Category: Religion

Labourers in the Vineyard

The parable of the labourers in the vineyard (Matthew 20 v 1-16) seems to have relevance today. Without wanting to sound a sanctimonious prig (while doing so), when I laboured in the City I tried to do what was morally right. Additionally I tried not to mind what my colleagues were paid. I was only… Continue reading Labourers in the Vineyard

I Once Met Pius XII

I enjoy the I Once Met column in The Oldie. If you are a fan Richard Ingrams edited two anthologies. James Lees-Milne’s diary entry for Tuesday 14th September 1948 qualifies for, although I don’t think has appeared in, I Once Met. He was on holiday in Rome and was granted an audience with the Pope (Pius… Continue reading I Once Met Pius XII

Orlando

The sermon last Sunday at The Royal Hospital was about baptism. The Chaplain (I prefer padre) recounted that he had been to where John the Baptist baptised Christ in the Jordan.

Thomas Jervais

I was at Trim Cathedral for Holy Communion on the Sixth Sunday of Easter and paid attention to the Dean’s sermon. The First Lesson was Acts 17: 22-31 and this provided his opening.

Let Us Pray

The Royal Hospital Chelsea is an appropriate place to worship on Easter Sunday. The fresco in the apse is Sebastiano Ricci’s The Resurrection.

The Aetherius Temple

In January I mentioned the whirling dervishes of Colet House and promised news of another eccentric local attraction.

Colet House

John Colet was Dean of St Paul’s and, in 1509, founded St Paul’s School. Colet House was built on what is now the Talgarth Road in the 1880s. It is adjacent to LAMDA and has been used by the LAMDA students while their new rehearsal rooms were being built.

Published
Categorised as Religion

Temple Time

Friends invited me today to the Hindu temple in Neasden, as they thought it would interest me and it did. The building, opened in 1995, has intricate carving in stone and wood and an elaborate archway, above.

All about Aloysius

There are some unfathomable mysteries in life. One is why John Betjeman called his teddy bear Archibald Ormsby-Gore. He took Archie with him to Oxford and Archie appears in Brideshead Revisited as Sebastian Flyte’s teddy, Aloysius.

Bath Abbey

Most of my Christmas Day Services have been at the C of I church in Dunleer. It was Low Church, austere architecturally and with the old, simple liturgy. Even the plate was a wooden platter, the sort of thing  from which Oliver Twist might have had an exiguous helping of gruel. It was presented by… Continue reading Bath Abbey

Published
Categorised as Religion