Tag Archives: Lent

Ash Wednesday 2023

As we begin our journey through Lent this year, some of us will be using this book, “Images of Grace” as a source of inspiration for our thinking, praying, and reflecting. As we go travel towards Easter we will be considering different images that occur in the Bible, and what new perspectives they might give […]

Peace Dancing

I wonder how you like to eat your meals. Are you the kind of person who likes to eat each thing on it’s own, in turn, or do you load a bit of everything on your fork for each mouthful? Do you eat your favourite thing first or leave it to last? Put a roast […]

Shame. Ash me.

As I was thinking about what I was going to say this morning a very simple anagram struck me. Ash me is an anagram of shame. It got me thinking about the way in which Lent, and Ash Wednesday in particular, can help us deal with shame. It may be that we don’t feel shame. […]

Earthy humility, shameful suffering, effervescent joy.

This morning we are looking forward to Lent, and especially the way in which many of the folk of St Andrew’s different congregations are going to be exploring Lent with the help of this book,“Learning to dream again”. In the introduction the author suggests three themes that can help us to develop a Christian wisdom: […]

So Sow

I wonder if anybody else here does a bit of gardening. I’m not very good at flowers and decorative stuff, but I do quite enjoy growing veg. I do find some satisfaction in growing stuff for the meal table. A couple of weeks ago I planted some tomato seeds on our kitchen window sill, and […]

Fruitful, Inviting, Growing

Who knows what this is? Yes, it’s a fig. Perhaps you might be more familiar with them in that classic English tea time treat – the fig roll. Has anyone here ever grown these things? I was going to say that I thought you had to grow them under glass in the UK, but a […]

Closer to the fire

When I was a lad I was in the Scouts. As far as I was concerned one of the main attractions of being in Scouts was that it gave me a good excuse for messing around with fires. On a couple of occasions, however, things didn’t go entirely to plan. Like the time I was […]

Ready to die?

Over the last few weeks the presidents of two North African countries have been deposed. There have been protests in many others. There appears to be the beginning of a civil war in Libya. There has been a huge earthquake in Christ Church, New Zealand, and another this week off the coast of Japan, both […]

How are you doing with your Smarties?

Apparently in America, Smarties are not like the Smarties that you and I know. In America, Smarties, are a roll of multicolored, chalklike, bite-size candies wrapped in clear plastic, about ten to twelve pieces in a pack. A bit like our Refreshers or Lovehearts. Can you imagine what I mean? They are perfect for sharing. […]

Grace – Come Thirsty

Last week we started off on our journey through Lent, a journey that will explore some of the ideas of spiritual refreshment that are presented in the “Come Thirsty” course. Charlie invited us to come and drink at a well, the well of God’s refreshment for us. We were introduced to the idea that the […]