Christianity
Philosophy
Diary
View From The Greenhouse; No Gender Change Please, We’re British
Another year comes around and, with it, a couple of days for quiet reflection, mostly to let the pudding settle. I don’t normally make a start in the old greenhouse much before February, the weather [more…]
Judaism
J.K. Rowling And The Anti-Semitic Goblins Of Gringotts Bank
I did not come to the Harry Potter books early and, in truth, I did not come to them easily. One of the gifts that old age bestows is the ability to make up your [more…]
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
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…]
20th Century
‘Twas the Night before Christmas………..53 years ago
Placing the spacecraft in lunar orbit had not been easy. Compounding the difficulty, the engine firing, which would put the spacecraft in the right spot, had to happen while the spacecraft was out of contact [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…]