“By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” (Hebrews 11:3, ESV) By contrast, in our scientific education, we learn that the universe is composed of sub-atomic ‘material’ particles (generically Fermions) and force particles (generically Bosons)....
Author: St John's (Duncan Howsley)
Simon’s Scrawl – Spring 2025
Words are powerful. As I write, international relations have been rocked, long standing alliances have been shaken by a few words spoken in a press conference, or written in a ‘group chat’! Yet we can all think of examples of empty words, words which proved to be worthless. The employee who is promised her job...
Hope 150
Our church was started 150 years ago! The first service was held on Saturday 16th January 1875, at 3.15pm in the afternoon. So next year is our 150th birthday and we have some special anniversary celebrations that are planned. As well as these events we are also planning an anniversary booklet which will be distributed...
De-cluttering the Nativity
There’s an awful lot of clutter around the Christmas story, a lot of it generated over the years by the church, and most of it is hard to believe! Take some of the carols: In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone, Snow had fallen, snow...
GUIDANCE and the voice of God – Philip D. Jensen and Tony Payne
I can be a very indecisive person. I worry that I am troubling others when asking for advice and this is exactly the case when asking God for help . I wonder if He really cares about my life and all the decisions I have to make. Should I pray about this or that, really?...
Jesus, the Wisdom of God – Nigel Atkinson, Vicar St John’s, Knutsford
When Paul writes in I Corinthians 1:24 that Jesus Christ is ‘the wisdom of God’ it is difficult, at first, to understand what he means. And that is not surprising because wisdom as a concept is not easily grasped. What is wisdom? The Bible tells us that wisdom is worth more than all the silver,...
Fighting the Culture wars – David Watts
Our glorious Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, intrinsically ‘embodies’ qualities of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). Our God is no solitary, lonely individual – as worshipped in many Eastern religions and in Islam. Not surprisingly, such a God has fashioned a world of dazzling diversity, as the Psalmist exclaims: “How many are your...
Simon’s Scrawl
The topic of this magazine is how the good news of Jesus Christ engages with different cultures. In the past Christian missionaries, attempting to share the gospel, sometimes mistakenly imposed Western culture upon a local population. But the gospel can and should adapt to different cultures, and that’s been shown by the way in which...
Book Review – War & Faith – Andrea McConchie
‘War and Faith’ by Don Stephens is a compelling collection of short biographies recounting the experiences of seven men and one woman who remained faithful to Christ during World War II. The book is a sequel to his previous work, ‘War and Grace’. The book focuses on the courage, bravery, and faith of ordinary people...
IS GOD a Warrior? – David Watts
The Lord your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory. Deuteronomy 20:4 As a post-war teenager, at the age of 16 years, my life was impacted by a fighter pilot. I attended a summer adventure camp near the Barmouth estuary in mid- Wales,...