From ‘Focus on Faith’, Stretton Focus, June 2014 Over the next four years we are going to face constant reminders of the First World War as centenary commemorations take place. No war is a great achievement in the history of mankind. The horror of the trenches interwoven with occasional mass slaughter is among the least […]
It’s a Cop-Out
Article in Stretton Focus, July 2014 (Amended) You may well have used the word yourself, or had it used against you – as I have. The word has been around for over 100 years, but has only come into prominent use in recent times. It’s a cop-out. The word is used as an accusation that […]
A New Reformation?
Article in Stretton Focus, August 2014 There are those in the Church today who are calling for a new Reformation. It will need to be radically different from the 16th century Reformation where, as John Milton quickly realised “New Presbyter was but old Priest writ large”. They were still playing the same game of denouncing […]
Eat less, Live longer
Article in Stretton Focus, September 2014 As head of the family, I have devised this slogan out of concern for the health and well-being of my children and grandchildren. Eat less and live longer. (As an aside I would say that if any supermarket or fast food outlet would like to use it for advertising […]
A Sense of Humour
Article in Stretton Focus, October 2014 There’s not a lot to laugh at when you catch a cold. Recently I was coughing and sneezing and swallowing over what felt like a pile of rocks at the back of my throat. At one time I would have shrugged it off in a few days; but now, […]
The Death of God
Article in Stretton Focus, November 2014 Some of you reading this piece will remember the ‘Death of God Controversy’ of the 1960s. That whole decade was a melting pot of social and religious upheaval. Young people were looking for a freedom of expression denied to them by the social mores of the time. The poet […]
Reviewing the Evidence
From ‘Focus on Faith’, Stretton Focus, November 2014 A great part of our life is governed by evidence – we look and listen for evidence of danger when starting to cross the road. In particular areas such as health care, evidence tells us what has benefited patients and what has not. Can we take an […]
God and Man United
Article in Stretton Focus, December 2014 If you are a supporter of that particular football team, you will be happy to accept my title as a simple statement of fact – which the other teams in the Premiership would do well to recognise. But if, in spite of Bill Shankley, you believe there are more […]
In the beginning, God …
Article in Stretton Focus, January 2013 My title for this piece comes from the opening words of the bible. It is of course a statement of faith and not a statement of fact. There was nobody there to observe God being there ‘in the beginning’ and anyway, what would they have seen if they had […]
Spirituality
From ‘Focus on Faith’, Stretton Focus, January 2013 Many years ago I was asked to lead a workshop at a conference looking at issues involving the regulation of religious programmes on local TV services. At the time there were a few local programmes on cable TV but there was, and still is, no widespread local […]