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Continue reading →: Total failure in a Church safeguarding complaint
In September 2022 the police and a senior church safeguarding officer investigating historic abuse by a priest encouraged me to make a complaint against the Diocese of Manchester for failing to respond in any way to a disclosure, made several years earlier, of serious sexual assault on me by the…
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Continue reading →: Holy and inclusive?
In 1884 a 37 year old man was consecrated Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa in Lambeth Palace chapel. Fifteen months later he was martyred in Uganda, before he actually reached his diocese. James Hannington became an inspiring figure. When news reached England of the Bishop’s torture and martyrdom significant numbers of…
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Continue reading →: Re-membering Baptism
Celebrate the anniversary of your baptism like a birthday, says Pope Francis. Today, October 27th, is the anniversary of my baptism, and I decided to mark it in a special way. I was only 24 days old when I was baptised. At the time of my baptism such services were…
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Continue reading →: Let’s talk about Polygamy, Reincarnation, Traditional African Religions and…
I was always moved at St Chrysostom’s, the parish I retired from, when in worship at Christmas and Easter congregation members publicly gave greetings in their mother tongue – often over twenty languages! Not surprisingly among such a wide range of people there were different outlooks on life. Chatting one…
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Continue reading →: Don’t forget to say ‘Thank You,’ Bishop.
On 17th October the MP for mid-Buckinghamshire, Mr Greg Smith, raised an interesting question in the House of Commons. He asked if the Church of England could do more to recognise the hard work done by clergy who were retiring. He gave an example of a priest retiring in his…
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Continue reading →: Seldom Seen
William Gomersall died at Seldom Seen on 10th November 1893. Earlier that day he had sprained himself while at work at Newfield Colliery, he returned home from work and began spitting blood and died a few hours later. William was my great great great grandfather. William was born in 1831…
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Continue reading →: Tangerine churches
I worshipped this morning at Escomb Saxon Church, England’s most complete Saxon church. When I retired I considered how I’d go to church. I decided I’d help out from time to time, if asked, in churches which had no clergy at the time – and there are plenty of those.…
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Continue reading →: A Retiring Rector
I retired as Rector of St Chrysostom’s, Manchester in October 2022. The photo above shows the congregation at my last mass. I’d been the parish priest for 24 years and I had many, many wonderful times there, and met a huge variety of people from different backgrounds, ages and cultures,…
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A Retired Rector's Reflections 