Readings
THE DAYS THAT ARE GONE
“Thank you for the days, those endless days,
those sacred days you gave me.”
– ‘Days’, The Kinks (1968)
Thank you for the days that are gone:
for the days of hope,
for the days of resolution to save the world,
when, by striving, we’d make it true.
Thank you for the beauty.
Thank you for the singing.
Thank you for the dancing and
Presentation
PRESENTATION
“They brought him up to Jerusalem
to be presented to the Lord.”
Luke 2: 22
Take your newborn child to your sacred place, your temple,
to be presented to the Holy One.
Give thanks for the light that has come into your lives as
this new life opens.
Give thanks for the incarnate promise in this new birth;
The music pulls me back
On hearing of the death of Marianne Faithfull
30th January 2025
It’s the music that pulls me back:
back to places where life happened,
back to days and nights of tenderness and joy,
back to good friends and sweet lovers;
back to coffee in stained mugs,
back to long evenings in hazy, smoke-filled rooms;
back to
Living and dying
You are invited to join in with the words of this responsive reading in bold.
Spirit of Life, God of All Love, help us to face our human predicament,
and come to terms with the knowledge that our lives will end someday.
To deny death is to deny life; may we live honestly, courageously, and wholeheartedly, knowing
Letting the story speak
This Christmas, let us open our hearts, and extend an invitation to those familiar figures, allowing the old story of the nativity to speak to us anew.
Mary and Joseph, poor and weary travellers, speak to us:
Show us the way of acceptance and love;
of saying ‘yes’ and embracing the mystery.
Shepherds, steadfast and humble
Where is the God of love?
This reading first appeared in The Inquirer, Issue 8054, March 2023
https://www.inquirer.org.uk/pages/
I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these
things. (Isaiah 45: 6-7)
I am all-powerful Time which destroys all things. (Bhagavad Gita 11: 32)
Easter 2020
This reading first appeared in The Inquirer, Issue 7984, Easter 2020
https://www.inquirer.org.uk/pages/
“From midday a darkness fell over the whole land…” – Matthew 27: 45
“The angel spoke to the women: ‘You have nothing to fear. He has been raised.’ They hurried away in awe and great joy.” – Matthew 28: 5-6, 8
“There
Apple crumble – a true story
She came to my house, with flowers from the market and apples from her garden – they don’t need sugar, she said, they’re just right as they are. There’s lots there and more if you need them.
And I said, my daughters have collected some blackberries. And she nodded.
Because a wise woman can predict