Normally this week many of us would be getting ready for our house to house collection of Christian Aid Week. St Stephen’s usually raises around £2000 through this – a significant some for those in poor countries living on a…
Hidden treasures of an overstuffed anchorhold
Like a lot of people, I am using some of my lockdown time to sort out things in the house. Actually I had already decided to do that because my mother died last autumn, and making room for the stuff…
Not a real anchorite?
When I decided to call myself “an involuntary anchorite” in my lockdown blog, I realised that it was either a joke (like a duchess calling her stately home “my little place in the country”) or immensely arrogant. Loretta lived in…
Easter in a 21st Century Anchorhold
So – my first Easter in lockdown; though perhaps not the last, if the worst predictions about the virus’s ability to fight back – mutation, the possibility of second infections – is true. How different has it been from normal?…
Holy Week thoughts of an Involuntary Anchorite
Holy Week has some great dramatic services : The Palm Sunday Procession followed by the dramatic reading of the gospel, the Blessing of the Holy Oils on Maundy Thursday morning or the Foot washing and Stripping of the Altar in…
Diary of an Involuntary Anchorite page 3
Cooking and Food March 30 The Ancrene Wisse advises anchoresses: You shall eat twice every day from Easter until the Holyrood day, (14th September), except on Fridays, and Ember days, and procession days and vigils. In those days, and in…
Diary of an Involuntary Anchorite page 2
I’ve decided to keep my diary manageable I will start a new page on my blog every Sunday. If you want to start from the beginning the go back to the page without a number Getting real – Mothering Sunday…
Diary of an Involuntary Anchorite
In the middle ages to decide to spend one’s entire life in one room usually attached to a church was an accepted if uncommon thing to do. Those who chose this were mainly women ( – nchoresses, from a Greek…
Sermon Lent 3 2020 – Eyam and its lessons for the coronavirus epidemic
In 1665 a bundle of cloth arrived from London in the Derbyshire village of Eyam for the local tailor His assistant noticed it was damp so spread it out in front of the fire to dry. Within a week he…
Update on progress on improving access, beauty and biodiversity in St Stephen’s Churchyard
Following the public meetings in July and August and a site visit by a council officer the PCC of St Stephen’s has agreed to the work recommended to remove or prune unhealthy and dangerous trees and the legal process to allow…