Dear All I wonder what your answer would be if you were asked the simple question, ‘are you religious?’. Pressed further, and depending on your first answer, what would you say if asked, ‘what makes you religious?’. What would you say? It’s quite rare for someone to be so direct in asking such questions but nonetheless, they are pertinent questions. From time to time we might even ask ourselves the same questions and what it is that makes us the kind of people we are. Self-reflection. Not being able to get out......

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Dear All Last night some of our elders joined in a Zoom ‘get together’. It was really quite adventurous and enjoyable too, seeing and hearing one another after such a long time. There were a few glitches, however, and at one point I was ‘cut off’. When I ‘returned’ to the screen someone humorously remarked ”I see we have our ‘dear leader’ back” and I’ve been chuckling away to myself ever since. I think it had something to do with the haircut. As it is in ‘normal’ circumstances, however, not everyone was......

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Dear All In church each week we recite the words of the Lord’s prayer and we say ‘…..your Kingdom come’…, yet, I’m not convinced that there exists one single, unitary idea of what it actually means. Do you? I think we have a general idea of what the ‘Kingdom’ is but when asked to explain, as I am asking you now, I don’t think you would be able to give a crisp and clear answer to my question. I do think, however, that you could answer generally, according to your own understanding,......

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Dear All Someone once said of their minister, that they thought his sermons were a bit like the ‘peace of God’ because they ‘passed all understanding’. I guess some sermons do pass all understanding and it can feel like eternity itself sitting and listening to a talking head. Incidentally, how many organ pipes, panes of glass and lampshades are there in Broom? Answers by e-mail, please! Tut, Tut. I have three basic rules for public speaking and over the years in many and varied places it’s always the same no matter the......

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Dear All In normal circumstances, we might expect to ‘bump’ into to folk we know while out shopping or enjoying a walk. We’d probably enjoy too good blether about nothing in particular and everything in general. We still can and do of course, but it’s not the same just now. The restrictions, a bit like a curfew, have put paid to that. My guess is, though, that we are getting a bit closer to ‘freedom’ and the worst, I think, is behind us hopefully Meeting people is generally part of our daily......

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Dear All I’ve just been listening to Amanda Holden on Breakfast TV speaking about her personal experiences and how much she and her family came to rely on the wonderful people who cared for them in the NHS. She spoke of them ‘holding their hands’ in their time of need. I thought what she said was really quite moving. After singing ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ she spoke about the loss of her first baby and of her sister who was seriously injured in a car accident. She shared this in explaining what......

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Dear All Have you ever bought something and then afterwards asked yourself ‘why on earth did I buy that’? I imagine that in every household kitchen cupboard, usually under the sink or thereabouts, there will be gadgets for slicing, cutting, and decorating food etc, that we thought would ‘come in handy’. The early versions of the slow cooker, the pressure cooker, sandwich toaster and other such ‘useful’ gadgets can still be found today and are gradually becoming tomorrow’s antiques. My first slow cooker incidentally took about a fortnight to do a casserole......

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Dear All Part of my new daily routine is to get up in the morning, usually, around 6.00 am, to begin writing my daily thoughts. It’s been, and is, an interesting and enjoyable exercise from my point of view and I happy to continue doing this for as long as is necessary. It might be that it will be something that I will continue to do beyond the current lockdown, as there are some of our people not able to get out, lockdown or not, and it’s a means of keeping in......

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Dear All This being Star Wars Day, ‘May the fourth be with you!’ Anyone having taken or are currently taking their Standard grade biology will be familiar with the lessons on the structures of animal and plant cells. The importance of the studies and discoveries of Gregor Mendel, the 19th-century scientist and Augustinian friar recognised as the first geneticist, will also be taught with his now-famous round and crinkly peas experiments. In the studies of biology, geology, geography, astronomy and with other sciences we encounter numerous and weighty questions that are not......

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Dear All If it were at all possible that a Roman soldier of some 2000 years ago could come back and visit us today in 2020 he would probably recognise many familiar things. He would recognise some of the language we still use today, possibly Hadrian’s Wall, and many other ruins and relics scattered around Britannia which in his time would have been in everyday use. The Roman Baths in Bath, Somerset are still very much used and visited and if he’d been there he’d have probably written about it using his......

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