Arts
St Stephen and St Stephen’s Day
In the church year St Stephen’s Day is traditionally the one after Christmas Day, or two days after in some places. In the Eastern church countries which still use the Julian calendar both it and [more…]
Christianity
Christianity
Why There? Why Then? The First Coming of the Messiah
We are fast approaching Advent, the Christian season that looks forward to Christ’s nativity. Today I am not going to tell you what you most probably already know about Advent, its significance and meaning, but [more…]
Christianity
Some Thoughts on the Nativity
We are all familiar with the ingredients of the nativity story: the birth of Jesus foretold. The Census of Caesar Augustus (tax censuses were a regular feature of the Roman Empire and a Quirinus was [more…]
Arts
Arts
The Coventry Carol
Several oil-on-oak-panel versions of The Massacre of the Innocents were painted by 16th-century Netherlandish painters Pieter Bruegel the Elder and his son Pieter Brueghel the Younger. The work translates the Biblical account of the Massacre [more…]
Arts
Arts
Christianity
You cannot have goodness, without God, the source of all Good; you cannot have Christianity without Christ
While these statements might have seemed truisms a few decades ago, they need, I think, to be proclaimed anew. Weeks and weeks ago now, I told SB I was working on something about our present [more…]
Arts
A Postcard From Tintern Abbey
Tintern Abbey (or Abaty Tyndryn if you speak Welsh) was founded on 9th May 1131 by Walter de Clare, Lord of Chepstow. It is located near the border between Wales and England (Gloucestershire) on the [more…]