Gayle is a small village close by the Wensleydale Creamery in North Yorkshire. Tucked away among the cottages is a Methodist chapel. Unlike its sisters down the road in Hawes and elsewhere in the dales, this one remains open. Perhaps cut off from the anaemic liberalism infecting its urban brethren, this little chapel keeps its doors open.
The snowdrops are out in my garden. I like to see them, braving the weather, a promise of the coming Spring – even when, as sometimes, they are surrounded by snow.
And this week I have noticed that the midday sun is high enough in the sky to shine over the roof of the building opposite and brighten my kitchen once more.
My tropical fish are surprisingly stupid. Now if one seeks intelligent company from the animal world, the fish department of the local pet shop is not high up the list of places to visit. Border Collies, cats, parrots- all show signs of cleverness, sometimes exceeding their owners’. So why is my aquarium’s level of stupidity higher than average?
A film I recently watched is the 2003 League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Based on the comic novels of that name, the nineteenth and early twentieth-centuries’ greatest literary heroes and adventurers are brought together to defeat some equally legendary opponent- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Professor Moriarty. Led by H.
Last week’s local paper carried the story of a seven-year-old boy who, shortly before Christmas, contracted meningitis. He was, as you can imagine, seriously ill. The doctors have saved his life, but only after the lower part of both legs, and both hands, were amputated.
Auguste Rodin’s famous sculpture, The Thinker (1880), has become a symbol of philosophy and human thought. A man sitting on a rock, head in hand, ponders the meaning of life. In my study is a small bronze parody of Rodin’s famous work. The thinker has become a skeleton, the thoughtful head a skull.
I’m rather fond of crystals. I could offer all sorts of theological justification for this, such as Revelation 21:11, which wonderfully states of heaven:
Having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.
01282 540562
pastor @ martintop. org .uk
Salem Chapel, Martin Top
near Rimington, Clitheroe BB7 4EG
Salem Congregational Chapel is a registered charity No. 252401 (England & Wales)
Sunday Worship 10.45am & 6pm