A story of faithful friendship and beautiful bookends

I make a monthly visit to a number of care homes in this area. Each time, I spend about 25 minutes singing hymns with (or, in some places, to) the residents, with a Bible reading, a short talk and some prayers. Some of the residents are evidently devout Christians, most of them know all the…

New Year’s Greetings and Resolutions 2024

Dear friends, We have entered into the year of Our Lord 2024. In the ancient world, the passage of time was marked by counting the years since the accession of the king on the throne: "In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius…" (Luke 3:1). Since the 6th century, however, the Christian world has…

Putting s back into Christmass

Here's a brief article I wrote for the Christmas issue of the magazine of a local Baptist church. It's distributed to hundreds of homes in the area where our congregation worships. What’s missing from Xmas? The answer: the second ‘s’. Get it? If not, bear with me, and I will explain. It’s coming up to…