Humpty Dumpty

If you are going to write a biography of your grandfather, you need two things: an interesting grandfather and an aptitude for stringing...

Like Westminster Abbey, there are grand churches that were once, sometimes for only a short time, cathedral churches but no longer have...

Old-time religion with its hell-fire sermons, sentimental ditties, Sabbath observance and a sharp distinction between sheep and goats may...

Churches declare themselves differently in succeeding generations. Our present generation is having to declare where it stands on racism...

Suddenly, it may happen. We see things differently. We realise how little we know about our neighbours, our colleagues, our team-mates,...

‘Humpty!’ I called. He was dozing but – thankfully – not on or near the wall. ‘Would you describe yourself as a zealot?’ ‘Not likely!’...

If sexual intercourse began in 1963, as Philip Larkin told us, then it might just as well be said that institutional Christianity has...

The top man in football has been caught using outdated and offensive language. We have to beware lest we find ourselves in the same...

I put a question to Humpty. ‘You have just moved house. You are getting to know the neighbourhood. You are eyeing up the local churches....

‘And did those feet …?’ we may find ourselves singing. It would be pleasant to think that Jesus did indeed visit...

If we wish to see the future already with us, we often do well to look across the Atlantic. In terms of weaponry, cinematic blockbusters,...

With apologies to Evelyn Waugh (who came up with the telegram word ‘soonest’ in ‘Scoop’). we look for superlatives (mostests, shall we...

The old prayer book may have its deficiencies, irritating verbal duplication, excessive emphasis on the misery of sinners etc but it...

Thurso is as far north as you can get on the UK mainland. It is a town of eight or nine thousand on the north coast of Caithness. There...

Northampton is a town of 200,000 that once was full of shoe-makers. It was designated as a New Town in 1968 and has shifted its weight to...

Lockdown has given us time to think. Our old friend Ecclesiastes had a clever list of what is proper, a time for this and a time for...