Category: Uncategorized
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Getting to the heart of safeguarding
Welcome to my new website. Having recently completed my PhD in contextual theology I thought it would be helpful to make some of this research accessible, along with my other research in child maltreatment, safeguarding and child death review. At the heart of all this, and as a significant thread throughout my career, has been…
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Satyagraha – A forgotten stream of true spirituality
Last week Lois and I watched the film Suffragette: an extremely powerful portrayal of one woman’s part in the non-violent struggle for women’s rights; and, interestingly, a pertinent exploration of the parallel processes of alienation and grooming that accompany any form of radicalisation. The main (fictional) character, Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan), gradually finds the courage…
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Hanging up my stethoscope
Today, after 28 years of clinical medicine, I hung up my stethoscope, put away my box of bricks and toys, and closed my BNF for the last time. Yes, I have finally done it. No more will I drive to Rugby on a Monday morning, to sit on the floor of my clinic room…
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A Raja of the Road
Balvinder Singh, son of Punjab Singh, Prince of Taxi Drivers, may your moustache never grow grey! Nor your liver cave in with cirrhosis. Nor your precious Hindustan Ambassador ever again crumple in a collision – like the one we had with the van carrying Mongo Frooty Drink. Although during my first year in Delhi I…
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Bonaventure
Do not walk away from darkness, Therein lies a greater light; Deeper beauty, yet unseen my heart seeks out thy mystery. . Seek not out the road well-trodden, paths of knowing, truth revealed. Embrace, instead, the clouds of silence Lose thyself in depths unknown. Inspired by Richard…
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Beautiful Morality
In his book, Eager to Love (I am only part way through, but this is fast becoming my number one book of the year), Richard Rohr explores what he refers to as ‘beautiful morality’ in the lives of St Francis and St Clare. In contrast to much of the religiosity of their day (and ours)…
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Mind: a contemplative companion to Chapter 6 of Growing up to be a child
I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining; I believe in love, even when I feel it not; I believe in God, even when he is silent Take time, in stillness and silence to contemplate the mystery of a God of presence, light and love who so often seems distant, cold and…
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Strength: a contemplative companion to Chapter 5 of Growing up to be a child.
As a paediatrician, I am often referred young children who are delayed in their development, including those who are slow in learning to walk. When I am assessing a young child’s ability to stand and walk, I need to provide him with support and a stable base so he feels secure. In this contemplative…
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Humanness: a contemplative companion to Chapter 4 of Growing up to be a child
This contemplation, based on chapter 4 of Growing up to be a child, explores what it means to be a human being. In his gospel, Luke recounts how the child Jesus ‘grew in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and with the people.’ Luke’s description suggests four domains or areas in which…
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In the footsteps of a carpenter
We have just returned from a weekend celebrating my father’s 80th birthday. A truly wonderful occasion for an amazing man. Those 80 years have taken him from the rural idyll of a childhood in Sussex, to 18 exciting years in Hong Kong, urban ministry in Gravesend, and the stillness of the Acorn Healing Trust in…