Dear Friends, This week I have been following the twists and turns of the US presidential election. If you like drama it’s certainly a good place to look for it! As I write, things are fairly evenly balanced. It looks as if...

Dear Friends, This week the clergy and readers of the Deanery had our first in person meeting since before the Pandemic began. We have seen each other in ones and twos and via zoom but ‘it’s just not the same’. I don’t...

Dear Friends, October is a month when I am often thinking about my maternal grandfather, Kenneth Chitty. It is the month of his birthday and of the anniversary of his death. This year isn’t a significant anniversary (11 years...

Dear Friends, This Sunday is our delayed Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM). Like churches across the country (apart from a few super-keen ones who had already held theirs in early March!) we had to put our annual meeting on...

‘One who sings, prays twice’, attrib. St Augustine of Hippo Dear Friends, It is my great pleasure to tell you that our choir are back! In line with recent advice from the government, allowing up to 15 people to sing...

Dear Friends, During my time off earlier this month, Rachel and I had a short break in the New Forest. I’ve been visiting the New Forest since I was a small boy and it is a place I love to return to. The woods, the heathland,...

Dear Friends, Earlier this week, Rachel and I went for a walk up the other side of the valley. We’re pretty familiar with the paths around the village and over towards Chipperfield now, but we hadn’t yet ventured across...

A reminder of Lockdown Easter Dear Friends, Remember Easter? That was a long time ago now! But I’m sure Holy Week and Easter 2020 will always stick in your mind. It will certainly stick in mine! Only a week or so into Live...

The way through the woods from a recent walk Dear Friends, As restrictions begin to ease, I think many of us were expecting to be able to ‘go back to normal’. That is certainly what I had been hoping for several weeks...

Dear Friends, It’s a shorter message from me this week. Partly because there is guidance around re-opening for public worship for you to read as well, but also because sometimes less is more! Less had to be more for Rachel...