On a beautifully crisp winter’s day this week a strange looking object took to the skies over our churchyards: not a UFO or Mark’s latest toy – and with a price tag of over £20,000 it never will be! – but a highly sophisticated drone used for surveying.
We may or may not go to church and we may lead examined or unexamined lives, but we all have our own beliefs and priorities, doubts and loves, and probably also our own scepticism and agnosticism. When in church we may put such rational processes to one side and attend to the liturgy and the beauty of the building or the music. Church is largely about sharing that space and participating together – however we conceive it – in worship. Continue reading Socrates or Buddha?
… some turn-of-the-year thoughts on faith and politics from David Soward.
2016 was a momentous year for those who think about the world and feel the need to engage with it, and 2017 may be even more so. As Willliam Temple, Bishop and (briefly) Archbishop in the first half of the 20th century, is famous for saying:
The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.
On Saturday 7 January about 60 people from across the Benefice gathered in Enstone Village Hall to wish Jane and Ian Henderson well as they move to their new home in Witney.
Jane and Ian moved to Enstone back in 1993 and since then have played a big part in both in the parish of Enstone and, since its formation in 2001, the Chase Benefice. They will be missed by us all – but as Witney is only just down the road we hope that they will visit regularly. Continue reading Farewell to the Hendersons
