Posted: 1st Jul 2011 (4 comments)
This time last year I sat down for a meal with Christine Caine. We were both speaking at a women’s conference in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I had met Nick & Chris Caine previously at the Hillsong Conference, and love Hillsong and respect the work they and the Caine’s do around the world.
Posted: 13th Jul 2011 (0 comments)
It is too early to make a final judgement on what is currently known as the ‘News of the World Phone Hacking Scandal’, where journalists pursuing stories appear to have systematically hacked into mobile phones, stolen personal information and allegedly made payments to corrupt police officers. It is too early because we do not know who authorised these actions and whether such illegalities occurred elsewhere within Rupert Murdoch's vast News Corporation media empire, which includes The Times, the Sun, The Sunday Times and Sky television. Yet if we cannot yet make a final judgement, we know enough to be angry. Some of our society’s most fundamental standards have been trampled on and there has been a complete disregard for those most elementary British values, the rights to decency and privacy.
Posted: 21st Jul 2011 (0 comments)
One of the most extraordinary contemporary phenomena is the explosive rise of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Facebook can be likened to a personal notice-board – with photos, news and comments – made visible to a circle of ‘friends’, while Twitter is a constantly updated listing of messages (‘Tweets’) open to all. Three figures give some idea of their scope: around 750 million people have Facebook accounts, around 1 billion Tweets are posted each week. Facebook and Twitter (along with YouTube) are influential and have been credited with aiding the downfall of political regimes. Births, weddings and – more troubling – suicides, are now announced on social networking sites. I am on both Twitter (@Canonjjohn) and Facebook. Yet for all their importance, the growth of these sites has been so subtle that we haven’t given much thought to how we should respond.
Posted: 28th Jul 2011 (0 comments)
On the 26th of July, after some years of failing health, John Stott finally slipped quietly away to glory. I was one of many people blessed by his ministry and to me he was - and always will be - 'Uncle John.'
Witton House, Lower Road, Chorleywood, Rickmansworth
WD3 5LB
© Copyright 2013 Philo Trust. Website by Haloweb .
Patron - The Right Reverend Dr. Christopher Cocksworth, Bishop of Coventry.
