We stuck leaves on a tree to say ‘Thankyou’ for the beauty of God’s world, we took fruit out of a bin to say ‘Sorry’ for our wastefulness (although it has to be said that many at St. Oswald’s are too poor to waste food), we lit or floated candles to pray for people or…
Some time ago I, along with all my fellow clergy, was required to go on a ‘Bishop’s teaching Day. I confess I always dread these occasions – they’re busy and noisy and everyone talks at once. The worst bit comes when the speaker invites questions from the floor, after which those who stand to speak…
Proper 20 24.09.17. I seem to be starting all my sermons these days with the words ‘this Gospel passage is very difficult to understand’. Today’s gospel passage is definitely not easy – it’s hard to make sense of it. Our understanding of economic justice is that if you work longer hours you get more pay…
Congratulations to Carol Ratcliffe who has just been given an award for 50 year’s membership of the Institute of Biomedical Science. She was presented with a medal (no less!) at a special award ceremony in Liverpool. Carol worked for many years in forensic science. Congratulations also to Sophie who…
Our All Age service this week was all about forgiveness: God forgiving us and the need for us, therefore, to forgive others. In our three activites we learned about God writing off our ‘debts’ or sins – we experienced ‘demands’ being torn up and put in the bin, and we received back the little we…
It was a lovely early morning stroll in Knuzden’s Arran Trail Local Nature Reserve. Here are some photos of what we saw……
Our Messy Sermon Group (Trendy All Age Sunday School) has been raising funds to twin our three church toilets – the £180 raised will be used to build three new village loos in Africa. You can read more about it here: https://www.toilettwinning.org/ The idea arose from learning about ‘the water of life’ – Jesus’ encounter with…
Today our Gospel reading was Peter’s Confession of Faith – weread it in The Message translation as this is more accessible for children. Jackson read it for us – he’s a brilliant reader and didn’t stumble at all over some quite difficult words! You can read it here https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+16:13-20 …
Apologies to anyone who has been trying to get in touch over the past couple of weeks but has had problems getting through on the church phone (01254 698321). We’ve been having a problem with our phone; this has now been fixed. The church is always open on Wednesdays from 6-7 p.m. – this is…
We anglicans are, on the whole, a well mannered lot. We know when to say ‘please’ and thank you’ and, mostly, we’re polite to people. For people of my generation and older, there has always been a particular expectation that women are well behaved – an ill-mannered woman is a particular disgrace. Men and boys…