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New website, new blog
What a morning for ice
A lovely clear sky
What a difference a week makes!
St Paul's call to Macedonia
With St Paul at Philippi
St Paul at Beroea and an Orthodox Monastery
The wonderful Meteora
En route to Athens
St Paul and the Areopagus
Paul and Corinth, and our Holy Communion in the open air.
Journeying into Holy Week
Holy Week and Easter in Five Objects
Good Friday
Tuesday of Easter Week
What's in a memory?
A visit to Lambeth Palace
A damp retreat!
Comings and goings
Getting things in order....
Personality reflected
Swanage from a new angle
The Dream of Gerontius
"It's good to be back!"
The St Mary's icon (part one)
The lost will be found!
St Mary's icon, part two
Pentecost and a Royal Wedding!
The Countryside in May
The healing nature of gardens
Reading the Psalms
Time to wait and watch
A little gentle gardening
Prayer for Swanage and Studland
Flowers of the Field
We Meet You, O Christ...
All Things Bright & Beautiful
A Few More Discoveries...
Nine months can seem longer or shorter!
Remembering Achill Island
Looking down
Dry ground, blue skies!
All Things Bright and Beautiful
David Poulter's Organ Recital
Seeds and stony ground
The calm before the storm
Pimms and Hymns
Beans climb high as the drought persists
Swanage Carnival
Beholding and Reflecting
Goings and Comings
The Spreading Flame
Only a bus-ride away...
Newly hatched!
Lifeboat Week
Time, contrasts, life.
One memory to another....
A day of music and sunshine
Anniversaries
Early Autumn at Anvil Point
'Ride and Stride' and the Swanage Folk Festival
School class assemblies at St Mark’s Church
The autumn rectory garden
Canon Peter Burtwell's 60th Anniversary...
Random Acts of Kindness...
Approaching Harvest Festival
“Another thought on Harvest Thanksgiving”
Remembering a famous climb
Remembering Thomas Traherne
Fanny Alexander
Preparing for Remembrance
Judith
A lovely autumn day
Gridlock
Home, Memory and Remembrance
99 Poppies
War, Faith and Reconciliation
Young People of Swanage Remember
A tree falls
The rectory garden turns towards winter
Feeling "through-other"
Lucy Menzies 1882-1954
Marking time.
Advent Calendars
An Advent Session of Children's Activity
A Very Special Christingle Service
Handel's Messiah
Does more time help?
A tale of four Christmas Carol Services
Approaching Christmas
Christmas Night
Embers of yesterday
The dawn of 2019
A visit to the Isle of Wight
"On this Island"
Winter, but showing a few signs of Spring
Charles Alan Smythies
Oberammergau 2020
From wet Saturday to reflective prayers
The Consecration of Bishop Andrew
Seagulls
St Brigid's Day
From Rock Cake to Agglestone Rock!
John Ruskin anniversary
The Silence of the Girls
Skylarks above Durdle Door
Snowdrops at Kingston Lacy
If my people ...
The sound of water
St David's Day
Children exploring what is enough...
St Mark's SIAMS inspection result
Praying Together - Lent 2019
Thoughts of Spring
Let there be Light
The Voice of Jeremiah
The Annunciation of Our Lord to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Exciting Musical Initiatives
Signs of the times
Durlston Pleasure Ground Project
Preparing for Holy Week
Seeing what is similar but not quite the same
Good Friday in Swanage
From Easter Day
Joined-up thinking
transferred saints' days
Pimms, Hymns and Songs of Praise
Julian of Norwich and an early May walk
A great catch of fish
Mid May and the Easter Season
The Desert Fathers and Mothers
He's up! He's out! He's still about!
Studland Flower Festival reaches its 50th year
A Visit to Cuddesdon
The Bishop Edward King Chapel
Two hidden windows in St Mary’s - Part 1 - Elijah
Two hidden windows in St Mary’s - Part 2 - John the Baptist
Kite-flying for Pentecost
Surprised by Grace
Sundar Singh
Summer is here!
Activity, Sunshine and the Summer ahead
Solveig and seven others to be ordained deacon in Salisbury Cathedral tomorrow
The beauty of Swanage gardens - and meadows and coastal paths at Durlston Country Park
Silver on the Wing
Reflecting on the Ordination Service
Walking from Swanage to Studland
A wasps' nest and other signs of Summer
Simon Lole's Organ Recital
Swanage Parish Fête 2019
The desert in the city
Wildlife in the rectory garden
Another wonderful organ recital
The Transfiguration
Mary Sumner
Swifts Away
The 'Second Degree of Grace'
Visitors Reflect on Finding St Mary's
Morning Prayer and the Healing of the Paralysed Man
Joseph Edmonds - Memorial Plaque in St Mary's
Focus on the Environment
Last night at Westminster
Psalm 88
The garden is ready for an autumn blitz
Two years on
An evening walk on Swanage beach
The Harvest season approaches
Greta Thunberg’s speech at the UN Climate Action Summit
The language of Parliament
Autumn is here
A musical weekend!
Choral Evensong discussion on BBC Radio Solent
Saturday Children's Explore Session on Animals
An early drive to Wareham Station
Remembering three remarkable lives
A vision evening and school harvest festival
Swanage and Studland Vision Evening - Swanage Methodist Church - 23rd October
General Elections and such like
Early Sunday morning
Return of the metal poppies
Children singing a little of Compline
A quiet beginning
Our bishops remembered in prayer
A drive back from Salisbury
Some words of Dave Merritt and Seamus Heaney
Winter Beauties
David Bellamy and the Isle of Purbeck
Swanage Town Carol Service
Pre-Christmas tidy in the Rectory garden
Days of Contrast
Winter Shrubs in the Churchyard
Near Epiphany at St Enodoc's
Passing Epiphany days
"Unusual Kindness" - the theme of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Sunrise over Swanage
The William Blake exhibition at the Tate Gallery
Special Days
Landslips and pebbles
Preparing....
Diary of a Pilgrimage
Kingston Lacy's snowdrops
#LiveLent 2020
George Herbert
Moreton Church's Whistler Windows
Reflections a week into Lent 2020
Swanage and Studland Group to Oberammergau
Diocesan Share 2020
Hebrews 3:7-end
Thought for the Day
How good it is to make music to our God
St Cuthbert's Day
The lighting of a candle
A service for Mothering Sunday
Psalm 77
The sound of music
Another Spring Day
Harriet Monsell
"I am become like a pelican in the wilderness...."
A Craigie Aitchison Crucifixion
Service for Passion Sunday
A daily exercise
To lift one's eyes
A virtual walk
Plans for Holy Week
A dove released, as from the hand of God
Thoughts on closed Church buildings
Living in isolation
Sitting still
The Monday of Holy Week
Believe in the light
Approaching Maundy Thursday and Good Friday
Maundy Thursday
Christ Crucified
Easter Eve
Mind the Gap
The wind blows in a new day
The new and the routine
From the rising of the sun to its setting let the name of the Lord be praised
The early morning light
The Psalms of Easter Week
Many waters cannot quench love
On the eighth day of Easter
The heavens declare the glory of God
hidden springs
Manna in the Wilderness
Resurrection
The rock that is higher than I
St Mark's Day
Leaves and fruit
Christina Rossetti
Climbing Mount Sinai
Staying a while in one place
The Spirit of God
The rectory garden on 1st May
Salisbury Cathedral 800th Anniversary
Coming in and going out
The childhood of Jesus
Memories of a retreat
A walk to Dancing Ledge
Predictive text
Small and beautiful
Christian Aid Week
Julian of Norwich
Patience!
Florence Nightingale
Time to hoe
St Matthias' Day
Lilies and cherry blossom
Worship and devotion
Encountering the Rose Beetle
Rogation Days
St Dunstan and the early morning sun
New Every Morning
The Ascension of Christ
The water from the rock of Meribah
Museums in Quarantine
The Eve of St Aldhelm's Day
An early visit to Swanage and Studland
Balaam's ass
Ode to a Nightingale v Psalm 29
A virtual walk to Brian Johnston's field
The rectory garden
The eve of Pentecost
Images and reflections
Mary and Elizabeth
The last pool of darkness
Division, oppression, turmoil and inequality
Terns off Peveril Point
Cool and a little damp!
What's in a name?
When shall we be able to open our churches?
Bishop Thomas Ken
Columba
The rectory garden in June
Barnabas the Peacemaker
An evening walk
Re-opening the churches
A walk from Worth Matravers to Seacombe, Winspit, St Aldhelm's Head and Chapman's Pool
Part two of a walk from Worth to Chapman's Pool via Seacombe and Winspit
Psalm 36
Oberammergau
travelling light
Psalm 31
Bildad and Job
The longest day
A nostalgic visit
The end of Sisera
Starting Services in Church again.
Sacred Space
Fruit, flowers and a little rain
Cyril of Alexandria
Church Services to begin again on 5th July
Psalm 71
Small steps
Another little thought from Job
FAQs
Surprises and Expectations
This weekend and back to Church
Reflecting on a first Sunday back in Church for services
Ida Haendel, Sibelius and Ezekiel's Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones
Reverting to a twice-a-week Blog
The Churches and arrangements and plans for the Summer
Return to Dancing Ledge
Summer visitors return to Swanage
The summer garden
A spiritual garden for St Mark's School
From Tyneham to Flower's Barrow
Psalm 19
Jean-Baptiste Vianney
The path of peace
The Poor Clares
Late Summer in the Rectory garden
A Walk on Brownsea Island
Psalm 55
Irony as revealer of truth
Stephen and Saul; David and Nathan
Let the rivers clap their hands.....
Open our eyes that we may see!
Lady's tresses orchid
Three years on
The Ride and Stride walk - The Priest's way and beyond....
Solomon and the building of the Temple in Jerusalem
That autumn feeling
Thanksgiving for the coronavirus test!
St Michael and All Angels
Signs of autumn
"Everything is going to the all right" - Derek Mahon
A service at which we remember our loved ones
The Maccabees
The Rose Window in St Mary’s
Fungi in the woods...
Wendy Cope's Anecdotal Evidence
King Josiah
Trying not to lose the rhythm
A little light in the midst of darkness
Another lockdown begins
A little thought on edges, tamarisks and fire
Tomorrow's Remembrance Services
Remembrance as a catalyst for Peace
Margery Kempe
The Seed Shop
St Martin of Tours
An autumn flowering snowdrop
The Gift of Time
Shining in the gloom
What will Church be like after the lockdown?
Things to inspire us
The death of Yitzhak Rabin - a memory from 25 years ago
Psalm 56 and a sighting off Durslton this morning
Pining for Evensong
Doing the right thing at the right time
Pre-Advent and the Book of Daniel
A walk to Agglestone Rock
Columbanus and a postscript on Margery Kempe
A story of lost things
Isaiah chapter 40
Managing Advent, Christmas and Epiphany in our Churches
Balancing what I can do with what I should do.
The Eve of Advent
A little flexibility
Return to Kimmeridge
Ezekiel 47: 1-12
Qumran - an appendix to yesterday's blog
Psalm 42
John of Damascus and the Incarnation
A winter visit of the guillemots
The Swanage Town Carol Service
St John of the Cross
Christmas Services 2020
The Advent Calendar
Christmas Day 2020
The closing words of Anna Karenina with the end of the year
Swanage and Studland Team of Churches Epiphany Service 2021
Into lockdown once again
Further thoughts on lockdown
Reflecting on the coincidental
"O that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down....."
Being extra careful!
A wintery return to Dancing Ledge
Those who put others before themselves
The flowering of the witch hazel
Further thoughts on the Godlingston Witch Hazel
What do we understand by holiness of God?
Low tide, dusk and a murmuration of starlings
Clarification over places of worship staying open
Looking up
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 18th - 25th January 2021
Choral Evensong discussion on BBC Radio Solent
Simon Lole did a short radio interview with Tim Daykin on BBC Radio Solent early on Sunday morning to promote Sunday’s "Come and Sing" choral evensong service with Hugh Morris (Director of the RSCM).
Here is the link:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07q832sfbclid=IwAR3O0QPPNypHCVAPLNV_aG9b9FD8Vj8c7L447YVnzAo8zPPkZ0Hr_MnioIM
I hope it works!
John <Mann