The Global Village of 100 People Thank you to all the people that contacted me following last month’s editorial on counting our blessings. Several of you had visited the Eden Centre, and suggested that I look at the piece on global statistics where patterns of inequality are pictured as a global village of 100 people. […]

The message for our Homebased Congregations in Leigh   Happy New Year to our homebased congregations spanning across the 3 Leigh churches. How was your Christmas? Did you enjoy Christmas Bake Off on the TV? If you could face the beauty and the bleakness of the Yorkshire Moors, what a treat to watch, To Walk […]

HAPPY NEW YEAR You crown the year with your goodness. And Your paths drip with abundance. Psalm 66:11 If you wake up each morning, you are blessed to shine, to live and to serve in a new day. If you own a Bible, you are abundantly blessed – about 1/3 of the world does not […]

Advent Reflections 2016  Grace: It’s all God’s gift Let us give thanks to the Father for making us fit to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. In him we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1: 12-13  Paul’s message of Good News is clear. It is God who makes us […]

I have just come in from Highlands Toddler group where we have been exploring the topic of feelings. There is nothing so intimidating as a group of 2 year olds showing you on mass their “cross face.” They don’t hold anything back and are totally committed to the course of action. Equally, there is nothing […]

  The radio is on in the background as I write, reporting that the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are converging on Iraq’s second city, Mosul. It is estimated that 6000 ISIL fighters are trying to hide amongst the 1 million civilians including hundreds of thousand of children. As I listen to the reporting, […]

JOSEPH Man of Faith Looking a bit care worn   I have just come down from the manse loft after retrieving the Nativity Set and two thoughts occur to me. The first is, what a tip it is up there and how Sam and I need to get our act together and do some sorting […]

Advent Reflections 2016  Faithfulness: Know you are Welcome The Lord himself with give you a sign: A virgin will conceive and bear a son, and name him “Emmanuel.” Isaiah 7: 14   When we read the newspaper or listen to the news, it can sometimes feel that God has abandoned us, forsaken us, but God […]

Advent Reflections 2016: Peace ‘You shall be my people, and I shall be your God.’ Jeremiah 30: 22 I was talking to a man the other month, who said that he had undertaken an endevour to read the whole of the Old Testament. Thinking of him reciting all the laws of Deuteronomy, and genealogies in […]

The Bible in a Tweet  ‘Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’ Jesus answered, ‘You must love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. […]