Familiarity breeds contempt they say – or at the very least, familiarity breeds indifference. It did then and it does now. It could be the subheading for today’s Gospel reading. Jesus is back home in Nazareth. His fellow Nazarenes, those with whom he grew and laughed and played and worked, could be saying:  look at Read more

Think back to the pandemic. It seems a life time ago and hard now to ponder what we gave up. Rightly gave up. But such a sacrifice – and possibly for many the greatest sacrifice was the loss of touch. Yes we could hug those we shared our homes with, but many do not share Read more

Fill in the blank… Life is… Forest Gump famous filled in the blank by saying ‘Life is a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get…’ But how about: life is not a dress rehearsal! Life is a rat race! Life is a bowl of cherries; (I don’t get that one!) Life Read more

In Romans chapter 15, St Paul says to the Roman church ‘I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness.’ Possibly an element of flattery or at least good manners here; at the time of writing his letters to the Roman church, Paul had never been to the city Read more

So how should we regard animals? Does the Bible tell us? Give us any guidance which we might call categorical. Yes I believe it does. But first a statement. ‘It is the fate of every truth to be the object of ridicule when it is first acclaimed’. So said Albert Schweitzer, German philosopher and theologian. Read more