From The Rectory   For the last few weeks, our sermon series has been from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. You can catch up ...

Ecclesiastes 7 (p672) Introduction: Biblical wisdom If all is foggy vapour, wisdom or escapism? I. Four ways to be wise: (1)    Embr...

 Imagine someone with a hugely enlarged right bicep. Some of his other features are normal, some are withered.  We are in danger of becoming...

 This afternoon I picked up my second hand copy of Ode To The Countryside: Poems to Celebrate the British Landscape (National Trust), which ...

 Interestingly, Cleese suggests getting feedback on four things about your writing: (1) Were you bored? (2) Where could you not understand w...

 Cleese says that the great thing about writing comedy is that you know if the writing has worked or not. Did they laugh? It is much harder ...

 Well, the good news of Jesus from the Bible, of course.  But which text? What is the unit? Which of the lectionary readings? One or more? H...

 Writing on creativity for writers and others, Cleese suggests panicking early. If you really fear you might get to the deadline without any...

 I've been reading Cleese on creativity and thinking about preaching.  It is interesting that he says that writing with Graham Chapman t...

Cleese argues (in Creativity: a short and cheerful guide, Hutchinson / Penguin, 2020) that interruptions are the greatest enemy of creativit...

 I have been reading a bit more of John Cleese on creativity (A short and cheerful guide, Hutchinson / Penguin 2020) and I think it has furt...

 My wife will no doubt agree that my book buying is totally healthy. All the books we have we need. We can afford. The piles on the shelves ...

There was a trend of increased respect for the monarchy (p349) and growing devotion to Christ (p350f).  Literacy, text and printing were of ...

  One medieval child who was not baptised until the age of 12 was known as Pagan, but baptism on the day of birth became normal. The princip...

 Nicholas Orme, Going to Church, p259, a picture shows people's dogs following them to church  Lengths of candle and wick might be stret...

 Rubrics were so called because they were in red.  The Office readings included history and doctrine and less Bible (p208) The canon or pray...

 Church attendance figures were not normally recorded until the mid 19th C though from at least the 13th C, incumbents and churchwardens wou...

 (See below for previous blogposts on consecration and seating).  Nicholas Orme, Going to Church in Medieval England, chapter 3. Churches fa...

 In nine pages (p120ff) Nicholas Orme tells us more than we could possibly imagine about this difficult and controversial subject ( Going to...

 These rites date from Anglo-Saxon times and consecration was required by the papal legate to England in 1237.  You are going to need a bish...