Yearly Archives: 2008

  • Disappearing

    “A magician was working on a cruise ship in the Caribbean and, because the audience would be different each week, he allowed himself to do the same trick over and over again. There was only one problem – the Captain’s parrot saw the shows each week and began to work out how the magician did…
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  • The Princess and the Pea

    Once upon a time there was prince who wanted to marry a real princess, he travelled all over the world but couldn’t find one. On evening a terrible storm raged around his castle and there came a knocking at the city gate. The old king opened it and there stood a princess, her clothes soaked…
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  • Smoke Ball

    Louisa Carlhill in her own way is quite famous in legal circles.  During the great flu outbreak in 1892 which claimed the life of many notable people, including Prince Albert Victor, Queen Victoria’s grandson, she bought a Carbolic Smoke Ball from the Carbolic Smoke ball Company. It was sold for 10 shillings (50p) as a…
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  • Little Things

    Last week I preached on the subject of remembrance in relation to our faith, using Moses’ words in Deuteronomy about Israel as they prepared to enter the Promised Land; this was a topical sermon because it was Remembrance Sunday. It was also reinforced by the visit of my eldest son from Bristol. We went out…
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  • AD 1170

    History records that Henry II and Thomas Becket, his Chancellor, were firm friends. Although the Plantagenet king was only twenty-one when he ascended the throne in 1154, and Becket was in his mid thirties, the age differences did not seem to matter. Both were energetic workers, and whereas the king sought to manage and rule…
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