Recently Pope Francis caused some furore with an off the cuff opinion regarding children and pets. I was rather surprised by how many professional commentators talked or wrote about it. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been because I once caused quite a stir when I referred to my dog in my sermon; in fact, it was one of precious few times…

Faith comes from what is heard…

Not long ago a young parishioner told me that she would have her driving test soon. I asked about the date and time of the exam and – having found out those details – I announced I would stay away from any road in the city for the duration of that test. It seemed to be a good joke because…

After twenty-odd years of hard work and development, having made many mistakes along the way and spending a fortune, the time has come to leave and start an independent life. But the future is uncertain, laden with possible stalls, failures and breakdowns, each one with the potential to render the whole thing a massive failure. I’m talking about the James…

Among many things that the ongoing pandemic has changed is shopping habits. Closing down most non-essential shops during lockdown forced many previously reluctant customers to do their shopping on the internet and many of them became ‘new-born’ online shoppers. Unlike in most brick-and-mortar shops, where you pay and take the purchased goods home, those bought online have to be delivered…