Gallery Fairacres Oxford 2025 and 2024
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Learning from Silence by Pico Iyer
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My first experience of silence ( real silence) was with the Community of the Sisters of the Love of God at Fairacres in Oxford in 1979. I was an undergraduate reading theology at Kings College London. I have an abiding memory of the intensity of the silence and worship. I have been a regular visitor […]
Nick Cave : Music, Grief and Church
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Mobility brings freedom and a certain amount of unpredictability. I spent last weekend in Birmingham engaged in a ministerial project for the Diocese. Travelling back on Sunday morning brought with it clear blue skies until I reached the Oxford bypass when rain swept in with relentless force. While some drivers seemed unaffected by the downpour my car seemed to be very sensitive to patches of surface water combined with strong crosswinds. This was the time and space into which I […]
On sorting out Books ! Keeping, Letting Go and Moving On
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I have spent some time in recent months dealing with the accumulation of over 40 years of books. Some of them I inherited from others. Many have been picked up in second hand book shops. Others part of my ongoing adventure of theological learning and education. There are gifts. There are textbooks. Some are […]
Making Sense and the ‘Business’ of the Church ?
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I much enjoyed reading an authorised biography of John Habgood written by David Wilbourne. It is an insightful and wise evaluation of the former Archbishop of York. Here is a link to my reflections commending the insights and wisdom of this biographical reflection. https://www.sarum.ac.uk/how-would-you-like-to-be-remembered/ While sorting through some random books for the charity shop, […]
Trees
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a tree God is a tree said Kabir a tree in the forest; when the woodsmen come to cut Him down He will not defend Himself He will not shame them. And God, he said, is the earth an endless wonder that allows Himself to be ruined by us but He […]
In Praise of George Gently
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Inspector George Gently is a crime drama that ran over seven series. Set in the North East of England in the 1960s it centres on Newcastle, Northumberland and County Durham. Martin Shaw, Lee Ingleby take the lead roles as Inspector and Detective Sergeant supported by Simon Hubbard and Lisa McGrillis as police constables. The death […]
As 2024 closes : make friends with fire
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Make Friends with Fire as the New Year Opens Up I look at my heart, such as it is, so much lower than what language can do; but yet: the heart is itself what is, is all that is, it is all that is disguised by speech. How many words […]
Reading a Building : Andrew Ziminski on Church Going
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I am presently in Wales appreciating some rest and space. There are two features of what makes for refreshment here. The first is reading given the gift of uninterrupted time. The second is exploring places and buildings near and far. These often include Churches if I am fortunate to discover an open gate or door. […]
Christmas : Light on our Lives
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In years gone by I used to travel to Paris for a few days in Advent. Walking, eating, sightseeing but especially absorbing myself in the sheer wonder of its history and art. When I think of Christmas this wonderful painting by George de la Tour ‘ the Adoration of the Shepherds’ comes most immediately into […]
Adrian Cadbury and his legacy
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Book tokens are always a welcome opportunity to see what has been recently published and secure an adventure of discovery! Participating in a recent Church Times debate on assisted dying offered me the chance to secure a copy of this biography of Adrian Cadbury. My connections with Adrian go deeper than my sweet tooth ! […]
What makes a good Church for you ?
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Perhaps ‘good’ Church has a few essential things in common? 1. They share a deeply incarnational view of the world, the recognition that matter is the scaffolding of spirit, the two deeply entwined; each Church knows that the commonplace, when seen with the eye of the heart, is holy, and that the ordinary is […]
In Search of Patience ?
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patience An absolute patience. Trees stand up to their knees in fog. The fog slowly flows uphill. White cobwebs, the grass leaning where deer have looked for apples. The woods from brook to where the top of the hill looks over the fog, send up not one bird. So absolute, it is no other […]
The Spanish Gallery and the Auckland Project
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I am a child of the North born and schooled in County Durham with my roots firmly embedded in the Mining Industry. My Father worked at East Hetton Pit in Kelloe and then was transferred to Easington when the Village pit was closed in 1983. I have vivid memories of his work and its […]
Human Nature Exposed ? Watching Conclave
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This year have been doing some work in the Diocese of Birmingham on behalf of Sarum College. It is both engaged and fascinating as with my colleagues Keith Elford we have been working with clergy and lay people across Deaneries and Oversight Areas. I prefer to arrive in good time rather than spent too and […]
Creative Repair : on empowering care and creativity
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There can be no doubt that these recent weeks have been traumatic and testing for the Church of England and for the public face of religion. Two things have occurred that that bear upon the shape, processes and content of this book which make it important for these debates. The first is a […]
Gifts and Graces
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I have come to admire the way different individuals function in their professional roles. Yet finally I represent the role my way, in my person, in terms of my gifts and my graces. These “gifts and graces,” as the Methodists put it, are not better or worse. They simply are different. Different gifts, different graces; […]
Retreat Reading – McLaren on Wisdom and Courage
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One of the more challenging decisions that needs to be made in preparation for a few days away on retreat is what one might read. In the throes of a busy term and new academic year my pile of books waiting to be read sit as an invitation to open, ingest and learn. At the […]
The Stories we tell ourselves?
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Keeping tidy has always been an aspiration. One of the downsides of this mild, but I hope, healthy obsession is that on the whole I can find things when I need to but certainly when they go astray mostly they are lost forever. In recent weeks, my bookshelves have been undergoing some attention. Being sensible […]
The Shrine of St Melangell – a thin place of pilgrimage
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A hidden place in Wales, where a Celtic saint gave her protection to the hare, Pennant Melangell is situated at the head of the Tanat Valley, not far from Llangynog on the main Oswestry – Bala road. This church is the only one which is dedicated to Melangell. It is an ancient church and the […]