The Hearth of Mopsus

The sacristan at Goremead church, which I looked after for a few months 17 years ago now, was Agnes. In her very young days she’d been on th...

We prayed for Sheila - of course we did for such a loved member of the church, hoping that somehow the fast-developing cancer had been caugh...

At first, Sally our pastoral assistant told me that Harriet wasn't going to be able to get to church anymore. Her Parkinson's had ad...

There is precious little to say about a third day secluded indoors, unless I was to discuss the weird dreams of a disrupted night's slee...

In the middle of the night I woke up feeling nauseous. It went off in a couple of minutes, and I returned to sleep. Then on getting up I dis...

Harriet moves around her house very gingerly with her walker. The dog was looking eagerly out of the window as I walked into the drive, as t...

Partway through the morning’s printing and copying, I discovered that we had no white copier paper in the church office. For heaven’s sak...

I went to see George in hospital, where he'd just had a replacement knee fitted. George is a stout elderly fellow with a bluff manner wh...

In this picture, and other versions of it, Lucas Cranach reminds us that there can be a complex relationship between misery and rage, as Dam...

Marion the curate felt thoroughly rough on Sunday morning, having clearly caught The Cold from her son and husband. 'Could you preside?...

One of my parishioners asked me whether I’d be willing to carry out a funeral service for someone who’d signed a Non-Resuscitation Agreem...

It's been a long time since I've added anything here; my brain has been too addled. Of course Christmas at Swanvale Halt was as busy...

My dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease about two years ago and since then the progress of the disease has been shockingly rapid, alth...

It's been over a month since I've added anything here, shameful really. It was partly because something went awry with Blogger and I...