Thought for the Day
A one-minute read to inspire or challenge. Written by members of the church and updated every few days.
21st October 2026
This coming weekend the clocks go back. What changes do you find yourself making at this time of year? What are you anticipating? Some people find the shortening hours of daylight a particular challenge. Others may revel in the excuse to curl up in front a fire, wrapped in a thick jumper and with a mug of tea; or in walks on cold, crisp winter days.
In part, it turns my thoughts towards Advent (and dare I say it in October, even towards Christmas!). Should I book a retreat, buy a book, or a chocolate calendar…?
I’m drawn to a new book from The Iona Community: “At home in the dark. Prayers & poems for Advent & Christmas”. The online description includes the following text:
These are reflections for Christmas as it is actually lived: amid joy and grief, waiting and uncertainty, celebration and loneliness, a fragile planet and a world longing for peace. There is room here for candlelight and starlight, angels and shepherds, but also for food banks and refugees, protest and injustice, loss and the everyday struggles of ordinary life.
Yet darkness is not the end of the story. Again and again, these writers discover light in unexpected places: in community and compassion, in resistance and imagination, in laughter, love and the promise of new beginnings.
It sounds real and challenging and hopeful, all at the same time.
As the nights get longer, may we draw our attention to Jesus, Light of the World, and know for ourselves the truth that “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1:5).
Ruth Allen
16th October 2026
The liturgical calendar marks today as the Commemoration for Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer, bishops and martyrs, burned at the stake in Oxford in 1555 in the reign of Queen Mary. She, of course, was Catholic, and they were Protestant, tried and condemned for heresy. Such could be the cost of principled adherence to one […]
14th October 2026
Daily Bread The parts of scripture I find difficult are not those I struggle to understand, but those I understand all too well. Take for example that core phrase in The Lord’s Prayer: ‘Give us today our daily bread’. It is an easy prayer for us in the comfortable west to pray, reminding us that […]
9th October 2026
Sometimes I have to admit that God is speaking to me through sermons! Last Sunday’s message from Sam centred on the parable of the “wicked tenants”, who reject even the owner’s son. He headlined it with the question “what are you holding onto?” I moved on last Sunday, with that question still rumbling darkly at […]
2nd October 2026
A friend of mine was recently helping the widow of a senior colleague sort through the books and papers left by her late husband. Out of one of the books fell a short note, dated 1946. It was a reply to a request for information about some publication. Surprise: it was signed ‘C.S. Lewis’! Such […]
18th September 2026
This week I stumbled across an enjoyable YouTube clip. In the opening moments we are told: “This is a story of care, innovation, resilience and community”. The footage tells something of the story of the hospitals in Bristol and Weston-super-Mare (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypVGFoIbOic). It gives a sense of a long tradition of striving to do good in […]
11th September 2026
THE KINGDOM, THE POWER, AND THE GLORY ARE YOURS. These words which conclude the Lord’s Prayer as provided by Matthew have much occupied scholars because they do not appear either in the most ancient texts, nor in Luke’s transcription of this prayer. These words are in fact a summary of King David’s valedictory prayer in […]
9th September 2026
If spared and the Lord tarry, Merry and I will be in Littleover in Derby in a month’s time for a special Centenary. The Baptist church there (founded 1813) provided me with my first pastorate, as it has done for a number of other ministers over the years. Its claim to fame in our denominational […]
4th September 2026
I am going to appropriate last week’s New Testament reading as a manifesto for the Tyndale Thought for the Day: Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think (Romans 12.2, NLT). In the context of Paul’s letter, chapter 12 […]
2nd September 2026
September, the new academic year, has always been a time of fresh starts for me. I know that the calendar hints at January being a time for new resolutions and that the church calendar insists that the year starts at the beginning of advent but September is when my personal starting gun fires. So how […]