Do stay for tea and coffee: “I’ll be home for Christmas,” so the song goes. Won’t we all?’

01/12/2020 | Reform

Paul Kerensa shares Covid-safe Christmas ideas

A couple of months ago in this column, I asked for your outside-the-box ideas to light up this bleak midwinter. If we can’t sing in church, if the Rule of Six-Geese-a-Laying means no big … Read More

Chapter & verse: Isaiah 61:10-62:3

01/12/2020 | Reform

Peter Cruchley on why Isaiah reminds him of footballer Marcus Rashford

Let’s explore these words from Isaiah alongside the words of the English footballer Marcus Rashford, who wrote – on 2 November, in an open letter to his ten-year-old self: … Read More

Here & now: Naomi Baldwin

01/12/2020 | Reform

Let’s find a new now, says Naomi Baldwin

I have, saved on my phone, a quote I come back to time and time again. It’s one of those annoying motivational ones with a blurred image of something completely irrelevant in … Read More

Commitment-Phobe: Songs of yearning

30/11/2020 | Reform

Can lockdown Christmas have meaning?

‘O come, O come, Emmanuel’ is one of my favourite Christmas songs. We hardly ever sing it at our church because it holds this deep and true sad yearning. It is my song for this … Read More

On the pilgrim way: ‘Aching in body, I was renewed in spirit’

03/11/2020 | Reform

Sheila Maxey watches clouds gather

In last month’s column, I said that ‘provisional’ seems to be the word these days. Now, it looks like we have to expect six months more of this provisionality and uncertainty.

When friends ask me … Read More

Do stay for tea and coffee: ‘I made an accidental prophecy’

03/11/2020 | Reform

Paul Kerensa makes an accidental prophecy

When the nights draw in, my diary normally gets busy. Colder months need a bit of cheer, so my comedian colleagues and I would brighten dark days via light entertainment. Oh and a raffle. … Read More