Asking the big questions and thoughtful insights into the questions of life

IN March 2020 we entered a new way of living, beyond anything we had experienced before. In an attempt to control the spread of the coronavirus (just about) everything closed down. Schools and colleges moved their teaching online, all but the most essential shops shut their doors and our roads became quiet empty spaces.

ALONG with all the changes which are now part of our collective history church buildings too closed their doors.

In a Wiltshire parish one vicar,

Colin Heber-Percy, wondered how he could remain in contact with parishioners during the days ahead. Obviously, there were practical steps: checking on the lonely and vulnerable, leaving food on doorsteps. Things that we all did over those dark, uncertain months.

Colin thought too about people’s spiritual and mental health. How could these needs be addressed? His response was to produce a daily newsletter which he filled with uplifting stories and reflections on life to help people make sense of what was happening. He sent these out electronically to local people but as the days unfolded his daily musings took on a life bigger than he could have ever expected.

Very quickly, these e-mails were being read by people far beyond the region of the Savernake Forest where Colin lives and works.

The newsletters display an astonishing and wide-ranging knowledge of nature, philosophy, poetry and music and are grounded with touching stories of the lives of his Wiltshire parishioners. Colin’s thoughts and reflections have now been collected together in a book (Tales of a Country Parish). Here you will find big questions and thoughtful insights into the big questions of life. What are we here for, how are we to read the Bible in a modern world, and can we find heaven in a supermarket?

There will, I suspect, be many more books reflecting on our experience of lockdown being published in the coming months, but Rev HeberPercy sets the bar high.

If you are looking for a summer read that will entertain, inspire and challenge you, you will search for a long time to find anything better and I commend it wholeheartedly.

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