Christian Comment for Hampshire Chronicle published Thursday 1st August 2024 Christian Comment: A Biblical phrase for our times | Hampshire Chronicle Are we losing a common culture? For hundreds of years, certain Biblical ideas and stories were regularly mentioned, while hymns and religious themes in art were widely known. There were phrases and quotes which were common currency. They might not…
Christian Comment for Hampshire Chronicle published Thursday 4th July 2024 Christian Comment by Moira Redmond - A helping hand | Hampshire Chronicle This is rather unfair on my children but is a true story. A good few years ago, my husband was going to have an operation on his foot (not serious, but very much inconveniencing and immobilizing him). We explained this to our two children, who were…
Christian Comment for Hampshire Chronicle published Thursday 6th June 2024 Comment: 'Christians find many good things in our way of life' | Hampshire Chronicle The bank holiday we just had in late May used to be called the Whit holiday – there is a Philip Larkin poem, Whitsun Weddings, which notes that it was a popular weekend to get married. And there’s an Agatha Christie short story where the…
Christian Comment for Hampshire Chronicle published Thursday 9th May 2024 When atheists thank you for prayers | Hampshire Chronicle What is a God Conversation? Someone used the phrase recently, and explained that in their usage it was not talking to God, but talking about God, sharing our faith with other people. Praying for other people is easy: telling them about it can be harder in this secular…
Christian Comment for Hampshire Chronicle published Thursday 11th April 2024 Christian comment: Easter makes us look for the light | Hampshire Chronicle Anyone who watches a certain TV quiz programme knows the specialized meaning of a ‘Pointless’ answer: if you asked 100 people to name items in a certain category, it’s an answer that none of them would give. If you’re ever on the show and you are…
Christian Comment for Hampshire Chronicle published Thursday 14th March 2024 Christina comment: How can we bring ourselves to forgive? | Hampshire Chronicle The true crime genre is very popular at the moment, in books and TV series, and too often that means gruesome descriptions of violence, and making entertainment and puzzles out of others’ pain. But there is one true crime book around at the…
Christian Comment for Hampshire Chronicle published Thursday 15th February 2024 How does Christianity work? It can change worlds and lives, but it can also work in quiet ways that have an effect. Here’s a very small story. More than forty years ago I was going to New York on a very low-budget trip with a friend. I told my aunt about it, and she said ‘I know someone in New York, you must get in…
Christian Comment for Hampshire Chronicle published Thursday 18th January 2024 Christian comment: Guilt is it helpful or unhelpful? | Hampshire Chronicle ‘I don't understand why I act the way I do. I don't do what I know is right. I do the things I hate.’ There can’t be many of us who don’t feel like that sometimes. It could be anything, from a serious offence to the food we eat, the exercise we…
Christian Comment for Hampshire Chronicle published Thursday 21st December 2023 Imagine an alien listening in and watching us all over the month of December. They notice that something big is happening, of great importance to many people. But what might they conclude about this event? After hearing the chitchat - on the streets, on the buses, at the Christmas Market - they might think that it was…
Christian Comment for Hampshire Chronicle published Thursday 23rd November 2023 In my church group recently we had a fascinating discussion round the question ‘what memorable advice has anyone given you?’ Note that I’ve used the word ‘memorable’ not ‘good’ – as the chat went round the table, some people mentioned advice that we had our doubts about… ‘Sticks and stones may break your bones, but…
Christian Comment for Hampshire Chronicle published Thursday 26th October 2023 This is one of my favourite ‘stories-with-a-moral’, though I can never remember where I first heard it. An old man tells it, looking back to his childhood. “When I was a boy my father used to walk me to school on his way to work, and every day we would pass a blind beggar at the same spot. My father would greet him,…
Christian Comment for Hampshire Chronicle published Thursday 28th September 2023 Does anyone else remember those ‘Priceless’ Mastercard TV adverts? They might show two people preparing for a night out – across the pictures sums of money would float: ‘tickets - £100’ ‘new dress - £50’ ‘taxi £10’. And then you would see the two participants smiling at each other, and the caption would be ‘date night…
Christian Comment for Hampshire Chronicle published 31st August 2023 I had two big worries last week, ridiculously different from each other, and neither earth-shatteringly important except to me. They both came good, as it happened while I had devoted (slightly reluctantly) a couple of hours to trying to help someone – I had put my phone away, and when I picked it up again I was delighted to see…
Christian Comment for Hampshire Chronicle published 3rd August 2023 Even if you don’t know the name Frank Cotterell Boyce, you will have come across his work: he’s a very successful children’s author, but he also was one of the creators of the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, and of that Queen’s Platinum Jubilee film – the one featuring Paddington Bear. He is also a lovely man, and a…
Christian Comment for Hampshire Chronicle published 6th July 2023 Do you take things on trust or do you demand evidence? Do you follow your own intuition even when others tell you that you are wrong? It can be hard to get the balance right – it’s not sensible to ignore the help and work of experts, but sometimes we just know something in our hearts, and it doesn’t matter what anyone else says.…
Christian Comment for Hampshire Chronicle published June 8th 2023 I have a friend who cheerfully asks people ‘Are you going to Heaven?’ Most people (whatever their beliefs or non-beliefs) will shuffle around at this question, and at best say weakly ‘well I hope so.’ But my friend says ‘That’s not enough. I am CERTAIN that I am going to Heaven because Jesus Christ died to save me’. These are strong…
Christian Comment for Hampshire Chronicle published 11th May 2023 Andrew Lloyd Webber was asked by King Charles III to write an anthem for the coronation, a piece of music that we all heard for the first time last weekend. Lloyd Webber was one of the creators of the Biblical musicals Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, so he has form in this area. He used…
Christian Comment for Hampshire Chronicle published Thursday 13th Ap ril 2023 So how did Easter go for you? Most people notice it happening, if only because there are two Bank Holidays. Good opportunity for a long weekend away – although those trying to get to France had a hard time this year. For Christians it is the most important time of the year (yes, it is a bigger church festival than…
Christian Comment for Hampshire Chronicle published Thursday 16 th March 2023 IN MEMORY OF LIZ SLINN RIP Moira Redmond writes: I am taking over a share in this column in the saddest of circumstances: my friend Liz Tatham Slinn, who wrote it for seven years, died on 2nd March after a short cruel illness. You may remember that she wrote movingly about it in her last column a few weeks ago. We were…