From the Rector

Dear Everybody, hello again.

One of my hobbies is poetry.  I like reading, writing, and hearing it. 

Recently I went to hear a well-known poet read in Jurnet’s Bar in Norwich.  I’d read some of his poems before, and a journal he edited, and had been to a workshop he led, but none of it had really excited me.

But what a change!  When he read his own poems, you could hear how he meant them, and they became full of humour, pathos, and love, and all the images came to life.  I had to reassess what I thought about him.  I could see why other people think he is so good.

Every so often, we need to reassess what we feel about somebody.  We know two or three things about them, and think we have the measure of them.  Then one more thing happens, that changes our attitude.  Words, actions, a tone of voice, make a difference.

For all of us, it’s good to have an open mind, and to allow our relationships to develop.  For Christians, and maybe others as well, it’s important to feel that our attitude to God can change, and that knowing a bit more may open a whole new world of thoughts to us.  That might come, as it did with me and this poet, from hearing the voice, from hearing the written word come alive.

Reading aloud is a skill our society is in danger of losing.  Children who watch TV in bed rather than have a bedtime story may miss out on the sense of togetherness with the reader, and on the life that reading aloud brings to a printed story.  Sometimes, even, read aloud to yourself, and hear the difference.  You might hear more than you imagined.

God bless you.      David Head