Rector's Blog

Dear All, What importance should we attach to a chance encounter with one of the great men or women of history? Unlocking my bicycle from railings by Holy Trinity Church in Cambridge one afternoon in 1980, there I saw coming out of the vestry door, Rev Dr Billy Graham...

Dear All, Kath and I have now celebrated Christmas at Frenchay and Stapleton 3 times and each time has been 100% wonderful. Thank you to all who made it to one of the services in a local church, including Headway, Macmillan and Brace supporters and staff who led Carol...

Dear All, I wonder how you view the New Year.  Might it be with some hesitancy?  Where will Brexit negotiations have arrived at by the end of March?  Will the numbers of homeless nationally continue to rise?  Will we be ready for all the wonderful events due to happen...

Dear All, I rejoice to learn that most cultures round the world, whether Christian in background or not, like to celebrate Christmas. But why should that be? Is it purely the excitement of children receiving presents, the Christmas tree and the joining together at the...

Dear All, NOVEMBER – a month which, at Frenchay Church, includes a Confirmation Service and an act of Remembrance. I don’t mean to forget other events that are taking place, but these 2 services have something in common - SACRIFICE. Sacrifice is not a popular word in...

Dear All, It is easy to move on from news items a month old.  But I would like us to stay with hurricane Irma, breaking upon Barbuda and parts of the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti in early September.  Besides, the...

Recently I had the opportunity to make some apple and blackberry pies.  The tree outside was shedding apples, the bushes were producing berries galore.  I had the old-fashioned cookery book open in the kitchen, and duly followed its advice to refrigerate the dough...

Dear All, During the week of writing this blog, the same week in which the Grenfell Tower block in West London went up in flames, a member of the parish showed me this prayer they had picked up when visiting the bishop’s palace at Wells : Gracious God, We pray for...

Dear All, How has your period of special listening and learning been, I wonder, during Lent?  I have been made to think back to study groups that I was part of many years ago, and how when describing the ministry of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, we thought of two main...

Lent which begins on March 1st is a time to listen and learn together. Why do I say this? Some would wish to emphasise the tradition of giving something up for the 5 weeks before Easter, or undergoing more intense self-examination. May I suggest that making time to...