This week I thought I'd tell a sad little story that I think could be more widely known. Most of what follows is collated from Wikipedia. It's the story of Sophia Dorothea of Celle. She was born in 1666, daughter of the Duke of Brunswick-Luneberg by...
This news story is developing every day. These thoughts may have been overtaken by events by the time you read them. It is alleged that while working in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, some fairly high-ranking Oxfam employees had sex with prostitutes....
Last Saturday I watched the film “Darkest Hour”, starring Gary Oldman. It covers a few days in 1940 at the beginning of Winston Churchill’s premiership, when France was about to fall, and many in the Cabinet felt Britain should enter peace negotiations with Hitler. (Spoiler:...
Happy New Year, everyone! We start 2018 with a guest review of a film still in cinemas, but which many of you will have seen. My friend and co-warden Clint Redwood is an avid watcher and commentator on all things Star Wars. If you want to see...
I’ve fairly recently finished reading William Hague’s lengthy biography (500+ pages) of William Wilberforce, the independent MP and evangelical Christian who spent twenty years campaigning in Parliament for the abolition of the slave trade. His efforts eventually led to the Slave Trade Act of 1807. This...
A little more frivolous today. I’ve recently watched two improbable blockbuster films, of different type, standard and age. Each inspired me with various thoughts, but one thought was common to both. The films were “Valerian: City of a Thousand Planets”, recently released at the cinema; and “Kingsman:...
I’m taking a risk today, commenting on a TV programme I didn’t actually watch, although my husband did. On Monday night BBC 2 broadcast “The Search for a New Earth” Part 1. I quote from the description in the Guardian Guide: “With humans knackering up the...
None of us likes the fact that many of the world’s poor live without education, clean water, etc, while some of the rich have private jets. But what would a more equal world mean? Would it mean that everyone had what I (middle-class British) take for...
By the way, my helpful website manager and creator, Jono Renton, is getting married to Sophie tomorrow. All the best to you both, and your families, for the big day, and for the years to come! The first home I owned was a flat above a...
I finished last time by saying something like: Should a service just be about a person, even a Christian person? How much does the service matter in terms of the grieving process? Can I really have what I want at my funeral, and what is that? Three...