Founded in 1699 – Still active

“It is not a shallow thing, this hope. It is the hope that remains when more superficial hopes have gone. It is the hope that we don’t even know we have when life is hard and cruel. It is the hope that underpins our life and survives our death, carrying our love to those who…

Jesus wasn’t born into a historical or geographical vacuum. He was born at a particular time at a particular place and we might imagine that the New Testament would provide us with this information in a clear and unequivocal way. But it doesn’t.

“I suppose that most of us like our Christmas to be a cosy time, and, for most of us it probably is – although we know well enough that this isn’t so for all too many today.”

The Christian fast of Advent is traditionally a time of preparation for the feast of Christmas, the festival of the Nativity. Advent is supposed to be a solemn time, not the hyper-commercial hullabaloo that can make Christmas into an anti-climax by the time it finally arrives.

One of the most notable aspects of the Easter accounts in the four canonical gospels is the presence of women at the crucial moments. And one woman in particular is named as being present at virtually all of them, namely Mary of Magdala or Mary Magdalen. Matthew places her at the Crucifixion as do Mark…

The last words of Jesus on the cross will be much read and much reflected upon today, but what were they? In fact the gospel accounts differ on this, and the most agonising and the most challenging version of those last words appears in only two of the gospels, Mark and Matthew. It has been…