July 2025

Some of the joys of a bishop’s ministry are Confirmation Services, we have had a good number so far this year and many more in the diary. The service is both corporate, as the congregation prays for each candidate, and personal, as each candidate makes promises, is prayed for and is anointed with oil. The words of the anointing remind all of us who have been confirmed that God calls us by name.

This Pentecost we launched across the diocese a simple ‘Rule of Life’ as part of our discipleship and vocation work. Being called by God means being called to discipleship. Simply put a ‘rule of life’ is our response to what God has done for us. It takes some the teachings of Christ into our own lives. Therefore, we continue a life of inner transformation through prayer, Bible reading, and regular worship; and we contribute to the transformation of the world through generous giving, seeking justice and using our time and talents in the service of God.

This all gives us the opportunity to consider our response to God’s love, to the one who calls us. It may be that the Holy Spirit is nudging us to serve in particular ways in the life of the local church, or to live out our Christian life more courageously in the world. Do pick up a postcard from your local church if you have not already been given one and be part of our diocesan vision, not only Making Jesus known but being called so all may flourish and grow.


September 2025

September is always a month of endings, as well as new beginnings.  As the bright colours of summer fade into the oranges and browns of autumn, shiny new school shoes make an appearance, along with fresh notebooks as we head back to our desks after a break over August.  We start again, carrying with us the feeling of a new year beginning.

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June 2025

To St Andrew’s, Wootton Rivers, and an invitation to place the first signature in their new visitor’s book, after the sixty-year service of its predecessor.

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May 2025

We have been fortunate to celebrate a peaceful Easter in our land, we find Sudan and South Sudan in probably the most desperate state in more than 25 years of our half century of partnership.

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April 2025

‘Hope is the bird that waits for dawn and sings while it is still dark.’

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March 2025

Returning recently to my former parish in Crystal Palace, South London, I was reminded of the glorious glass edifice that once stood atop Sydenham Hill, overlooking the city.

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February 2025

At the west end of your cathedral, on the south wall nearest the main entrance, is a large slate stone which records all the names of the Bishops of Salisbury. Mine is the most recent to have been inscribed. I am number 79. Someone else will follow. It serves to make one feel small rather than important.

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January 2025

At the end of 1992 we all remember the late Queen describing the year as an Annus Horribilis.  Well, in a way 2024 has been an Annus Horribilis for the Church of England. 

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December 2024

December is not the best month for a birthday, believe me, I know. Having a birthday in December has always been a bit of an anti-climax for me, especially when one is a member of the clergy and there’s another carol service to do.

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November 2024

The Somme battlefield takes you by surprise. Visitors pull into a car park in a quiet lane and wander into what looks like a leafy National Trust property. A few yards in, though, and you see the trenches. Gently undulating now, softened by time, but unmistakably the dreadful, snaking pits of our imagination. The Somme, of course, is a river: but, for the last century, a name inseparable from the battle that claimed 60,000 young British lives on its first day.

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October 2024

We have just under four hundred active retired clergy in the Salisbury diocese.

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