Something a bit different. A prayer for 2018 inspired by the story of the Magi in St Matthew chapter 2. Father God, of course we know that 1st January really has no more significance than any other, but it may be a time to stop, to...
I am strongly tempted in the madness that is December, to save energy by recycling my anti-Christmas rant on this blog about seasonal busyness https://www.penelopewallace.com/christmas-busy-ness/, my anti-Santa rant https://www.penelopewallace.com/santa-claus-is-coming-to-town/, and my Advent calendar rant https://www.penelopewallace.com/advent-calendars/. Instead, however, I will write a few words on the subject...
A belated Happy St Andrew’s Day to you all! St Andrew is of course the patron saint (whatever that means) of Scotland, and also of a few other places, including Russia. For most Scots, this today means a day to celebrate Scottishness, and a rather arresting...
At the end of last week, Windows 10 tried to introduce some updates to our essential family computer which couldn’t cope with them. (Mac users, please don’t gloat.) After two very frustrating days and at least four calls to the helpline, we are almost back running,...
The blog and the website are now two years old. Last year I posted a few reflections on the first anniversary, quoting my original post’s intentions for the blog as: Publicising my work (the Tales from Ragaris) Expressing my opinions Glorifying God. Later in the post,...
It has occurred to me that in nearly two years of writing this blog, I have never yet posted about the day job. The one that isn’t actually a job. Every Church of England church is supposed to have two churchwardens, even churches that don’t have...
A lot of theological ink has been spilt on the following sentence from a book called “The Lost Message of Jesus” by Steve Chalke and Alan Mann: "The fact is that the cross isn’t a form of cosmic child abuse—a vengeful Father, punishing his Son for...
I finished last time by saying something like: Should a service just be about a person, even a Christian person? How much does the service matter in terms of the grieving process? Can I really have what I want at my funeral, and what is that? Three...
According to traditional (chauvinistic) etiquette, a lady only wishes to appear in the news on three occasions in her life – birth, marriage and death. These three events are still the times when most of us are most likely to be in the local paper...
I believe all Christians are called to “acknowledge Jesus before men” (Luke 12:8) and to “have a defence for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15 ). I’m not saying we all do this, but we should. But a lot of evangelical Christians also...