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Joy in Enough: Economics for People and Planet
“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” So goes Henry Ford’s oft parroted quote. It is particularly popular with Donald Trump, who has tweeted it on at least three separate occasions. Of course it’s easy for someone like Donald Trump to say, starting out, as…
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The Poppy Appeal: State Militarism in Fancy Dress
I nearly joined the army once. I was a teenager, a young school leaver, with little to show for my years eking out a miserable existence in a place that didn’t want me. I joined a college course, completely unsuitable for me, and eventually left when my anti-authoritarian streak reared its ruinous head. The course…
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Poverty and Privilege
Walking the Camino is a privilege. We often use such words flippantly, even if we are showing gratitude, but what does it really mean for something to be a privilege? For the last five weeks I’ve been working this through my head. I am someone who has, at least in relative terms, known both sides…
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The Passage of Time and the Blessing of Hospitality
It is a peculiarity of travel that you can lose sense of the passage of time. Past events can somehow simultaneously seem both recent and distant. So it is with my Camino. I am two thirds of the way through my pilgrimage now, and I can’t seem to work out how or what to feel…
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Hitting Pause
Barely halfway through today’s stage of the Camino, I stopped walking and booked myself into the nearest albergue. My energy levels were good, I had all the right equipment and food, as well as plenty of time to complete the stage, but my joints had decided they had had enough. I am ahead of schedule…
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The Power of Story
Today was a momentous day on the Camino; I am already a third of the way to Santiago de Compostela! As I reflected on the miracle of my legs continuing to work, and my head continuing to let them, I wondered what it was I would remember most when the aches of my muscles had…
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Short Thoughts on the General Election
In their pastoral letter released prior to the 2015 general election, the Church of England’s bishops attempt to offer guidance to Anglicans as they prepare to vote. ‘Who is my Neighbour?’, they ask, just as the lawyer in Luke 10:25-37 does. Having correctly answered that the law requires him to love God and love his…
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Being Working Class in the Church
Why aren’t working-class people going to church, and what can we do about it?
Bread and Rosaries 