Here is the equivalent of the million-pound jackpot question on Who wants to be a millionaire? What is the significance of the numbers 1243, 1366 and 1406 to our benefice? The answer can be found by looking at the board in each of our churches when the first known parish priest started their ministry: for […]
It might be thought a cop out to make most of my editorial a poem: but the one that follows is made for January. It is (nearly) the last verses of a poem that is 35 Pages long, from W H Auden’s “A Christmas Oratorio.” It is a poem full of deep insights about the […]
I am writing this just before a poetry evening to be held in Madehurst church. Advent will shortly be upon us and I will top and tail this with poetry. RS Thomas ends his poem “Kneeling” with the simplest of lines: “The meaning is in the waiting”. I don’t like waiting. Our society seems not […]
2025 is the year of celebration of the Christian faith across Sussex. It marks the 950th anniversary of the formation of the Diocese of Chichester and Chichester Cathedral and 1700 years since the Nicene Creed first emerged. In this video, our Bishops and the Cathedral Dean introduce the celebrations that begin on Advent Sunday (December 1st), […]
I am always moved by how many people come to the war memorial in Slindon on Remembrance Sunday, (10.50 10th November), where we read out the names of all who died in the two World Wars from our three villages of Eartham, Madehurst and Slindon. For some (good) reason, the numbers of people who mark […]
The Church of England in its wisdom sets lessons for every Sunday. Actually, it is not such a bad idea and it prevents vicars from just cherry-picking those bits of the bible they like. I have to say, though, sometimes the lessons chosen are very difficult and make me sigh. But not at the moment!! […]
September and early October are the months of Harvest Festival and Thanksgiving. It is hard for us in our modern world to realise its importance. We live in beautiful countryside with farms nearby, but still we go whenever we feel like it to the village shop, a farm shop or the nearest supermarket. When what […]
The older I get, the more I find there is to learn from the book of Genesis which is, of course, the first Book in the Old Testament. The pre-history stories – the creation, the fall, Noah and his ark, the tower of Babel and so on, continue to inspire because they can speak to […]
I read recently a book called A Field guide to the English Clergy by Revd Fergus Butler-Gallie. It was not the most highbrow book in the library; but was very entertaining as there have been some pretty unusual and eccentric clergy over the years. Take for example the Revd Robert Hawker (1803 – 1875) who […]
The month of May saw two connected events: one local and one worldwide. The first was the Young Person’s Art Show in St Mary’s church. The second was Pentecost Sunday, (otherwise known as Whitsun). Pentecost – remembering the coming of the Holy Spirit to the first disciples – is associated with many Christian ideas, above […]