Posts Tagged ‘identity’

Last Sunday was by any standard an eventful day for us.  Independence Day.  The day when the fellowship in Charlesworth was to be constituted as an independent church.

To drink or not to drink: that is the question.  Over the years, I have been asked many times to give my advice on the subject of alcohol.  May a Christian drink “in moderation” or should we abstain completely?  I was asked the question again a few days ago.  I didn’t have time then to answer the question fully.  So here’s my answer now. 

It depends.  It depends on many things.  It depends on who you are.  And what your circumstances are.  And why you’re drinking.  …

Yes it’s coming up again.  That Sunday – dreaded by fathers all over the UK – Mothering Sunday.  The 14th of March this year. 

No doubt it will be no different from last year or the year before: countless panic-stricken men queuing down at the late-night Tesco on Saturday night to buy last moment flowers, chocolates, perfume, which then have to be wrapped in time for little Tommy, Jenny and two-year old Samantha to present them to mum on Sunday morning.  And mum, eating her once a year breakfast …

Someone asked me a difficult question recently. “Do you think of yourself as Welsh?” Tricky one. I am more or less Welsh by ancestry. My name tells you that. My father was from Swansea and his parents were Welsh through and through. My mother was born in Wales too, but her father was Irish by descent and her mother English. I was born in England but we moved to North Wales when I was three and stayed there until I was seven.

We were always an English-speaking family. The headteacher …

It was in autumn 1981 that a handful of folk began to meet in Edgeley, Cheadle Heath and Cheadle Hulme for worship, Bible-study and prayer.

We had left a church that was evangelical in name but divided in doctrine and torn apart by conflicts of personality.  We had no idea what the future held for us.  We met together simply because there was no other church in the area which we could imagine joining. There was no strategy, no plan for the …