Welcome to my website
Trying to see the world from a Christian perspective
This Blog
I only write occasionally here now, as you will see. However, there is an archive of over 2,000 posts which I’ve made over the last 20+ years, which are all still accessible.
Latest Posts
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An Advent Prayer
This is one of my favourite collects (set prayers), a prayer for advent by Richard Baxter (apparently written in 1691): Keep us, O Lord, while we tarry on this earth, in a serious seeking after you, and in an affectionate walking with you, every day of our lives; that when you come, we may be…
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Keane and the end of term
It’s been a busy couple of weeks for us: last week (24th November) we went to see Mark Watson at the St Albans Arena. This weekend (30th Nov), we went to see Keane at the O2. Mark Watson was very funny – it was our third time seeing him live (well, fourth if you count…
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No More Page 3 and ‘Rape Culture’
I haven’t blogged about this before now, so firstly: if you haven’t seen the No More Page 3 campaign, I do encourage you to have a look and sign the petition if you agree. Frankly I think Page 3 is a dinosaur – a relic of a bygone age which should have been gone long…
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Positions on Scriptural Authority
A few days ago, after the news about women bishops had broken, I had a very interesting discussion on Facebook about the decision. One of the interesting things to come out of that was the positions that people had on Biblical Authority. It seems that this is an area where people have major disagreements: do…
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Reflections on Women Bishops and the “No” Vote
Now 24 hours has passed since the synod vote yesterday, and some of the dust is starting to settle, I thought it might be time to wade into the murky waters with my take on the whole matter. I’m honestly hoping not to upset anyone, although given how high the feelings seem to have run…
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Still alive, still busy
Apologies for my lack of updating over the past week or two – it’s been busy! We’re now into our second week back after half term, and work is progressing steadily. I’ve managed to draft most of my assignments, I only have one left to do which I’m fairly happy about. The last one left…
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Secularism and Humanitarian Punishment
Recently, I came across C.S. Lewis’ essay “The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment”. If you’ve not read it, I do recommend it: I think Lewis makes some excellent points about punishment. It makes quite a neat follow-up to my previous post on Atheism Plus and ethics. What I was talking about in that post was personal…
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Sermon: Gluttony [Galatians 5v16-26]
Last night I was preaching at Christ Church Cockfosters on the topic of gluttony, as part of their series “The 7 Habits of Highly Destructive People”. I found it a hard sermon to do – it was the first sermon I’ve done on a topic, rather than on a passage, and they’re not easy! Still, I…
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Random thoughts on ‘Atheism Plus’
Edit: 29th October – I have updated the post to make it a bit clearer following some feedback on Twitter and in the comments. One of the things that’s been making a few waves on Twitter lately is “Atheism Plus“. In case you haven’t heard of it, this is the official definition according to the…
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What Larks
Well, it’s been an interesting past few days! We went to a wedding down in Cornwall. Neither of us had been to Cornwall before, so it was a new experience! Because we sold our car recently, Phil’s parents very kindly let us borrow their car (it was a lot cheaper to borrow their car than…