Lately I've been watching the rather wonderful BBC series 'Coast' on DVD, so the sea was on my mind yesterday as I sat down with the Bible, my sketchbook and my journal. At present I'm reading through Isaiah. In Isaiah 41, I found the verse:

'Listen to me in silence, O coastlands, let the people renew their strength; let them approach, let them speak; let us together draw near for judgement'. 

The idea of Christians as the coastline appeals to me. The shoreline is different. It…

This week, as I approach the start of the Quaker Basics course, I've been reading about simplicity. To a new Friend, this is a challenging concept. I was concerned that it made a virtue out of not thinking and this troubled me. Many years ago, as a new Christian, I remember being told that Christians should accept all they are told without question. Even as a teenager, I thought that was ridiculous. How could I separate the two ideas? Simplicity, as it was presented, seemed at first to mean…

I've never done a blog before - never blogged? Is it a verb? Anyway, here goes...

This morning while walking with my two dogs and an Anglican friend, I was thinking about how much of a step it has been to move from our local traditional Anglican church to the Quaker meeting. Suddenly, into my head popped the story of Jesus walking on the waves and Peter stepping out of the boat. The story is something like this: 

Jesus had been praying all night, while the disciples went off…