This is very bad news for me….!!! People who regularly eat chocolate are more depressive, experts have found. Research in Archives of Internal Medicine shows those who eat at least a bar every week are more glum than those who only eat chocolate now and again. Many believe chocolate has the power to lift mood, […]
Blog
take me across
Posted on by James Woodward
I can never forget that scrap of a song I once heard in the early dawn in the midst of the din of the crowd that had collected for a festival the night before: “Ferryman, take me across to the other shore!” In the bustle of all our work there comes out this […]
St Helens Cross Kelloe
Posted on by James Woodward
This extraordinary piece of English Romanesque Art played a very significant part of my spiritual nurture. It is located in the Norman Church where my faith was encouraged and sustained. I was gald to have this image sent to me by a local photographer, Trevor Smith. Here is a longer description of the piece: Reliquary […]
The Windsor Wheel
Posted on by James Woodward
From the heights of my bedroom window I can see the Windsor wheel being slowly erected….. it dominates the skyline to the West of the Castle. Here is a quotation from the official publicity: The graceful giant wheel in Alexandra Gardens, Windsor will be returning from 1st May – 30th August 2010 and will […]
Mark the Evangelist
Posted on by James Woodward
Mark the Evangelist is the traditional author of the Gospel of Mark, said to be the disciple and interpreter of Saint Peter, and the follower and Apostle of Jesus Christ. According to Eusebius]Mark composed a gospel embodying what he had heard Peter preach. Tradition identifies him with John Mark mentioned as a companion of Saint […]
St George
Posted on by James Woodward
The Legend of St. George and the Dragon St. George travelled for many months by land and sea until he came to Libya. Here he met a poor hermit who told him that everyone in that land was in great distress, for a dragon had long ravaged the country. ‘Every day,’ said the old man, […]
Local News?!
Posted on by James Woodward
Well here is a catch up of the news from Windsor: The air traffic has arrived back – will anyone want to get into an areoplane after all this? We celebrate St George on Friday and I mark the end of a fascinating, rewarding and enriching year. We marked the Queens birthday yesterday […]
Why do people leave the Church?
Posted on by James Woodward
I first met Michael Goulder when I was working as a Hospital Chaplain in Birmingham. He was a wonderful and inspiring teacher – I was aware that he had left the Church but unsure quite of the reasons. I was glad to come across his memoirs and in it he sums up his decision: I […]
The Supper at Emmaus, By Caravaggio
Posted on by James Woodward
The moment when the disciples recognize the stranger in the midst as the risen Christ is show in a dramatic way, with arms outstretched and astonished faces. Here as elsewhere Caravaggio achieves part of his effect by the use of brilliantly lit figures against a dark background. The light is coming from behind the viewer, […]
Alphege
Posted on by James Woodward
Archbishop and “the First Martyr of Canterbury.” He was born in 953 and became a monk in the Deerhurst Monastery in Gloucester, England, asking after a few years to become a hermit. He received permission for this vocation and retired to a small hut near Somerset, England. In 984 Alphege assumed the role of abbot […]
longing
Posted on by James Woodward
Love is not condescension, never that, nor books, nor any pencil trace on paper, no; nor in how we talk about each other. Love is a tree with branches reaching out to always with roots that come from everywhere, and no trunk. Have you seen it? No. You can’t. Your deep desire can’t find it. […]
Upton House
Posted on by James Woodward
I enjoyed a very pleasant visit to Upton House recently. The collection of pictures is quite stunning! Upton is a country house in the county of Warwickshire, about seven miles north west of Banbury, Oxfordshire. It is in the care of the National Trust. Built in about 1695 for Sir Rushout Cullen, Upton is a long […]
doubt
Posted on by James Woodward
doubt that the stars are fire doubt that the sun doth move doubt truth to be a liar but never doubt I love Hamlet’s poem, from Shakespeare’s Hamlet
amazement
Posted on by James Woodward
And God is filling me, though there are times of doubt as hollow as the Grand Canyon, still God is filling me. He is giving me the thoughts of dogs, the spider in its intricate web, the sun in all its amazement and my heart, which is very big, I promise it is very large, […]
Prayers for voters ahead of the General Election
Posted on by James Woodward
Loving God Thank you for caring about how our country is run, and that we have the right to vote for our politicians and government. But in the run-up to this general election there are so many policies to understand, and so many different points of view to consider – sometimes I wonder whether […]
What is Easter?
Posted on by James Woodward
He went through a company like a lamplighter – see the dull minds, one after another, begin to glow, to shed a beneficent light. He went through a company like a knifegrinder – see the dull minds scattering sparks of themselves, becoming razory, becoming useful. But the man’s life is now over. of […]
The End of the Party: The Rise and fall of New labour
Posted on by James Woodward
Here is the publishers blurb inviting and unsuspecting politics reader into buying this huge volume – Andrew Rawnsley’s bestselling and award-winning “Servants of the People” was acclaimed across all media as the most authoritative and entertaining account of New Labour and its first term in office. As one reviewer put it, ‘Rawnsley’s ability to unearth […]
Butternut squash and cumin soup with herb dressing
Posted on by James Woodward
Ingredients For the soup 300ml/10½fl oz chicken or vegetable stock ½ butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed, flesh chopped 1 tsp ground cumin 50ml/2fl oz double cream salt and freshly ground black pepper For the herb dressing 3 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp chopped fresh basil 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley 1 tbsp chopped fresh chervil […]
Easter Morning
Posted on by James Woodward
a stone at dawn cold water in the basin these walls’ rough plaster imageless after the hammering of so much insistence on the need for naming after the travesties that passed as faces, grace: the unction of sheer nonexistence upwelling in this hyacinthine freshet of the unnamed the faceless Amy Clampitt
Easter Joy!
Posted on by James Woodward
In this reflection I share the surprise of joy I experienced within a moment of spiritual awareness at an Easter Vigil. This forms part of a conviction that Easter Christians always entertain the possibility of joy when being open to the new. It is Easter morning 1984. I have journeyed through part of Lent and […]