Message. I’ve never seen Shakespeare’s play “Othello”, recently described as a “tragedy of shattered passion, revenge and psychological warfare”. It is considered one of his finest plays. Three of its key characters are Othello himself, Desdemona his wife, and Iago, a soldier who has fought beside Othello for several years. However he believes that Othello

Bible reading: Matthew 11:1, 25-30. Message. I was brought up in the Church of England; we weren’t regular church-goers but we attended the Parish Communion service once or twice a month. In those days the traditional 1662 Prayer Book, compiled by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and reckoned to be one of the greatest influences of the

Bible reading: Genesis 22:1-14. Message. There are a number of Bible stories which, when one starts to think about them seriously, are deeply unpleasant. Just last week Ruth told us that Junior Church had been learning about Cain and Abel – a story which ends with murder. That tale still gets told to children, but

Bible reading: Matthew 10:26-39. Message. I’d guess that most of us would think of Jesus as a peace-loving person, and the Gospels seem to bear this out. For instance, in the Sermon on the Mount, he commends peace-makers, saying that they will be known as God’s children. In the same sermon he tells his followers