I am about to start a pilgrimage walk. I am now fully retired and so have the chance to do this now that I don't sing from Thursday to Sunday every week of the school year. I have for longer than I can say wanted to follow the Camino, or the pilgrimage route across Western …
Category: Church of England
About me
It is so hard to describe anyone without reducing or pigeon-holing them. But, so that you have an idea about who I am, here are a few headlines.I am a retired Church of England priest. Husband, father, grandfather.Gay, political, activist.Musician, singer, theologian.Needleworker, cook, gardener.Wild swimmer, walker, naturist. I have been blessed with so much in …
An anniversary: and some weddings and funerals
We have just started watching the latest series of Grantchester, the clerical murder mysteries set in the eponymous village near Cambridge. The date is 1958, and the timid curate, Leonard Finch, has, with great tentativeness, started to come out of his closet, and embarked upon a very secretive and illegal relationship with a local photographer. …
Continue reading An anniversary: and some weddings and funerals
“Smoother than oil”
The publication of the ‘lessons-learnt’ report commissioned by Emmanuel Church Wimbledon on the activities of their former vicar, Jonathan Fletcher, has stirred a lot of memories for me. And because they go round and round in my head, I have decided to write them down. This may be quite long, as I am going to …
Deadly Pressure
It was reading the reports of the Oxford Diocesan enquiry into the events in the parishes of Stowe and Maids Moreton that made me pick up my digital pen this morning. You can read the report at https://www.oxford.anglican.org/safeguarding/learning-reviews/events-in-stowe-maids-moreton/. It tells of the activities of a very dangerous young man, Ben Field, who insinuated himself into …
Funerals in a time of plague
I have been taking people’s funerals since I was twenty-five. I have seen hundreds and hundreds of funerals of all kinds, in all kinds of places, surrounded by a huge variety of rituals and customs that made the grieving manageable for the mourners. But I have never seen a time like this. Everything in us …
From The Quire 