January 2023

At the beginning of January there were a few articles reminding the general population that the Christmas celebrations had not ended on 2nd or 3rd of January.  The writings actually sought to remind their readers incorrectly that Twelfth Night (the 6th January) when the Feast of the Epiphany is celebrated is the end of Christmas. Epiphany as you know is the day, that we in the Western Church, officially celebrate the arrival of the Magi to the temporary accommodation of the Holy Family. Actually, some months or years after the actual birth date of the Holy Child. Our scriptures are...

How great is this place,

for it is the touching-place of God.

In Christ, we are gathered from the edges

and woven into the dream.

Here we feel the hint of heaven,

where justice, love and mercy meet.

Here we celebrate

the blessedness of unity in God.

We, who were once far off,

are brought near.

And so we pray,

God, creator of all,

in your love, you have made each one of us

in your grace, you gather us together in your image

in your mercy, you make us restless until we find our rest in you.

Disturb us...

“Come” he replied to two of John-the-Baptist’s followers; ‘and you will see.”    John 1:39

Do you remember those times, when you were a child, when you were so excited  about some discovery that you had made that you just had to get someone else to share in your excitement as well? Even if like Nathaniel, they took some persuading.

In John’s Gospel account of Jesus’ calling of his disciples you can still sense the excitement of those first disciples. I have this sense of Andrew almost dragging his brother Simon to meet Jesus; and then Simon, who had...

These days I often turn for entertainment to podcasts and to crime series on television. The relevance of these leisure habits to the Feast of the Epiphany will be made clear in a moment.

One of my favourite podcasts is The Rest is History and it is presented by two distinguished historians, Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. Just before Christmas they did a two-part presentation about Jesus. Tom Holland demolished the absurd but now surprisingly widespread view that Jesus didn’t even exist, and they both attempted to assess which bits of the Gospels are historically reliable and which are what...