LENT 

My March Newsletter starts with Ash Wednesday on 2nd March, the start of Lent.  I still sold a few copies of “Journey through Lent with Jesus’. More important, I have used it myself each day.  I find it consistently interesting and thought-provoking.  I can also check for the few remaining typos!  It is slightly strange thinking in detail about the Last Supper during the last few days, almost three weeks before we celebrate it in church, but it does help me think through the last 24 hours of Yeshua’s life in detail.  I am now thinking of doing a revision of it after Easter to make more appropriate for any time of the year, with a redesigned cover, though keeping the title and ISBN intact. 

ATHEIST AND PRIEST 

I really enjoyed reading Philip Pullman’s novel ‘The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ’.  He really showed Jesus as a forceful and uncomfortable person.  For him the key moment was Gethsemane when he narrates Jesus complete loss of faith, a heartfelt account of his own position.  I enjoyed writing the blog.  Only two friends turned up for the Zoom discussion on 30th but we all enjoyed it.

JOB AT CLARE 

On 19th Linda and I, together with my brother Martin and Ros, attended a performance of my version of ‘Job’ put on by the Divinity faculty at Core College Chapel.  It was a bit relentless, but that is ‘Job’ for you!  The organ interludes were semi-improvisations by a fantastic organist.  You could really hear the whirlwind at the end.  We had some good discussions after with people who had put it on.  

COVID 

Thirty six hours later, Linda and I both tested positive for Covid.  That put an end to much useful work for me.  However, our kind neighbours Rhea and Jacob found a test kit for us, and I learned to use Zapp – a great way to shop especially if you are isolating.  I have tested negative for the last four days and am getting out and about.

Zapp delivery man bringing us milk during Covid

FILMS ETC 

In the first half of the month we saw two good films, ‘The Duke’, a cheery and finally surprising true story; and ‘Mister Cheng’, a charming gentle film about doing Chinese cooking in Finland.  Surprisingly memorable.  We have of course watched TV, notably the series based on Graham Norton’s book ‘Holding’.  We also watched the beginning of ‘Servant of the People’, the Ukrainian comedy about politics which propelled its star, Zemlensky, to copy the series and become the President of Ukraine in 2019, the rest is history.

NOW WHAT?

I had hoped to do something serious about marketing for two months and not do any writing.  But that really does not work for me, so I am going to take up my quill, or mouse, again.  I want to write some articles for magazines, and also work on one or two or three of the books I have already written over half of.  These are:

• Making Sense of the Bible in 50 blogs
• The Church has a past – has it got a future?
• The Church by the Sewage Farm – an everyday tale of parish folk 1840 – 2020.

Which do you think I should concentrate on first?

God bless (or as per a recent typo I made) Go bless,

Andy