Adoration or annoyance
The death of anyone, however long-expected, always comes as a shock. What has been unsurprising, with the passing of Prince Philip at age 99, has been the genuine national sadness and sense of pathos for what the Queen must be going through after 73 years of marriage. Prince Philip wa
Read MoreApril 14, 2021
Comments are off
The “Reddit army”
Until recently the name GameStop would not have rung many bells but that has all changed thanks to a bunch of users on the popular Reddit platform, recently ranked the 17th most-visited website in the world. The story centres around numerous small shares investors, the “Reddit army”,
Read MoreFebruary 02, 2021
Comments are off
Benefits in the rearview mirror
In the same way that we all know that hindsight is a wonderful thing, similarly there can be benefits, even substantial ones, that are only observed, as it were, in the rearview and not up front. I once heard someone giving thanks for COVID and I could see that immediately there opene
Read MoreNovember 09, 2020
Comments are off
Assumptions vs Assurance
Due to the large amount of recent rain, one morning I perched myself atop a nice stable three-legged iron garden table and pushed out the large volume of water that had collected on our gazebo. It made light work of all that heavy water. However, within the space of half of one second
Read MoreOctober 07, 2020
Comments are off
Masking up
The time is fast upon us where we are, much more widely, going to have to don our masks out in public places. So, have you decided yet what type of mask you are going to wear? Will it will be a bulk buy of the cheapest and most basic mask? Alternatively, will you do even better than t
Read MoreOctober 07, 2020
Comments are off
Too much too soon
It has been now a couple of weeks’ worth of lockdown changes with: 2 million primary children invited to go back to school, more people back in work, and the restrictions generally somewhat eased. Opinions are pretty mixed as to whether we are truly following the science or whether we
Read MoreOctober 07, 2020
Comments are off
Hidden figures
Just 10 days ago the world learned that the renowned African-American mathematician, Katharine Johnson, had passed away at that grand old age of 101. Ms Johnson was hired by NASA in 1953 to be, what they called at the time, a “human computer”, using nothing much beyond pen
Read MoreFebruary 24, 2020
Comments are off
5G, do we have an issue?
By now the decision has likely been made and the result out in the public domain – I refer to the choice over whether to let Huawei equipment form the heart or just a lesser part of the 5G national network. For some of us “early adopters” we might be quite excited ab
Read MoreJanuary 28, 2020
Comments are off
The disease of distraction
Very recently I came across a fascinating article on the subject of distraction. Even for the most focussed and work-efficient people, getting distracted is nigh on impossible to avoid. So you’re sitting having an intensive discussion with someone and then you hear that faint &#
Read MoreDecember 16, 2019
Comments are off
The missing cryptoqueen
They call it a story of greed, deceit and herd madness. Over the last couple of months there has been a series of BBC podcasts with the title: The Missing Cryptoqueen. It has to do with the sudden disappearance of Dr Ruja Ignatova, founder of the amazing cryptocurrency scheme OneCoin,
Read MoreDecember 16, 2019
Comments are off
When a neighbour is closer than you think
We’ve probably all had the experience of a removal lorry stopping right next door. For most of us we’re a bit wary of the newcomers since we don’t know whether they’re going to be good, bad or truly monstrous! In one recent case a lady called Hillary had a woma
Read MoreOctober 14, 2019
Comments are off
How far would you go?
Thinking of the most basic staples of life, our bread and water, I wonder how far you would be willing to go for them? I recently came across a couple of stories which showcase what people have been willing to do. The first is from a village in East Java province called Klepu. There t
Read MoreAugust 27, 2019
Comments are off
An unfortunate ‘slip & cut’
You have to feel sorry for the poor guy. He went into Leicester Royal Infirmary for a botox injection and came out full on circumcised! Not the best way for a hospital to make their mark. Of course I understand that, with the best will in the world, we are all fallible people. Even wi
Read MoreAugust 27, 2019
Comments are off
Selective speaking
I was amused hearing about the family that got a celebratory takeaway when their child was threatened with a detention for talking in class. As may not surprise you, the backstory for this news item was a bit more complex and involved. A girl called Red had gone through nursery school
Read MoreJune 10, 2019
Comments are off
Jackpot day
It comes under a raft of names: a bonanza, a treasure trove, a windfall etc. It was just the other week we were hearing about the lady who scooped the lottery jackpot and walked away with a cool £1m in prize money. What was particularly interesting was that the lady concerned, Paula W
Read MoreApril 09, 2019
Comments are off
A time to sing
Stories coming back from conflict zones, that are generally cheering and put a smile on your face, are fairly scarce.
Read MoreMarch 14, 2019
Comments are off
Just so…daily!
Being just into the New Year, whether we would admit it or not, many of us entertain high hopes.
Read MoreMarch 14, 2019
Comments are off
Drone chaos
The amount of sheer mayhem caused in the run up to the Christmas period at Gatwick Airport
Read MoreMarch 14, 2019
Comments are off
Going, going, gone!
The other week Sotheby’s auction house put under the hammer one of Banksy’s best known images
Read MoreMarch 14, 2019
Comments are off
In over our heads
Very recently household debt has been hitting the headlines again. Apparently: “Up to 8.3 million people in the UK are
Read MoreMarch 14, 2019
Comments are off
A wall all around
That President Trump promised to build a wall along the US-Mexican border is common knowledge, yet just recently
Read MoreSeptember 13, 2018
Comments are off
Death row – A heavy toll
As a Christian minister it is one privilege to come alongside those that are facing the grief of losing a loved one. And yet
Read MoreSeptember 13, 2018
Comments are off
#NotForChildren
I remember hearing a story many years ago about a mystical forest. Some children stumbled upon
Read MoreSeptember 13, 2018
Comments are off
Knives making better lives
Knives making better lives London has just opened a new outdoor gym by the name of Steel Warriors. There’s no membership fee, there’s even a free coaching facility. Now if this doesn’t already sound too good to be true, this gym has been built from two tonnes of surr
Read MoreJanuary 25, 2018
Comments are off
The “Nudge unit”
The picture on the front was that of an elephant pushing the baby along with its trunk, the title: “Nudge” by Prof Richard H Thaler who has just now been awarded a Nobel prize. The previous Prime Minister took up some of his ideas in the creation of an internal depar
Read MoreNovember 04, 2017
Comments are off
Gem of a story
This week will have seen Sotheby’s auction an exceptionally sized diamond weighing in at 26 carats
Read MoreAugust 05, 2017
Comments are off
Getting over the overture
How would you like to die at the grand old age of 146? Mbah Gotho, a Christian man from Sragen
Read MoreMay 15, 2017
Comments are off
Cake or biscuit?
No doubt, at some point, someone has asked you one of those rather silly questions
Read MoreMarch 13, 2017
Comments are off
Endless brick walls
I still remember the day just as vividly as when it first happened 30 years back.
Read MoreJanuary 24, 2017
Comments are off
Are we forgetting the lines?
First it was Stacey Solomon reading her lines from a clipboard at the panto and then it was Patti Smith
Read MoreJanuary 24, 2017
Comments are off
Picture perfect
Every year Girlguiding in the UK carries out a survey on Girls’ Attitudes.
Read MoreNovember 01, 2016
Comments are off
Pls and Thx
It was just the other month when the story broke of an 86-year-old grandmother who
Read MoreAugust 01, 2016
Comments are off
My X makes me human
They say that, “X marks the spot”, but what would X be in your life that makes you most human?
Read MoreMay 31, 2016
Comments are off
Humankind’s greatest friend is?
Humankind’s greatest friend is …? The latest edition of the Smithsonian Institute Magazine had this opening statement:
Read MoreMay 02, 2016
Comments are off
Picture Power or Person Power
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words – well recently some research
Read MoreFebruary 03, 2016
Comments are off
Perfect parsnip
The celebrity chef, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, has recently been in the spotlight
Read MoreNovember 20, 2015
Comments are off
Robot love
I read in the paper an article which stated: “The robots are coming.
Read MoreNovember 02, 2015
Comments are off
Picturing compassion
It was the image of policeman Mehmet Ciplak carrying the three-year-old Alan Kurdi’s
Read MoreNovember 02, 2015
Comments are off
The sharp end of forgiveness
Vincent Uzomah was doing the job he loved and, for now at least, he cannot face going back to it.
Read MoreAugust 24, 2015
Comments are off
Cheerleader Mourning
The headline read: “Cheerleading world mourns ‘founder’ Lawrence Herkimer”.
Read MoreJuly 20, 2015
Comments are off
Order! Order!
It was playful stuff recently appointing the Speaker of the House of Commons by re-enacting the centuries old
Read MoreJune 09, 2015
Comments are off
Suffering wordsmiths
As an occasional radio presenter with Newbury & Thatcham’s very own Kennet Radio, you will not be overly
Read MoreMay 04, 2015
Comments are off
Eyes wide shut
Until very recently, if you had asked me what blind people see, I would have answered without any real hesitation,
Read MoreMarch 10, 2015
Comments are off
First impressions, worst impressions?
The events of the Paris massacres at the Charlie Hebdo magazine offices and elsewhere
Read MoreJanuary 15, 2015
Comments are off
Born only to die as it sleeps?
November 12th witnessed the Philae lander’s bumpy arrival on 67P. The new birth had taken 10 years from when the Rosetta
Read More
10 million people said ‘Yes’ in 72 hours
What would create a festival atmosphere in Tokyo, causing thousands to take to the streets in fancy dress?
Read More
Vacuum joke gets clean sweep
It was voted top joke this year at the Edinburgh Fringe by the comedian Tim Vine: “I decided to sell my Hoover… well it was just collecting dust.”
Read More
When two words won’t do
It was this month I bumped into a BBC article highlighting a new word that seems to be doing the rounds at the present: ableism. The article explained:
Read More
Darn those knees!
A brief story if I may: Two pastors’ wives were sitting mending their husbands’ trousers. One of them said to the other, “My poor Andrew,
Read MoreFebruary 26, 2014
Comments are off
Bola on the Andrew Peach Breakfast Show
Bola, whilst out and about talks to Andrew Peach on his morning show and introduces him to Puff-Puffs etc.
Read MoreJanuary 31, 2014
Comments are off
Pastor Hedley on Andrew Peach Breakfast Show
Minding my own business out and about in Thatcham Town Centre on Monday 27th January 2014 and I spy the BBC Radio Berkshire car and Bridgitte Tetteh scouting around for likely interview candidates – so here we go Lord – in for a penny in for a pound.
Read MoreBola on BBC Radio Berkshire Sunday Evening Show
Bola talks about her faith and her love of cooking and how they combine.
Read MoreJanuary 26, 2014
Comments are off
Putting 3,000 Lifetimes to Work
2014 is here, normality has returned and the festive season is barely more than a fading memory.
Read More
A Tertium Quid
I’ll save you some taps diving off to Google for a quick Latin refresher. The term tertium quid:
Read More
A long obedience in the same direction
The story of Noah and his ark is one that is well known. The bible is literally chock full of stories
Read More
When what you want is wanting
What if you could create a world exactly the way you wanted it? I could imagine that for many the construction would include:
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Didn’t he do well
Bruce Forsyth was recently in the news voicing concerns that there could be a shadow side to Britain’s Got Talent with young
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Kicking up a mighty royal stink!
Having quite a fair slice of good old British reserve, I’m not usually the type who likes to make a big fuss.
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Getting properly drunk
You could be forgiven for thinking that it is only in more recent days that people have really learned how to party.
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Commitment a dirty word
In a great many settings today commitment is seen as something which is highly likely to limit our lifestyles
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Loving interference
If there is anything that people routinely hate and can even drive them to distraction, it is interference.
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Countering silliness with silliness
Have you ever said or heard someone else say: “Well of course we’re not under law but under grace”.
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Having a bone to pick
Fear would always grip me when my mother would suddenly say “Hedley, I have a bone to pick with you”!
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Contemplating tax evasion?
I think we can take it for read that no one much likes paying taxes. On one occasion Jesus got cornered over this rather
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
When the Jubilee reached Galilee
The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee has granted people up and down the land occasion to truly celebrate.
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Assumptions, assumptions
The apostle Paul wrote a very odd thing in a letter to Christian believers, he said:
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Ever commanding, ever demanding?
Many in our day take a somewhat dim view of God. Perhaps, right now, that’s you.
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Poems don’t have to rhyme
Do you sometimes think that your life has neither rhyme nor reason. You look back over
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Daydreaming in the night
From our earliest moments we crave security, to be gathered up in our mother’s arms. And which
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Magnificent or mangled
It was one of the strangest prayers ever uttered. He was called to preach before the
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Where’s Wally
No doubt many of us have seen the “Where’s Wally” books. Double-page colour spreads
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
All your eggs in one basket
We all know the common-sense proverb which says “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”.
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Which side of the moon?
I want you to picture a day where God, without any warning, decides that mankind will have
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
A question of fruit
Jesus did much of his teaching by telling stories and he even gave us a couple of trilogies,
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
An Epiphany on Epiphany?
At this time of year people celebrate Epiphany and only one month ago Susan Philipsz won
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Contribution or sacrifice?
Two professors were having breakfast together and were debating whether making a contribution or making
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Turning us upside down
I came across the story of a rally car driver who was a truly forward thinking person. He had a sign which he placed on his
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Not what I would have written
Reading the Bible, even for seasoned readers like me, has its challenges and I want to share a simple tip with you
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
When second best is not best
Did you ever bring home your school report thinking you would get praise? You looked at your parents face to see whether
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Circular thinking
Talking about whether the Bible is a divine book or a thoroughly human production is one of those subjects that usually
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Good to be in a bind
Baptising two Christian believers yesterday has put me in mind of a story. A sailing vessel was at the point of
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Fire survival
We’ve all seen scary adverts about fire safety in our homes. Images of being rudely awakened from sleep by the
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
The graveyard of good intentions
It is wonderful to be at the start of a new year and let me take this opportunity to wish everyone all of God’s richest
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
The R-word
To many of us the word repentance, at least on first hearing, comes across as a bit
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Mining the minute
Some of us have what is called the gift of the gab, well the apostle Paul, who wrote many
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Exploding sermons
The story is told, most likely an urban legend, of a woman found in her car with the windows
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Being a Christian unbeliever
I think it would be true to say that very few Christians have ever thought of themselves as
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Engraved and in earnest
I wonder what the typical ways are whereby we show that we are truly in earnest about
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
In at the beginning
From my early school days I remember seeing those classic evolutionary diagrams: humble
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
What do YOU want?
Jesus, fulfilling His role as a teacher, was asked a great many questions by a great many
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Conformity or Christianity
Recently I came across this story that got me thinking: There once was a good
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
You’re a little devil!
Here’s a riddle to begin with: I’m longed for by my adoring parents, then I’m frequently hushed by those same
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Comments are off
Faux pas – N’est ce pas!!
We’ve all done them – those social blunders, those miscalculated words that have tumbled from our lips only to
Read More12
Upcoming Events
Apr
18
Sun
10:30 am
Morning Service
@ Thatcham Parish Hall
Morning Service
@ Thatcham Parish Hall
Apr 18 @ 10:30 am – 12:00 pm
This is a face-to-face Sunday morning worship service where there is a mix of newer songs and traditional hymns. The preaching is expository in style working through different books of the bible. The children would normally have their own group, socially distanced, and leave for that part way through the service.
6:00 pm
Evening Service
@ ZOOM Meeting
Evening Service
@ ZOOM Meeting
Apr 18 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
*** NOTE This is an Online ZOOM Meeting (Contact church office for joining details) *** These are shorter times of meeting together, normally based in a home rather than in the Thatcham Parish Hall. This gives a more cosy feel and also the nature of the time together is that of worship and discussional bible study.
Apr
21
Wed
8:00 pm
Home Group
@ ZOOM Meeting
Home Group
@ ZOOM Meeting
Apr 21 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm
*** NOTE This is an Online ZOOM Meeting (Contact church office for joining details) *** Our home groups meet each week on a Wednesday. Week 1 is usually prayer & sharing and then the remaining weeks are bible studies working through a series. Every couple of months we have a social evening/film night.
Apr
25
Sun
10:30 am
Morning Service
@ Thatcham Parish Hall
Morning Service
@ Thatcham Parish Hall
Apr 25 @ 10:30 am – 12:00 pm
This is a face-to-face Sunday morning worship service where there is a mix of newer songs and traditional hymns. The preaching is expository in style working through different books of the bible. The children would normally have their own group, socially distanced, and leave for that part way through the service.
email: email@thatchamevangelical.org.uk
Copyright - Thatcham Evangelical Church @ 2006