“Age puzzles me. I thought it was a quiet time. My seventies were interesting and fairly serene, but my eighties are passionate. I grow more intense as I age… We who are old know that age is more than a disability. It is an intense and varied experience, almost beyond our capacity at […]
understanding people ?
Posted on by James Woodward
Affinity Consider this man in the field beneath, Gaitered with mud, lost in his own breath, Without joy, without sorrow,… Without children, without wife, Stumbling insensitively from furrow to furrow, A vague somnambulist; but hold your tears, For his name also is written in the Book of Life. Ransack your brainbox, pull out the drawers […]
Memories
Posted on by James Woodward
We, unaccustomed to courage exiles from delight live coiled in shells of loneliness until love leaves its high holy temple and comes into our sight to liberate us into life. Love arrives and in its train come ecstasies old memories of pleasure ancient histories of pain. Yet if we are bold, love strikes […]
Remembering Maya Angelou
Posted on by James Woodward
I started my blogging life in 2008 partly as a way of capturing my experience of a sabbatical in America. In the spring of that year I spent a month in Washington DC followed by three months in Chicago. It was a rejuvenating and very significant time. I managed to get over to Washington […]
A Tree….
Posted on by James Woodward
a tree telling of Orpheus he spoke, and as no tree listens I listened, and language came into my roots out of the earth, into my bark out of the air, into the pores of my greenest shoots gently as dew and there was no word he sang but I knew its meaning. […]
bouquet, sunlight
Posted on by James Woodward
Our sense of these things changes and they change, Not as in metaphor, but in our sense Of them. So sense exceeds all metaphor. It exceeds the heavy changes of the light. It is like a flow of meanings with no speech And of as many meanings as of men. We are […]
The Reverend Jeremy Sampson
Posted on by James Woodward
(from The Church Times Obits) SAMPSON. – On 11 July, the Revd Jeremy John Egerton Sampson: Vicar of North Perak, Malaya (1951-52); Priest-in-Charge of Johore Bahru (1952-57); Vicar of St John the Divine, Ipoh (1957-62); Killingworth (1962-76); Consett (1976-90); Rural Dean of Lanchester (1980-85); aged 89. It was with a mixture of sadness and gratitude that I learnt about […]
Alastair Campbell
Posted on by James Woodward
If anyone has any doubt about the sheer complexity and difficulty of the work of a modern-day Prime Minister then this book and all 730 pages of it should dispel any lingering lack of understanding! It takes us into the heart of the work of government, the handling of the press, the management of a […]
Befriending Strangers?
Posted on by James Woodward
During Lent we should recall the challenge of Jesus to welcome and pay attention to the stranger. This was at the heart of Jesus’ ministry because it is at the heart of God’s relationship to creation. The stranger represents the one different to us. The Pharisees sought to establish a Jewish comfort zone beyond which […]
The seven deadly sins CEOs won’t admit
Posted on by James Woodward
It’s a classic job interview question: “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” At the top of the business world, people seem to have taken to heart the advice to admit no negative traits, just positives in disguise, says Lucy Kellaway of the Financial Times. Every week for the past year and a half, the Financial […]
AM I NO LONGER YOUNG?
Posted on by James Woodward
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me Keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished. -Mary Oliver
Growing Older?
Posted on by James Woodward
The first fifty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it. -Arthur Schopenhauer
Israel(4) Desert Places
Posted on by James Woodward
The Judean Desert is an area with a special morphological structure along the east of the Judean mountains. It stretches from the northeastern Negev to the east of Beit El, and is marked by terraces with escarpments. It ends in a steep escarpment dropping to the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley. The Judean […]
Israel (3) The Garden Tomb
Posted on by James Woodward
The Garden Tomb is believed by many to be the garden and sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea, and therefore a possible site of the resurrection of Jesus. The Garden is owned and administered by The Garden Tomb ( Jerusalem) Association, a Charitable Trust based in the United Kingdom. The Garden Tomb is a quiet place […]
Israel – January 2011 – part 2: the Sea of Galilee
Posted on by James Woodward
Matthew 4.13-23 13He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 15 ‘Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— 16 […]
peace
Posted on by James Woodward
THE PEACE of great doors be for you. Wait at the knobs, at the panel oblongs. Wait for the great hinges. The peace of great churches be for you, Where the players of loft pipe organs Practice old lovely fragments, alone. The peace of great books be for you, Stains of pressed clover leaves on […]
Colin Slee
Posted on by James Woodward
Colin was my college Chaplain at Kings College London in the 1970’s – a great man – here is a flavour of his character! The Very Rev Colin Slee obituary( The Guardian) Colin Slee was far from pompous or solemn, relishing the absurdities of the church.The Very Rev Colin Slee, the dean of Southwark Cathedral, […]
Britain is unequal and deeply divided
Posted on by James Woodward
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is today publishing a 700 page report that shows Britain to be a deeply divided country. The most comprehensive report on UK inequality ever published, ‘How Fair is Britain?’ charts the divergence of life chances from birth through to retirement – illustrating that the gulf in opportunity and outcomes […]
Financial crisis leaves over 200 million on less than 2 dollars a day
Posted on by James Woodward
As world leaders meet for the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit in New York, 20-22 September, a new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) highlights that because of the financial crisis around 120 million more people may now be living on less than US$2 a day and 89 million more on less […]
The skill of Piper
Posted on by James Woodward
This is a wonderful book – the first comprehensive account of the life and work of John Piper, including many of the overlooked tributaries into which his creativity overflowed. It contains in-depth research into all the major commissions within John Piper’s lengthy career, plus much new information on his work in print-making, stained glass, illustration, […]