The floor memorials in the Lady Chapel of All Saints Oakham. A post that describes the memorial floor slabs that cover graves in the Lady Chapel at All Saints Oakham – discussing the memorial inscriptions and the layout of the plots. (December 18th 2025)
All Saints Oakham Flower Festival 1996. A photo blog showing some views of the 1996 flower Festival at all saints Oakham. (December 18th 2025)
Oakham adverts 1932. Some pages from an All Saints Oakham church guide of 1932 that show adverts for a number of business in the town at that time. (December 18th 2025)
An ancient solar alignment in Oakham? A blog that considers the somewhat uncertain evidence for a mid-winter sunset / mid-summer sunrise solar alignment through All Saints Oakham (September 19th 2025)
The Morris memorials in All Saints Church in Oakham. A post describing the Morris memorials in All Saints Oakham – the pulpit, a stained glass window and the reredos (June 5th 2025)
The memorials of All Saints Oakham. Photographs and brief descriptions of the wall mounted memorials at All Saints church in Oakham (May 19th 2025)
Stephen Glynne’s church notes – Lichfield St. Michael. A description of St. Michael’s by the 19th century antiquarian Sir Stephen Glynne, dating from 1849 (3rd June 2025)
From Oakham to Mandalay. The story of a young curate from Oakham and his brief service as a missionary in Burma before his early death (April 29th 2025)
Kinetic Water Power – some odd words on a memorial in All Saints Oakham led to some interesting findings about how church organs were powered at the start of the 20th century (25th April 2025)
Stephen Glynne’s Church Notes – Oakham All Saints. A post that sets out and discusses the notes made by Sir Stephen Glynne on his visit to Oakham All Saints around 1849 (21st April 2025)
The Harrington Bequest. Two posts that consider the bequest of Anne, Lady Harrington in 1616. Part 1- The charity, Part 2 – Oakham Parish Library (31st March 2025)
The Oakham Parish chest. A short post that describes the large medieval wooden chest in All saints Church in Oakham (31st March 2025)
The windows of St. Edmund’s church, Hunstanton – a mainly photo blog of the windows at St Edmund’s church in Hunstanton that tell the story of St Edmund, King and Martyr (November 30th 2024)
Relics and hermits. A blog that considers the proposal, made in a lecture in 1860, that All Saints Oakham once housed both relics and hermits. (November 25th 2024). Additional material added on November 29th 2024.
The chancel and chapels of All Saints church Oakham – Gilbert Scott’s legacy. A post looking at some aspects of the restoration of All Saints Oakham in 1858 (November 5th 2024)
A time to mourn, and a time to dance – the All Saints season through the ages. The recording and transcript of a talk given at All Saints Oakham on 31/10/24 (November 3rd 2024)
The 1858 Restoration of All Saints church in Oakham. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 Three linked posts giving the transcripts of press reports of the restoration and re-opening of All Saints church in 1858, including the condition report by Gilbert Scott (October 9th 2024)
A possible Anglo-Saxon church group at Oakham in Rutland. Some thoughts on church and castle alignments in Oakham (May 6th 2024)
Commemorating the 1000th Anniversary of the birth of Queen Edith. An address / sermon delivered by me at All Saints Oakham on March 10th 2024, at a Choral Evensong during the Queen Edith Festival (11th March 2024)
The good, the bad and the grotesque – the decorated capitals of All Saints church in Oakham. An examination of some wonderful medieval stone carvings in Oakham Parish Church (3rd February 2024)
The Anglican Lectionary at Christmas – A seasonal rant A discussion of the incoherence of the Anglican lectionary around Christmas, and a suggestion for something better (30th December 2023)
The final sermon. My final sermon at St Michael-on-Greenhill in Lichfield at Pentecost 2023 after 25 years of ministry there (30th May 2023).
In the three blogs below, I indulge in some speculations concerning the nature and purpose of the created world and of God and humanity. These thoughts are based on the orthodox Christian narrative of fall, incarnation, atonement and resurrection, and I hope, take the scriptural revelation seriously. They nonetheless have a distinctly scientific and technical flavour that some might find rather cold and off putting. I would simply hope that what I write can complement the more traditional understanding of God and his love for his world and his people. Readers are of course completely free to choose whether or not the give my thoughts any credence at all!
Plot and purpose – some speculations on the putpose of creation, arising from my thoughts on environmental issues (27th April 2023)
Transcendence and Imminence. How can God be described as both Transcendent and Imminent, which seems a logical contradiction. Some thoughts from modern physics. (27th April 2023)
Fall, incarnation and atonement. This follows on from the last post – how does the Christian narrative of fall, incarnation and atonement fit into the framework that has been proposed. (27th April 2023)
The beloved disciple – the missing years. A post that arose out of reflections on the book “Jesus and the eyewitnesses” by Richard Bauckham (7th April 2023)
The changing face of death. A blog post introducing a statistical analysis of the interment records and monuments of St Michael’s churchyard in Lichfield from 1813 to 2012, looking at the changes in funerary patterns over that period. (February 24th 2023)
Measurements of carbon dioxide concentrations in a church. A post describing some measurements of Carbon Dioxide concentrations in St. Michael’s church in Lichfield on May 15th 2022 (May 24th 2022)
Eschatology, environment and evangelism. A rare theological blog post from me, suggesting ways in which eschatology and care for the environment may be used in evangelism (January 10th 2022)
Covid-19 – how risky are church services? A look at the risk of Covid infection in one church – St. Michael’s in Lichfield (July 27th 2021)
The calculation of Covid-19 infection rates in churches. An application of the method of Jimenez and his group to the specific case of Covid infection in churches. Includes a downloadable spreadsheet (July 12th 2021)
Engineering, history and ecclesiology 