I recently came across this painting from Sienna, which now lives in Hull, having been saved for the nation from an overseas sale, and then spent 4 years at the National Gallery undergoing restoration. Christ between Saints Paul and Peter, Pietro Lorenzetti, c. 1320 It depicts Peter with his keys to the kingdom of heaven …
Since 2003, the American dictionary publishing company, Merriam-Webster, chooses a ‘Word of the Year’ which reflects key events or global preoccupations and is being widely used in the media. In 2020, you might be able to guess, it was pandemic; 2021 – vaccination; 2022 – gaslighting; 2023 – authentic, perhaps as people increasingly began to …
This year, following a late Easter, Trinity Sunday fell very close to the longest day. We celebrated God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, just as we enjoy the time of most light and least darkness. In church we sang the great hymn to the Trinity – ‘Thou, whose Almighty word chaos and darkness heard, …
It always saddens me when someone says they don’t feel they can come to church because they can’t ‘sign up’ to particular beliefs and so don’t ‘have a right’ to be there. Church should be exactly where you can come to question what you believe in, to have time to think and explore. That why …
