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The Jesus Paradox: The God Who Is Divinely Human
John 1:1-14 is one of my favourite passages in scripture. I partly I love this passage because I am a writer, and words are my thing, so the idea of the word becoming flesh makes sense to me on a level I can’t quite articulate – but I love it more because it was this…
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An Encouragement for 2023? Don’t Despise the Small Things
It is rare that I get a specific word of encouragement for a year; in fact I think the last one was 2018, which considering the events of the years since then, seems like a distant era. At the end of 2022, however, I began to feel the stirrings of something, noticing a theme in…
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Nothing Will Ever Be The Same Again
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, right? And yet the arrival of Jesus changed everything for those he encountered – but not in a way anyone was expecting. The Israelites were, most probably, waiting for a triumphant King who would overrule the Roman, and what they got was a baby born to an…
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Treasure in the Dark
“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.” Isaiah 9:2 Before there is light, there is darkness – uncreated, unformed – and yet it is from the formless darkness that emerges the light of new life. We cannot ignore the darkness that the people of Israel – that we are living in as…
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Advent Reflections: Something About Mary
When I was ten, I played Mary in my school nativity; and I’ve remembered the words of my solo ever since (twenty two years at the last count!) “Lord as you’ve spoken, let it be, may your will be known through me” Just a few years younger than it’s believed Mary herself was when she…
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Advent Reflections: Waiting
There is something about advent that captivates me, perhaps more than any other period in the christian year. It seems to faithfully reflect the world we live in; the vast chasm between the world we long for and the world we live in, the despair we feel and the hope we cling to. Advent invites…
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How Then, Do We Grieve?
There are some days which begin entirely ordinarily, and yet end with the dates engraved in hearts, minds and history books. Thursday 8th September became one of those days when it was announced that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II had died, peacefully at Balmoral. People from across the spectrum of politics and position have expressed…
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And Yet Reflections: Rejoicing
The tomb is empty – and nothing has ever been the same since. And yet. We live in the tension of victory of Jesus over death – but the reminders of our frailty, our sin and our grief. The call to “rejoice always” that we see in Philippians is one that can feel impossible when…
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And Yet Lent Reflections: Hoping
I wonder what hope looks like for you? Perhaps you see it in the bluebells beginning to pop up, or maybe when you get some good news pop up on your phone, for a change? I’d hazard a guess that most of us wouldn’t expect our hope to come through tears and scars? We tend…
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And Yet Lent Reflections: Lamenting
Lament is one of those words which can all too easily lose its meaning. We might understand it in the context of the book of Lamentations and in the voices of the prophets, but what does it look like in the world we live in? Put simply, lament is bringing what hurts before God, or…
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Rachael Newham 