice which most surely preserves inner peace.’
He was constantly repeating the words of St Ambrose, ‘I have seen many w
Vacation Suprises (3) Richard Herbert
Posted on by James Woodward
A bright day took the car South and West towards Montgomery and the glad open door of St Nicholas Parish Church built in the early 13th century.
You can see the effect of the blazing sun on this Welsh Shropshire border town!
The most conspicuous object in the south transept
Vacation Surprises : (1) Craigie Aitchison in Glass
Posted on by James Woodward
I travelled up to London during my summer holiday to attend a wonderful celebration of marriage of Robin and Sezgi Amos at St Mary the Bolton's in Chelsea. It was a sunny day and I managed to arrive at the church early to catch up with friends. As I wandered around the church
Love …………..
Posted on by James Woodward
in a glass darkly
Though I spake with the tongues of men and angels and yet had no love, I were even as sounding brass: or as tinkling cymbal.
And though I could prophesy and understood all secrets and all knowledge: yea if I had all faith so that I could move mountains out
thy fearful symmetry
Posted on by James Woodward
angel tiger
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry ?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?
When th
English Cathedrals : Portsmouth
Posted on by James Woodward
The Cathedral Church of St Thomas of Canterbury, commonly known as Portsmouth Cathedral, is the cathedral of the Diocese of Portsmouth, England and is located in the heart of Old Portsmouth.
Around the year 1180, Jean de Gisors, a wealthy Norman merchant and Lord o
Gifts and Graces
Posted on by James Woodward
I have come to admire the way different individuals function in their professional roles. Yet finally I represent the role my way, in my person, in terms of my gifts and my graces. These “gifts and graces,” as the Methodists put it, are not better or worse. They simply
The sacred
Posted on by James Woodward
The sacred is the interference of the uncreated in the created, of the eternal in time, of the infinite in space, of the supraformal in forms; it is the mysterious introduction into one realm of existence of a presence which in reality contains and transcends that realm and co
Ministry: Seeing and Serving
Posted on by James Woodward
Ministry is about a way of seeing and a way of serving.
That is to say, it is a way of giving attention to God and his creation, to yourself and to others, in order to learn to love them; and it is a lifelong commitment to that kind of service of others who formal name