January 2026

Taking the plunge

Rebecca and I spend New Year with a group of friends on the Devon coast who have developed the custom, common in such parts, of taking an invigorating dip in the ocean on the morning of New Year’s Day. For many years I eschewed what seemed to me a reckless and unnecessary practice, preferring to stay on the beach, safely swathed in several layers of wool. For some daft reason, last year I decided to join the bathers and (as I write, sat cosily by a log fire) am currently weighing up whether to do so again. Needless to say, it was breathtakingly cold but also huge fun.

Taking the plunge into something new always takes a measure of determination and mutual encouragement, I think. It helps if others are doing it alongside us, and things are no different when it comes to our faith. A step forward – perhaps being Confirmed, as so many have been in recent months – or into a new church responsibility, is a fine and necessary thing to do if we consider ourselves to be Christians. For Christ is the ‘way’ and those who follow him are called to a pilgrim’s progress through life.

What fresh new thing might the Lord be asking you to consider in the months ahead? This may mean shedding or leaving behind something that is no longer right. In the light of this season, then, may we encourage one another to join and enjoy ‘the new’, knowing the Lord goes ahead, calling us forward.

- Bishop Andrew

March 2024

A century ago, the great journalist and Catholic provocateur G.K.Chesterton wrote a wonderful essay entitled ‘The Priest of Spring’ in which he considered the integration of the Christian seasons with the natural year – and referred to the “armies of the intellect who will fight to the end on whether Easter is to be congratulated on fitting in with the spring or the spring on fitting in with Easter”.

February 2024

It won’t have escaped many of us that this year, Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine’s Day. This may feel like an uncomfortable union.

November 2023

Praying for the People God Knows We Need. This autumn it has been a joy to institute and licence a record number of clergy to new posts and as well as being the beginning of new ministry for individuals, communities and parishes, these services represent the culmination of months of careful work.

December 2023

In my former parish, there were various experiments we made to make the most of the unique atmosphere of preparation and excitement accompanying Advent.

October 2023

October is one of those months when the leaves begin to change and fall, and somewhat comical excuses come into conversations about why things don’t work. Leaves on the line may well be a technical problem for the railways, but we all know it also means, somewhat ironically, why is it somethings just don’t work as they should.

September 2023

Harvest, in the agricultural sense, is well past. All is safely (or soggily) gathered in and the appealing blocks of barley and hay baling our landscape into a pop-up sculpture park have all but disappeared. The Church’s Harvest celebrations

July 2023

I write this at the end of no mow May, and during a week when we are remembering to care for God’s acre, so I am thinking about all those who serve in many ways tending our churchyards and enabling them to be places where God’s creation and God’s presence can be experienced. Thank you.

June 2023

One year ago, I became your bishop with that great service in the cathedral. It has been the fastest year in many ways, with changes coming at us all with a post-pandemic pace that has somewhat stunned us all.

May 2023

How does one crown a king? After much rehearsal and with a steady hand, I suspect – and bated breath around the globe in that solemn moment...

April 2023

I wonder whether we can remember how we were feeling 3 years ago as we approached Easter? Lockdown feels a long time ago, however I was reminded through an article read recently that we have all experienced a major trauma in our lives which we have somehow lived through.