St Mary the Virgin Church

The Deliveroo rider weaves skilfully through the Exeter traffic, their big turquoise box strapped to their back. Pedalling hard – up the hill, down again, following their phone’s directions. Ding-dong. “Delivered to you – your freshly-baked pizza.” The big white van skids to a halt outside the house, the 129th of their day. They stride up the path, no answer, so leave the package in the porch, jog back to their van, leap in, and onward. “Order today: Delivery tomorrow – our promise to you”. The drone speeds over the green Orkney fields. Over the water it flies, homing in […]

Nelson Mandela is one of my heroes (as for many others). Desmond Tutu isn’t far behind. In 1982 I did 6 months’ voluntary work in South Africa. It was impossible then to see apartheid being dismantled without major bloodshed. And yet it happened. Archbishop Tutu’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a key part of this. Roll on a few years, and I was struggling to forgive someone. It involved significant hurt for those close to me and myself. I discovered ‘The Forgiveness Project’, an online resource from Tutu and his daughter Mpho. I worked through the programme over the recommended […]

The man wondered why he was there. His wife had dragged him along – “A family day out,” she’d enthused, “with the kids.” He wondered, and he worried. How was he to feed that family today? He should be working. Not perched on a craggy hillside listening to a preacher. His ears pricked up. “Give us this day our daily bread,” the man was saying. “Yes please,” he thought, “but easier prayed than done.” His mind wandered again. “At least this man seems to know what real life’s about, living hand-to-mouth,” he thought, “not like those religious rich men in […]

The Horrible Histories children’s books’ author and God seem to agree. Kingship is dangerous. “Every king and queen in history has been either stupid or cruel but most of them have been both!” said author Terry Deary in a recent interview, as Horrible Histories marks its 30th birthday. “This will be the ways of your king,” warned the prophet Samuel when the Israelites longed to have a king like everybody else, “He will take your sons… your daughters… the best of your fields… and you shall be his slaves.” Thank goodness we no longer live in an age when kings […]

Isn’t it wonderful how our gardens come alive in April! New buds, new green, new life. So a tale of two gardens, with two trees, and two choices. The first garden? Mythical Eden, the perfect paradise – until the tears, that is. The tree? Befitting paradise, it bears its enticing knowledge-of-good-and-evil fruit. But the golden fruit, it turns out, complicates life more than we can handle. The choice? We opt to take our life in our own hands – what could possibly go wrong? The second garden? Gethsemane, late one foreboding Middle Eastern night – the garden of God’s tears. […]

Nicola Sturgeon resigned a few hours ago as I write this. Love her or hate her, she gave widely acclaimed leadership (particularly during Covid), and reinforced direction and identity in Scotland. She was a subversive force against the United Kingdom – a would-be queen of Scotland perhaps (no longer). Are all of us called to be subversive, at least a bit? ‘Thy Kingdom come,’ we may pray or have prayed (continuing our monthly glance at the Lord’s Prayer). Might saying this actually be subversive? “My kingdom for a horse!” Richard III famously exclaimed, at least in Shakespeare’s version of events. […]

“I ♥️ NHS” badges were once a thing – “I love the NHS”. We all did during the pandemic. Now we look on fearfully, because the NHS is on its knees. Because it hasn’t been loved, not in the way it has needed. It’s Valentine’s Day month, so a good time to think about what, as well as who, we love. And let’s use an old-fashioned word that fits here more than we’d think – ‘hallowed’. Whilst the word originates from ‘holy’ – the ultimate pinnacle, as it were – it also means more generally ‘respected, important, revered’. So, borrowing […]

We emerge from the haze of Christmas, blinking in the light of reality into the dawn of a New Year. We emerge probably bearing new family memories of Christmas. Shared family time may have strengthened or strained us, family a haven or battle-field, or somewhere in between. Big or small, near or far, living or deceased: family gives us roots, whether by blood, marriage, blending or adoption. We may be grateful for those roots, or forever tug at them, but we have them. No more so is this true than our parents. Wherever our personal parental experience sits in the […]

Covid Christmases were tough. For many, though, this year will be tougher – a lack not of intimacy this time but income. Budgets squeezed, rent and mortgages up, public service provision down, foodbank use escalating even before the current crisis, inflation carving into everything. Even the supermarkets have sensitively toned down their dream-inflating Christmas TV ads. And yet, are tougher times closer to where Christmas began? “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” Not the words of a political […]