Category: Musings
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Exeter City Centre
For several reasons, I ended up driving down to Devon for my retreat. This meant that I had the freedom to stop off on the way back and spend some time doing church visits. This didn’t go entirely to plan thanks to a massive tailback on the M5, so I shelved my original intention of…
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Update – The final month
This week I am spending a few days at one of my very favourite places: Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden near Chester. It is a residential library, with books mainly on theology. The library stays open from 9am to 10pm and there is a restaurant on site, as well as bedrooms. When you get here, you…
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Liverpool
Three buildings visited – or scroll right to the bottom for my reflections. St Luke’s – the Bombed-Out Church I was particularly interested to see this church building because of the parallels with our St Martin’s. St Luke’s was also bombed during the second world war, but has been treated differently. Rather than being partially…
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Heritage and History – part 2
We use the term heritage almost without thinking about it, but it is worth knowing a bit about how the heritage movement has developed and what it is actually about. This post is based on notes I have taken from the book “The Heritage Obsession” by Ben Cowell. Heritage began with a concern for physical…
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General Update
I have been more silent on this blog than intended. I have quite a few posts in draft form but not yet ready to be published. There will probably be a whole rush of them before too long. This week marks the halfway point of my study leave. As I was warned by colleagues, the…
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Heritage and History – part 1
This is a bit of a mish-mash of a post. I’ve been trying to sort out in my mind what the influences have been on my relationship with heritage, in all its forms. Family and heritage My family are deeply committed to heritage, especially to heritage railways and the preservation of the age of steam.…
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Field Trip
Over the last couple of weeks, I have started my series of church building visits. Before I write them up, I thought I would write a little bit about what I am looking for. My main aim is to see what the building says about Christianity in its presentation. These are the questions I am…
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Visiting churches
Most people who have heard me talk about church buildings will know that I’m not a big fan of them, at least, not in the way people expect a vicar to be. I do not generally enjoy visiting church buildings. Over the years, many congregation members have assumed that I (and presumably every other member…
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Reading update
Breakfast reading So, the plan for reading more is working better than I thought. Breakfast reading tends to happen on the days when I am getting up with the kids but not needing a shower before taking J to school. After Paula Gooder’s book Body, I tried one of my preaching books, So everyone can…
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Reading – a plan for 2021
My younger self would be aghast at the need for a plan to include reading in my routine. Reading books has been as natural to me as breathing for as long as I can remember. However, various things have brought me to the point where there are some days when I don’t pick up a…