Talking Point

Friends I AM DELIGHTED that Caversham Methodist Church now has a team of three ministers. My new colleagues are Rev Denise Spinks and Deacon Sarah Wickett. They are both like ‘a breath of fresh air’, […]

Love Your Neighbour THE UNITED KINGDOM is a multicultural nation and Reading and Caversham reflect that. The number of international restaurants in Caversham alone is testament to the mix of ethnicities we can boast locally. […]

Share Nicely! THE SCHOOL YEAR begins and a fresh cohort of 5-year-olds set off in new uniforms. As a proud grandparent, my experience of little ones grappling with basic life skills is recent. Some skills, […]

Finding comfort in troubling times I AM CURRENTLY reading a biography of Pope John Paul the Second by the broadcaster Edward Stourton. The author refers to the historian Dr Francis Fukuyama, who wrote about the […]

Holidays IN THE CURRENT heatwave, my holiday, taken in early May, is a memory. I enjoyed going away and visiting interesting places. Two of them were cathedrals. As we were based in Norfolk, and stayed […]

A Political-Religious Spat and its Solution I CONFESS THAT, as I write this column, I have been ‘enjoying’ the recent spat between the President of the United States and leader of the largest Christian denomination […]

If you were a musical instrument, what instrument would you be? LAST WEEK I went with a friend to a concert at the Hexagon, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra playing pieces by Rossini, Dvorak and Rachmaninoff. […]

What Happens to God… ON A SUNDAY morning following Worship, in conversation over a cup of coffee, I was asked “What happens to God when the world comes to an end?” When planet Earth was […]

Prayer IT IS WELL-ESTABLISHED that prayer has a profound beneficial impact on many people’s well-being, and particularly their mental health. It goes to the heart of the Christian gospel of good news and is typified […]

Working Together ONE OF MY favourite stories (parables) is the following: One day, in the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth, the carpenter laid the tools down and went out to have his lunch. No sooner had […]