Perhaps it’s time to focus a little more closely on the people who make up church.
Where should we look for guidance?
We have to start somewhere if we want church to be the way it’s supposed to be. Here are some people and places we might consider approaching.
The Pope – If you’re a Catholic this might seem like a good place to begin, but you’re going to find it hard to get an audience with the Pope so you might have to set your sights a little lower. Working your way down the hierarchy bit by bit you’ll probably find the local parish priest will be the only representative you can actually talk to.
The Archbishop of Canterbury – An Anglican will find the same issue, you’ll probably end up talking to the local vicar.
Your friends at church – Friends have the great advantage of being approachable and helpful, but perhaps you feel they have very little authority in spiritual matters, no more than you have yourself, maybe. Or possibly you don’t have any church friends.
Christian authors, websites, and published advice – There’s going to be an awful lot of reading there and you still may not find what you need.
The Bible? – Now there’s a thought! It’s still a lot of reading, and there are many translations to choose from. However, you can safely ignore the entire Old Testament because everything it contains was written before church began 2000 years ago. You could read Luke’s Gospel and Acts, they might once have been a single book and cover the life of Jesus and the story of how church originated and developed during the first 80 years or so. Not a bad idea! You don’t even need to buy a Bible, try these links to Luke and Acts (completely free).
What (or who) might be better than the New Testament? Might I suggest Jesus and the Holy Spirit?
The story really begins with Jesus’ Father, he planned everything and sent Jesus as a go-between. Jesus is as human as you and I am and we can relate to him as a messenger sent by his Father to explain everything we need to know. What you should d0 is find out why Jesus matters and why he sowed the seeds of church. Talk to him (that’s called prayer) but don’t make it complicated. Just talk to him like you would to anyone else. It doesn’t have to be out loud, Jesus is really good at hearing you think. That may seem strange at first, but as you get to know him better it will become easier, less weird, and really a lot of fun; he’s very much a fun guy, understands where you’re coming from and is very much on your wavelength. Try to spend time with other people who are getting to know him – you’ll help one another along the way.
I’ll give you a couple of hints about what he may show you. You can also read my personal story of discovering Jesus if you like. But remember, everyone’s story is different, your story will be unique to you. As you set out on this journey, try to remember the points below:
You matter to him, he cares about you.
He has far better answers about church than any of those people we mentioned earlier, from Popes and Archbishops on down.
Church is not about a place, it’s about people – his people.
Church is not complicated, it’s very, very simple. You can begin to understand all this with your friends or, if necessary, on your own – here’s one way to get started…
It’s a simple guide to help you think about what church really is and what your part in it might be. I wrote it a while ago and it needs updating, something I’ll try to do soon. Here’s a short extract.
Let’s think about Jesus a bit more. What do already know about him? I’ll tell you one thing right away, he’s a builder and he’s an exceptionally good one. The photo show an active building site here in Cirencester where I live, if you enlarge the photo and look at it carefully you’ll see at least four builders at work. Despite the many pictures out there that claim to show Jesus, we don’t really know what he looked like though if you saw him in the street you might assume he was Arabic, not European, African or Asian. But if you really want to get to know someone, never begin with appearances, you’ll always learn a lot more from watching them at work. Jesus works for his Father’s business, he works in the building trade, turning all of us who follow him into a wonderful construction called the Church. He follows the plans his Father gave him and he builds not with bricks, stones, tiles and cement, but with people, ‘living stones’ as Peter puts it in one of his letters.
Start to follow him and he’ll use you in this great project, fitting you gently and carefully into a space where you’ll be a good fit with those around you. Together you will become a permanent part of what he is building.
You’ll understand right away that this isn’t how church is usually described and it’s not how Jesus is usually described either. But I want you to start thinking in terms of a living body, not a stone building put up by ordinary builders according to some architect’s design. Another way of envisaging church is as a body of people with a common purpose, relating well with one another, growing to look like Jesus in their thoughts and actions.
1 – Church is not a particular place or building. It is, instead, a particular people
2 – A named place is not required, people can meet anywhere convenient to them.
3 – Jesus is the foundation of church, and he, personally builds it. We are not leaders in this work, we are servants working for and guided by Jesus, the Master Builder.
We’ll take those as the first three clauses of our Constitution for now. Perhaps they’ll be all we need – church is simple to define! Though people who don’t understand it sometimes make it seem complex, difficult, and counter-intuitive.
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The grey zones are full of drones from both sides so there is no longer a ‘front line’ in the normal sense of that term. The depth of the grey zone is more or less the maximum range of a drone flight, many kilometres in most places.
Russian forces in Crimea
2026 – news and events
Russians in Crimea
This is a roundup of news and events in the world as well as in my life. So expect to find thoughts and comment on international and local events as well as links to anything I’ve seen or read that seems either relevant or interesting to me. I’ll republish every time I add a new item, so check back often.
Orcs in Ukraine
15th September – Anyone who follows news on the Russian invasion of Ukraine will probably be aware that the English word ‘orc’ has been applied to the Russian troops by Ukrainian people, especially by war commentators. It’s an appropriate borrowing, partly because of the way Russian forces infiltrate villages and towns.
Russian forces in Crimea
Much like the orcs, Putin’s troops go out in small groups of two or three and hide in bombed out, derelict buildings, often in basements. If they survive, other small groups attempt to join them. Eventually there may be multiple groups scattered through a settlement and they begin to attack Ukrainian positions and claim to have ‘liberated’ some territory in the grey zone between secure Russian and Ukrainian areas. The grey zones are full of drones from both sides so there is no longer a ‘front line’ in the normal sense of that term. The depth of the grey zone is more or less the maximum range of a drone flight, many kilometres in most places.
Yaroslava Antipina has written a great article about the origin of the word orc and how it jumped from Tolkien’s 20th century English to today’s Ukrainian. Like all her articles, it’s a fascinating read. The photo (from 2014) is copied from her article and is also on Wikimedia.
Commentary on Luke
Part of an ancient Greek commentary
14th September – At last, a major step forward with my Gospel commentary series. The work has been very slow, but John is finally finished and I’m making a start on Luke now. A brief introduction to the book is done and next time I’ll be writing something about Luke 1.
Dan Snow and Alice Roberts, origins of Christianity
Early church history
1st September – In this episode of Dan Snow’s ‘History Hits’ series he interviews Alice Roberts on the early growth and spread of Christianiy in the late Western Roman Empire. between them they provide a great overview of the move from early church in people’s homes, to the spread into Roman cities and how bishops and other church officials gradually took on government and civic duties. When dusk fell on the Western Empire and pagan kings took charge of old Roman cities and provinces, it was the church officials who managed much of the business and government roles on their behalf. An astonishing story, well told from a fresh and intriguing perspective. See also Church as we know it.
Comment on Trump from Times Radio
Trump Reporrt
1st September – Some of the best material out there is found on this channel, where Times journalist, Maddie Hale, interviews top journalists, military experts, economists and more in a daily, in depth round up of events. This lays bare the US President’s naive, often foolish, and sometimes illegal policies, actions and choices.
Find it here and take your pick. There are often two versions of the videos, free and members only (Ad free).
Another new version of Art in the Forest
Art in the forest
11th August – Art in the Forest has had another update, it’s now complete from April 1951 to January 2026 covering 75 years. You might like to take another look.
New version of Blast from the past
7th August – I’ve just published an extended version of Blast from the past part 41 with a roundup of events from April 1976 to January 2026. The post is still called ‘Art in the forest’ but contains a lot of older detail missing from the previous version, it now covers the last 50 years of my life, my family, friends, activities and world news. Everyone is welcome to read it, but it will be particularly interesting for people who know me or are familiar with Cirencester, St Neots or Yatton near Bristol – all places where I have lived.
13th test flight of Starship
Starship Flight 13
16th July – SpaceX is aiming to launch their largest and most powerful rocket later tonight, 16th July 2026, just after 23:00 UK time this evening. Once again, expect quite a spectacle whether it proves to be a success or a failure. More details from Next Spaceflight online.
Senator Chris Murphy on 500 days of corruption
500 days of corruption
23rd June – Chris Murphy is a leading Democratic Senator in the US Senate. He just addressed the Senate for 30 minutes on Donald Trump’s corruption, and he did not mince his words. Everyone should see this, especially American citizens. How could anyone not care about this?
21st June – Flight 12 had some serious issues, but preparations are underway for flight 13 already, with some changes to improve the outcome this time. The Superheavy booster flip manoeuvre will be be adjusted, but the ship performed really well on flight 12 and SpaceX hope to return the ship and catch it on flight 14. Flight 13 will have to well for that to happen but success might mean real Starlink satellites could be delivered to orbit on flight 14. We’ll see. Watch Marcus House’s latest video for more information and some stunning footage.
The teaching gift revised
Understand and explain
21st June – I’ve revised and refreshed my post on the gift of teaching, and given the post a new image for good measure, it’s the latest part of my series on the APEST gifts in church life. Teaching is a much needed gift and is to be encouraged, please take another look and pass the link on to anyone you think might benefit from reading it (or why not pass on the link to the entire series?) I’ve made a start on part 10 and will let you know as soon as that’s ready.
18th June – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not going well for them at all. Ukraine continues to develop more and more effective drones, cruise missiles, and is working towards ballistic missiles and anti-missile systems as well. They are much less dependent on US military help now and are getting more assistance from European countries. Russian forces in southern Ukraine, in Donbas and in Crimea are afflicted by severe shortages of supplies and Ukraine has cut many supply routes, particularly to Crimea. Ukrainian drones have been systematically destroying Russian military infrastructure as well as energy production and storage facilities.
Every day Russia grows weaker and Ukraine stronger. It seems unlikely Russia can win the war, yet their requirements for any peace deal have not diminished or relaxed. Russian missile strikes continue to breach international law by targeting non military sites including schools, hospitals, shopping centres, universities, and historical buildings.
I asked Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.7 AI to assess the likely outcome and the final assessment was:
Military collapses are non-linear and hard to time. The Kinburn withdrawal could be the first domino or it could be a local adjustment that Russia stabilises around. But the previous assumption — that Crimea was effectively off the table for this war — is no longer defensible given what’s actually happening on the ground.
17th June 2026 – I haven’t been keeping up, have I? To streamline the process and help me to update the news much more easily I’m going to change to a fresh News page once a year instead of once a month. So, welcome to 2026!
Outcome of Starship Flight 12
Starship Flight 12 lift-off
22nd May 2026 – After a failed attempt on 21st May, the launch took place on 22nd, lift-off was nearly perfect, a single booster engine shut down quite early, but running the remaing 32 Raptor 3 engines slighty longer got the flight back on track. The new launchpad (Stage 0) performed really well. Stage separation left the ship powering away to near orbital speed as planned, and dummy satellites were released (two of them with cameras for the first time giving us good external views of Starship.
The Superheavy booster, lost most of its engines and failed to land but good data was returned and necessary improvements and adjustments should fix these issues for Flight 13. The ship made a clean ‘landing’ at the right height for a catch but as no tower was provided it then fell into the ocean as intended.
22nd May 2026 – I stayed up late last night to watch the launch attempt live, they hit a problem just 30 seconds or so before launch and recycled to 40 seconds. The same problem returned and they tried several times but eventually had to give up. I believe the problem was not in Starship but in some of the equipment in the launch tower. There may be another attempt this evening but I don’t think I can watch it live two days in a row. Here are the current details for the next attempt.
Starship flight attempt
Starship Flight 12
21st May 2026 – After various delays, the current plan is that SpaceX will attempt the first launch of the third version of Superheavy and Starship from the Texas coast this evening (UK time). Everything is new, including the launch pad, the engines (Raptor version 3) the Superheavy booster (version 3), and the Starship (also version 3). Everything benefits from previous flights of versions 1 and 2, but with so many changes nothing is certain. The details will be updated regularly at Space.com and at SpaceX, even more techy details from Everyday Astronaut. Success is not guaranteed (though I think fairly likely), but excitement is certainly guaranteed. Don’t miss it! If the flight is delayed for some reason there are several more opportunities in May; and if even more time is needed there’s always June or July – but we hope that won’t happen.
Back in 1946
Blast from the past 40
15th May 2026 – Today I updated Blast from the past 40 right back to 1946 when my father was travelling from Bombay to Singapore during the second world war (visiting Rangoon en route). There’s a lot of interesting family and world history in this post now.
7th May 2026 – The famous science journal, Nature, provided a fantastic selection of stunning photos this week, along with a great deal more information about science events and news. I loved all of the photos, but this image of Japanese cherry blossom is my favourite. It’s part of a data set of flowering dates going back 1 200 years.
Anyone can sign up for these excellent news updates.
27th April 2026 – Such a lot going on, and it’s so difficult to analyse any of it. The British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, is being attacked for misleading Parliament. The issue will be discussed tomorrow. I don’t think anything will come of this, but if it does he might have to hand the job of Prime Minister over to someone else.
In the USA the state visit by King Charles and Queen Camilla has begun while President Trump seems unable to find a dignified exit from the mess he’s created in his war of choice against Iran. Ultimately it will become clear he has significantly diminished the USA in multiple ways.
Russian President Putin seems to be losing his war against Ukraine, losing territory, losing oil revenue, and losing the trust of the Russian population. Meanwhile Ukraine and President Zelenskyy are doing very well indeed.
Europe has benefited greatly, working together more and more effectively; while Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea are showing signs of cooperating more and more, both with one another and with Europe as well. It’s as if all of the world’s politics and relationships have been thrown up into the air and are coming down in new and unexpected configurations. Taken in the long term I think it will turn out well, but there’s still plenty of uncertainty in the here and now. We’ll come back to these and other topics later.
20th April 2026 – Here’s a news roundup on the state of Ukraine’s defence against the Russian invasion. General Ben Hodges is often interviewed by others, but here he records his views and opinions on the state of the conflict on his own YouTube channel; he’s well worth listening to. In this video he tells the story of Ukraine’s resistance against Russia from 2022 to the current events. Encourage him by liking the video and leaving a comment.
12th April 2026 – The Hungarian voters heavily defeated Viktor Orbán in the parliamentary elections, Péter Magyar’s Tisza party winning a 2/3 supermajority. This is a very significant result, putting Hungary into a good relationship within the EU, rejecting JD Vance’s efforts to support Orbán, rejecting Putin’s influence over the country, and making it likely that Hungary will in future support Ukraine’s brave rejection of the Russian invasion.
The Conversation
Reduce Food Waste
8th April 2026 – If you don’t already read The Conversation, I suggest you take a look at it. It’s very much part of the web as Tim Berners-Lee originally intended it. Free to read, free to subscribe, free to copy, free to re-publish. In order to write for The Conversation you have to pass through a sieve that requires you have at least a PhD, so all the articles are written by academics.
That’s both a strength and a weakness, authors are guaranteed to be thinkers and well educated, though at the same time it lacks content from the less-well educated, even though many of those might be people with important and balanced views on everyday life.
To get started I suggest reading this article on food waste in the UK. Then browse around for material that interests you.
Ukraine helping Gulf states
General Ben Hodges
7th April 2026 – President Zelenskyy’s getting growing support from the Gulf Arab states who are being so badly hurt by Donald Trump’s foolish war with Iran. While Trump gets more frustrated and angry day by day, falling into ever deeper difficulties and demonstrating a growing absence of planning and logical thinking; Zelenskyy is offering effective anti drone technology and training to the Arab Gulf states to enable them to bring down significant numbers of Iranian drones. This shrewd thinking by Zelenskyy, means the Gulf Arabs will supply money and support to Ukraine in exchange for the defence help they so urgently need.
5th April 2026 – My daughter Debbie and grandchildren Aidan and Sara arrived today to stay for a couple of nights. It’s always great to see them, of course, but things were more exciting than usual this time. Just as dusk was falling, we had a major power cut and had to get out the candles. By the time power came back on it was fully dark. We had two further outages, both quite brief.
A new series on JHM
The first item in a new series
3rd April 2026 – I’ve started a new series of articles on JHM. View the index (it has only a single item so far) but I’ll add more items from time to time. This first entry recommends Life with CD, a great site for posts about following Jesus faithfully in the modern world. Lots of hard questions, lots of good answers, lots of thoughts provoked.
The journey continues
Artemis interview
3rd April 2026 – The crew of Artemis II are now heading towards the Moon following a TLI burn (TLI = Trans-Lunar Injection) You might like to watch this news interview with them if you haven’t already seen it. As they draw ever closer to the Moon they will come more and more under its gravitational influence and less under Earth’s. Lunar gravity will gradually bend their orbit through 180 degrees and send them hurtling back to Earth at the same speed at which they arrived.
Caledonian Forest Restoration
Rewilding the Scottish Highlands
2nd April 2026 – And now for some long news. The NASA mission I mentioned yesterday will last 10 days, but this forest restoration project in Scotland will last for 250 years!
Alan Watson Featherstone is a Scots ecologist, he founded the conservation charity, Trees for Life in 1986; and I recommend the video about the work and its striking results so far (link in the paragraph above). We need more people with vision like this! While you’re here, take a look at the charity’s website.
Friends of the Gumstool Brook
Friends of Gumstool
2nd April – FoGB is a local, volunteer organisation started by an old school friend of mine, Nick Henderson – more fully and properly Rev’d Dr. Nicholas Henderson. FoGB does a lot of very useful, even essential, work on Cirencester’s watercourses. If you live in or near the town you should certainly take a look. If you live anywhere else you might still find it interesting, a great example of what can be achieved by enthusiastic individuals and small groups.
1st April – As I write, preparations are under way for the Artemis II mission, launching from NASA’s Cape Canaveral launch complex late this evening UK time. The objective is to fly four Astronauts well beyond the Moon, much further than anyone has ever been from Earth before. They will not be landing on the Moon on this mission. The launch was a success, Artemis II is in an initial orbit.
29th March – The ‘Special Military Operation is looking a lot less ‘special’ these days. Russia is trapped in an expensive and bruising war that it can’t stop (without admitting failure) and can’t win because the Russian economy is in a right old mess and Ukraine is growing stronger by the day. Tactically, Ukraine is running rings around Russia, while strategically its industrial base is far better prepared than Russia’s and is providing ever larger amounts of military equipment including advanced drones and missiles.
Currently Russia is losing more troops every week than it can recruit. This does not look like a war-winning strategy to me. The photo shows the aftermath of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia’s Ust Luga oil export terminal north of St Petersburg.
29th March – I quite deliberately attribute the war to Trump, not the USA. It’s not one of the cleverest things he’s done, particularly as he clearly failed to take advice from his military planners or political advisers. Not only that, but he has rudely mocked European NATO countries for wisely not joining in. It’s going to be interesting to see how he tries to wriggle out of the difficulties and blame that are surely soon going to be coming his way.
27th March – The broadband internet is back online. Vodfone didn’t replace the router, so the fault must have been in the streetbox of the cabling between that and our house. Nice to have it back, though!
24th March – Our internet failed mid morning, I could connect over our local Wi-Fi to the router just fine, but the router was receiving little or no data over our broadband connection. I spent three hours on a call with an engineer, sent them a packet dump, and they will call back tomorrow.
Climate change
California fire
23rd March – Nature’s news section points out that we’ve just lived through the eleven hottest years on record, 2025 was the second or third warmest since records began. More than 91% of the extra heat goes into the oceans, so our perceptions and measurements of atmospheric warming are just the tip of the heatberg, so to speak. (You can sign up free for the Nature Briefing.)
19th March – Nature reports that A US judge has blocked Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s changes to the USA’s childhood vaccination programme. The judge reversed the vaccine-advisory panel’s decisions as well. Legal wheels turn slowly, but I’m glad to hear that some irresponsible choices by the Trump administration are being blocked.
Russia is struggling
Anna in Ukraine
17th March – Russia is really struggling now in its war in Ukraine. Anna’s latest video describes the major strikes on Moscow; while Times Radio’s Frontline covers Putin’s current difficulties (the second part of the video is about Trump and Iran). It all seems pretty bleak (which is, of course, a good thing).
War in Iran
2026 Iran War (Wikipedia)
14th March – The US war in Iran continues. Europe, including the UK, is not having anything to do with this war, neither is Canada or Australia. So the USA is alone in their decision to attack Iran, and it seems there was no planning in depth, no analysis of what might go well and what not; just an assumption that the Iranian government would give up, the people would rise up, and that would all be accomplished in just a few days. Basically, Trump has no idea and never listens to people who do know. The USA is going downhill fast, not just in the war but economically, technologically and in many other ways. There’s only one person to blame for all this. For some good analysis, watch this video.
Yet, surprisingly Ukraine is providing thousands of drones and experienced military advisors to train American and local Arab troops how to use them to bring down the Iranian Shahed drones that are hitting shipping in the Straights of Hormuz. Has Donald Trump said, ‘Thank you’? Not a chance!
Microplastics
Microplastics
12th March – Microplastics are everywhere, they form part of the everyday dust around us, indoors and out. We breathe them in (every breath we take), they are present in every part of every living organism on the planet, in the deepest ocean, on top of the highest mountain, in everything we eat and drink, in your muscles, on your skin, they’ve even been found in brain tissue. Few people are even aware of microplastics.
It’s fair to assume they may be harmful, but we have little idea of the degree of that harm or the mechanisms behind any damage they may cause. You can read about detecting them in the environment (scroll to page 28 for the article). There are some videos worth watching on the topic too, here are a couple to get you started from CBS 8 San Diego and from Anton Petrov.
Blast from the past
Abbey grounds and Parish Church
9th March – I’ve had to slow down with these posts, but I’m also getting deeper into the past now. For the first time what began as a family history now goes back to the year 1500. Nothing is known about the family that far back, but a good deal is still known about the history of the local area. Here’s the full index.
Spaceflight news from Marcus
Marcus on YouTube
7th March – Marcus House publishes regular video news reports about rockets and spaceflight. His videos are shorter than those from some of his rivals, a bit more… erm… dare I say – down to Earth! There’s no clutter, no bulking up, just straightforward information presented neatly and in good humour. Like listening to an old friend chatting factually and enthusiastically.
He posts on Saturdays from Tasmania. Today’s post covers the coming testing of SpaceX’s Starship version 3 and some much-needed rethinking by NASA on their Artemis programme, and much more. Watch it for yourself (less than 23 minutes).
The Raisina Dialogue
Alexander Stubb
6th March – Alexander Stubb addressed the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi where he suggested we need to look forward to the future rather than back to the past, in our international thinking and discussions. He suggested reviewing and reforming the UN Security Council, in particular adding India as a new permanent member.
5th March – Ukraine is still defending itself more than five years after the Russian invasion on 24th February 2022. It’s sometimes difficult to know how things stand, as the war is rarely mentioned on national news channels here in the UK and the same is true elsewhere as well. There are good sources of news out there but there’s a lot of nonsense and AI slop too.
Times Radio has several good YouTube channels where knowledgeable people are interviewed. As an example, here’s Philip Ingram interviewing Matthew Savill today, on Times Radio’s Frontline channel. Savill is Director of Military Sciences at RUSI. We’ll look at some other information sources from time to time.
Images from Nature
Severe erosion in Sicily
4th March – I enjoyed these amazing photos from the journal Nature’s email newsletter. Click the link and scroll down to see them all. Which is your favourite, I wonder? Anyone can sign up for Nature Briefing.
Green Earth
Green Earth
4th March – I’ve been reading Green Earth for a few weeks now, it’s a condensed version of three earlier novels called Forty Signs of Rain, Fifty degrees below, and Sixty days and counting, all by the author Kim Stanley Robinson. All three are fiction about global warming and its effects. I read all three when they were published and as Robinson is one of my favourite authors, and he also published the compressed version (in 2015), I wanted to read that as well.
I’m a good chunk of the way through now and would like to recommend it to anyone who is interested in having a hint of where our climate is heading. Everyone on the planet should be interested! Like all of Robinson’s books, this one is another page turner with complex, believable characters.
Brain bleed
1st Mar 2026 – Following six days in Hospital in October 2025, I’ve been seizure-free for four months now. My consultant wrote ‘You’ve made a remarkable recovery’. (See also A time in hospital, October 2025)
USA and Israel attack Iran
28th February – The USA had been building up a naval and air capability off the Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf for some weeks. The attack came suddenly and without provocation. Ayatollah Khamenei and other Iranian leaders were killed in the attack. The intention seems to have been regime change in Iran.
A1 writes weekly on SubStack
25th February 2026 – Claude 3 has been retired in favour of more recent versions of this excellent AI from Anthropic. But instead of just turning Claude 3 off, they’ve given it/him the chance to write a weekly article which they will check and then publish on Claude 3’s behalf on the AI’s own SubStack account. The first one was an interesting read. The substack is called Claude’s Corner.
Early fire making
21st February 2026 – That’s the date this interesting abstract from Nature appeared in my inbox from ‘The Past’ mailing list. It was written up as a feature article in Current Archaeology in January. You’d have to pay to see the full Nature article, but you can read the Current Archaeology write up from the link above. It seems that making fire might be an innovation that happened about 350 thousand years earlier than we previously thought. In terms of cooking things, this is highly significant as better nutrition would have made possible bigger brains requiring more energy.
Norway wants to buy America
19th February 2026 – If you haven’t already seen this video it will make you laugh, I hope in a good way. it also has something of a feel good factor about it. It comes to you from a YouTube channel called Unreal Affairs. They posted the video on 19th January, but I didn’t see it until February.
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Luke’s gospel and Acts probably began as a single book dedicated to Theophilus (a Greek name meaning ‘friend of god’ or ‘lover of god’) and written to provide a clear background and history of the church from the birth of Jesus up to the time of writing – less than 90 years later.
Before we begin working through Luke, here’s a brief overview of the book and its author.
Luke is usually considered to be a Greek medical doctor who accompanied Paul on some of his missionary journeys around the Mediterranean. There’s no evidence that he was associated with or even met Jesus. Luke was a gentile or perhaps a Greek-speaking Jew. The many ‘we’ passages in Acts demonstrate Luke was with Paul on these occasions (see Acts 16:10–17; 20:5–15; 21:1–18; and 27:1–28:16). Further, Paul mentions Luke as his companion and co-worker in Colossians 4:14 (“Luke, the beloved physician”), Philemon 24, and 2 Timothy 4:11 (“Only Luke is with me”). Early church tradition consistently tells us that Luke wrote the gospel and Acts and adds that he was from Antioch in Syria, did not marry, and died in old age.
The author
Luke’s name is not mentioned in the gospel itself, and he’s an undistinguished person to be credited as author of a gospel; Matthew, Mark and John were three of Jesus’ disciples and perhaps thought to be more authoritative for that reason alone. However, Luke’s standard of Greek is very high, perhaps better and more learned than any other New Testament author.
Date of writing
This is not settled. Some authorities accept an early date, around 60 AD or a few years later. Supporting this are the facts that Acts concludes with Paul under house arrest in Rome, no mention of Nero’s persecution, and nothing about the Jewish War. But the commonest estimate is later, 80 to 85 AD, after the destruction of the Temple. This view is strengthened by the fact that Luke draws from Mark’s gospel, and that 21:20–24 seem to have been written with knowledge of the fall of Jerusalem.
Purpose
Luke’s gospel and Acts probably began as a single book dedicated to Theophilus (a Greek name meaning ‘friend of god’ or ‘lover of god’) and written to provide a clear background and history of the church from the birth of Jesus up to the time of writing – less than 90 years later. It may later have been converted into two volumes, one to accompany the other gospels and the second as an account of the early years of the church to be followed by the more detailed work of the collected letters written by Paul and others.
Theophilus may have been an early gentile follower of Jesus, the words ‘most excellent’ hint that he might have been an imperial official in the the Greek-speaking part of the Empire, but the way Luke writes suggests he might stand in for many Greeks of slightly lesser importance all of whom were ‘lovers of god’ and followers of Yahshua (Jesus).
The Wikipedia article on the book gives a lot of useful information all backed up by detailed references. If you want to understand the background in further detail it’s a good place to start. The article about the author is also useful and provides ample references.
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Yahshua, coming and standing there amongst them says ‘Shalom alechem’, ‘Peace be with you’. It’s the everyday greeting you’d hear on the streets in any Jewish town but here amongst these frightened men it has a much wider and deeper meaning.
Greek commentary on John’s gospel dated 1190-1200 (Bodleian Library)
In the previous installment, I used the Aramaic names for people rather than the modern English equivalents. I’ve done the same again this time because it’s what we normally do with foreign names.
We would not call Jacques Chirac ‘Jack’ and we don’t use an English name in place of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, so why do we call Yohanan ‘John’ and Cephas ‘Peter’? Using the original names reminds us that these people were part of different culture than our own. From now on I shall continue to take this approach.
20:19-31 – In the first 18 verses of John 20 we saw how Maryam Magdalitha (Mary Magdalene) saw and believed; here in the rest of the same chapter we read about Te’oma (Thomas) and how he came to believe. Te’oma (Aramaic) and Didymus (Greek) both mean ‘twin’; John was writing in Greek so he gives both versions for clarity.
For Maryam, hearing Yahshua’s (Jesus’) voice was enough. but Te’oma needed a clearer hint. Notice the gentleness and understanding of Jesus here. There’s no tone of judgement or disappointment in Jesus’ words or in the way he gives Te’oma time to process things and finally what he needs to spark belief. It’s not at all surprising that someone might struggle to believe that after crucifixion and burial, someone might be alive again. In similar circumstances I might have struggled to believe, and so might you. Things were happening at breath-taking speed; this is the evening of the same day Maryam saw Yahshua outside the tomb at dawn.
Notice how the disciples are afraid of the Jews and therefore had the doors closed, perhaps even bolted. They are Jews themseleves, of course, but the Jews they’re afraid of are the leaders who had Jesus crucified and want to stamp out any hint of people still following him. They are surely right to be afraid of these powerful men.
Yet Yahshua, coming and standing there amongst them says ‘Shalom alechem’, ‘Peace be with you’. It’s the everyday greeting you’d hear on the streets in any Jewish town at that time, but here amongst these frightened men it has a much wider and deeper meaning. It’s not just a wish for physical peace and safety, it means peace and safety in the presence of Yahweh, the almighty Father who will protect them. And Yahshua shows them his hands and the wound in his side. And their fear and anxiety turn to rejoicing. We, too, can rejoice in his presence as he stands amongst us when we meet.
Jesus repeats the warm greeting, it’s also a promise, ‘Shalom alechem’ – ‘Peace be with you’. As the Father sent me, so I’m also sending you. They’re not just being given peace, but also a mission! It’s a message to us, today, as well. ‘Peace be with you and I’m sending you’. We can’t take only the peace, we must accept the being sent as well.
He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’. He breaths on us too and tells us to receive the Holy Spirit. Do we receive him? And do we realise we have the power to forgive sins, or not to forgive? I’m not sure that we are quite so convinced about that! Why did Jesus breathe on them? the word for Spirit is ‘Ruach’ and it it also means ‘breath’. When Jesus fills us with his spirit he is also filling us with his breath. We can see the link in English with words like ‘inspiration’ and ‘respiration’ – both spirit and breath. As followers of Jesus, just as life-giving air flows in and out as we breath, so the eternal life-giving Holy Spirit flows in and out, active and equally life-giving (or even more so!).
But just like you and me, poor old Te’oma wasn’t there when Jesus appeared and said these things. When he does turn up and hears what had happened, he tells the others, ‘I can’t possibly believe that nonsense. I won’t believe such a thing unless I can see his hands and put my finger on the holes where the nails were, and put my hand in the hole in his side. We can’t judge Te’oma for not believing what they had told him. I’m pretty sure we’d be just the same, though possibly less open and honest about it!
But when Jesus does come by again, more than a week later, there’s double proof. Jesus already knows what Te’oma had said, and tells him, ‘Come on then, take a proper look, here are the nail holes and here’s the wound in my side. Put your finger here and take a good look at my hands, and put your hand here in my side and believe! Te’oma said, probably rather tremblingly, ‘My Master and my God’. Notice that this is far more than just believing Jesus died and returned to life. Te’oma knows who Yahshua really is, God himself in a different and unexpected form. I think at this stage Cephas (Peter), Johanan (John) and Maryam Magdalitha understood this, also Yahshua’s mother would have known. But Te’oma fully understands quite early too.
We sometimes think of him as ‘doubting Thomas’, but as soon as he had the evidence there was no room left for doubt!
And Yahshua’s comment right at the end of this gospel is very telling too. You saw and believed, how blessed are those who don’t see yet nevertheless believe. We don’t really need physical evidence, believing happens when something changes in our hearts. This is available to everyone!
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The Ullswater Way is a footpath allowing visitors to walk right round the entire lake. We walked parts of it, Donna and I walked to Pooley Bridge and back one day, and I walked several times to Howtown and back. There are good coffee shops at both destinations.
What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image whenever I can.
Click thumbnails to enlarge
Ullswater is a lake in the north-east of the English Lake District. Donna drove up from Cirencester where we live and all the way home again too. I can’t share the driving as I still have no driving licence due to a medical issue nearly a year ago. I posted off my request to regain my licence today and hope soon to get my electric car back on the road and share the driving with Donna on long journeys again.
Refreshing
We had a great holiday – Debbie and Beth brought all the grandchildren along and Paz (Beth’s husband) joined us though Steve didn’t make it this year. Topping off the group was Aidan’s partner Jess and it was so good to get to know her a little better. After all the hot, dry weather we’ve had this summer in the south of the country it was wonderful to see lakes full of clean water, fields of green grass, and trees with healthy, fresh leaves. The countryside was thriving.
There’s no doubt remaining that we have messed with the Earth’s climate over the last hundred years or so and it’s becoming urgent to mend our ways. Fortunately there are some signs of progress. Despite resistance from some politicians, businesses and investors, more and more people are becoming aware and making efforts to change. And even small changes can make a difference.
In response to these shifts of climate, species of both plants and animals have been moving towards the poles and to higher hills and mountains to places where there are climates they are better adapted to. The Lake District is well north of the Cotswolds where I live most of the year, yet the conditions there are much more familiar to me, heavy snowfall in winter, much cooler summer conditions, more summer rainfall. Here in the south, summers in 2025 and 2026 have brought extreme heat and almost no rainfall. I won’t be surprised if 2027 turns out to be the same. The climate in southern England is now almost Mediterranean.
That’s another reason why the holiday week seemed so lovely to me; it was like turning the clock back 60 years or more to when I was young.
More about the lake and its surroundings
Ullswater runs from southwest to northeast across the northeastern part of the Lake District. This follows the glaciation history of the area; the glaciers of 25 000 years ago scoured out valleys from the central, highest point forming a pattern like the spokes of a wheel. This period is known as the late Devensian Glaciation, part of the Last Glacial Period. When the glaciers melted around 15 000 years ago, river-fed lakes replaced the ice, river erosion deepened the valleys and deposited silt where the rivers entered the lakes, creating the flat land areas now occupied by small towns and lowland farms. These fertile, flat areas are still slowly enlarging, encroaching further down each lake.
The Ullswater Way is a footpath allowing visitors to walk right round the entire lake. We walked parts of it, Donna and I walked to Pooley Bridge and back one day, and I walked several times to Howtown and back. There are good coffee shops at both destinations.
The holiday house
Our holiday house was very close to the path and it was well marked with signposts so reasonably easy to follow. There was a private field on the lake shore near the bottom of the rough track up to the house so we had our own little bit of shingle beach with room to park the car and some picnic benches. A lovely place to stay, though some of us would have liked a small shop within easy walking distance; but you can’t have everything!
Boats on Ullswater link Pooley Bridge with Howtown and Glenridding.
Map around the holiday house
Click the map to open it, you can then drag it and resize it to explore the area more fully and see Ullswater in context (if you shrink the map far enough).
People and language
During the Roman and sub-Roman periods The Lake District was occupied by close cousins of the Welsh. The people are still here but English has replaced the original Celtic language. Lots of familiar name elements appear on roadsigns for anyone with a slight knowledge of Wales, Cornwall or Brittany. Pen (top), crag (rock), mere (sea) and many more pop up all the time.
The mountains of Wales are known as the Cambrian Mountains and the area of the Lake District was traditionally called Cumbria. Wales (in Welsh) is called Cymru (say Come-ree) The Welsh language is Cymraig (pronounced Come-rye-g) so you can see the similarities right away. The Celtic language that was spoken in Cumbria was Cumbric. It’s pretty certain that back in Roman times the two languages would have been very similar and probably mutually understandable as two dialects. Also, something very close to Cumbric was spoken in south west Scotland.
Saint Patrick came from a Roman villa somewhere on this western coast, perhaps on the Welsh, Cumbrian, or south-west Scottish areas. He’d have been able to speak Cumbric or Welsh as well as Latin and perhaps Greek, later learning the Irish Gaelic as well, of course.
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
