The Epiphany5 January 202010.30 EucharistRevd Nicholas Mercer Last Sunday evening, we stayed with my brother in Ripon Not only is he an excellent cook but he subscribes to Netflix which enables us to enjoy a film of our choice And after dinner we watched a film called “The Green Book” The title is taken from a real […]
First Sunday after Christmas29 December 201910.30 EucharistRevd Nicholas Mercer Reviewing the year is something we all like to do at the end of December I have already read reviews of photographs and restaurants for 2019 My own review of TV programmes have had two standout performances The first was Phoebe Waller Bridge’s “Fleabag” I would never had […]
Christmas Day25 December 201910.00 EucharistRevd Nicholas Mercer One of my favourite pieces of music at Christmas is the Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten It is scored for a three-part treble chorus and consists of eleven movements, The most exciting movement, in my view, is called “This Little Babe” which takes it text from a poem by the […]
Advent 422 December 201910.30 EucharistRevd Nicholas Mercer As many you know, a few months ago I gave a presentation to the Friends of Bolton Priory It was about my spiritual journey intertwined with the practise of law And although I covered key events in that journey, I spent little time speaking about Cyprus where I was the […]
Advent 315 December 201910.30 EucharistRevd Nicholas Mercer As some of you may know, I served my title post at the Church of St Mary the Virgin, in Gillingham, Dorset The wonderful thing about curates is that they can be deployed liberally around the parish and further afield And, during my tenure, there was an interregnum at the […]
Advent Sunday1 December 201910.30 EucharistRevd Nicholas Mercer I received quite a shock the other day when I tried to look up some news on the Sherborne School website I found that I could now choose between Twitter, Facebook, Sound Cloud and Instagram I did not know where to start Understanding social media is especially difficult for me […]
Remembrance Sunday10 November 201910.30 EucharistRevd Nicholas Mercer On Palm Sunday in 2010 my family visited my aunt in her Nursing Home on the outskirts of Ripon. As we were talking she started to cry We, obviously, wanted to know what had upset her but she began talking, in a confused way, about the “awful loss of life” […]
Trinity 213 November 201910.30 EucharistRevd Nicholas Mercer I very much enjoyed the Estate Bonfire last night I have always loved the spectacle of fire and fireworks since I was a child and am reminded of the old nursery rhyme which goes: Remember, remember the fifth of November Gunpowder treason and plot We see no reason why gunpowder […]
Trinity 20 (Bible Sunday)27 October 201910.30 EucharistRevd Nicholas Mercer On the 12th October the film Official Secrets had its debut We are planning to go and see it on Tuesday at the Plaza in Skipton The film stars Keira Knightley, Matt Smith and Ralph Fiennes and tells the story of GCHQ whistle-blower Katharine Gun, In the run […]
Trinity 1920 October 201910.30 EucharistRevd Nicholas Mercer Last Sunday we witnessed a crowning moment in the history of the Anglican and Catholic Churches Cardinal John Henry Newman was canonised by the Pope and is now a Saint His Canonisation was the result of two “verified” miracles First, Deacon Jack Sullivan was relieved of spinal stenosis and […]