Benefice Bulletin 3rd January 2010

word from Wormingford…….. Christianity is not an antiquated religion, says Ronald Blythe
 
LIKE everyone else — I trust — in the Church of England, I have been reading and watching Diarmaid MacCulloch’s A History of Chris­tianity. It has been sweeping me along, racing me through the cen­turies, confirming my prejudices, challenging my dullness, waking me up.
And [...]

Continue reading about Word from Wormingford 1st January 2010

Ronald Blythe walks down boyhood lanes and remembers Christmasas past spent in Cornwall
 
 
 
I HAD hardly turned my back on the late afternoon when the vast, bleached Advent moon swung up hi the north-east. It whitened the puddles and lit the wet fields. The paths are darkened with sodden leaves, and rainwater dribbles from a blocked [...]

Continue reading about word from Wormingford

word from Wormingford
Ronald Blythe and an old friend recall their days in the classroom
 
 
 
JOHN calls for me, and we drive a couple of miles to see the latest metamorphosis of our village school. It is raw cold, with bouts of glory in the sky, receding rain, and pure streaks of yellow and blue. The school [...]

Continue reading about word from Wormingford 11th December, 2009

word from Wormingford
Ronald Bythe pays a visit to the ‘holy land of Walsinghame’
 
 
ADVENT. The adventurous Creator enters his own creation. Antony, my gentle friend from the north, arrives in the east. Where shall we go this time? It is his turn to point the route. The weather is a yellow-grey kind of scudding skies and [...]

Continue reading about word from Wormingford 4th December

word from Wormingford
Ronald Blythe helps a friend to plan an orchard
 
 
HAVING lunch at the art gallery before the lecture, out of the blue, as it were, the old friend mentioned that her great-grandfather was Joseph Severn. On an autumn day in 1820, Severn had boarded the Maria Crowther with John Keats in London dock to [...]

Continue reading about Word from Wormingford 27th November