iChaplain

I've been thinking recently about the biblical image of Jesus as the Cornerstone. When we reflect on that image, we often think about direction and alignment. The cornerstone determined the shape of the building, and everything else was positioned in relation to it. That's certainly true. But I wonder if there is something more within that image. What if one of our greatest struggles is not rejecting Jesus, but trying to occupy a place that was never ours? Not deliberately. Not consciously. But in the way we live. Many of us carry a quiet assumption that everything depends on us. We need to make the right decisions, provide the right answers, hold our lives together, and somehow keep everything from falling apart. We carry responsibility for our families, our work, our finances, our future, and sometimes even our faith. The burden can become so familiar that we hardly notice we're carrying it. The result is often exhaustion. Perhaps that is because we are trying to carry a ...

Image provided by StockCake. Many of us struggle to get our heads around the world economy, never mind the UK economy. The news is full of stories about inflation, interest rates, growth, trade and markets, but much of it feels far removed from everyday life. Yet, somehow, all of these things affect us. They affect what we earn, what we spend and what we can afford to put in our shopping baskets each week. The question becomes much more personal when we're spending our own money. Perhaps that's part of the problem. Standing in a supermarket aisle, I sometimes find myself wondering whether choosing the Fairtrade option, or the one with the little frog logo, really makes any difference. Can my spending genuinely help a worker on the other side of the world whom I'll never meet? And what happens when money is tight and the ethical choice is also the more expensive one? Recently, I attended a talk on God and the Economy. It got me thinking about what the Bible says about money,...

Have you ever discovered that something you've believed for years isn't actually true? Not because someone lied to you. Not because you weren't paying attention. Simply because you'd heard it repeated so many times that you assumed it must be true.  That happens with Jesus more than we might realise. Over the years, we've attached all sorts of sayings to Him that sound spiritual, inspirational, and even biblical. Phrases like  "Follow your heart,"  "Believe in yourself,"  "Be true to yourself," "Everything happens for a reason,"  "God helps those who help themselves,"  "Money is the root of all evil," have become part of our cultural vocabulary. Many people assume they came from Jesus or at least from the Bible. The problem is that Jesus never said any of them.  In fact, one of them isn't even an accurate Bible quotation. The Bible doesn't say, "Money is the root of all evil." It says, ...

Spoiler Alert: Ark Building for Dummies If you've somehow managed to avoid Evan Almighty over the last nineteen years, here's the plot in a nutshell: ambitious politician gets a visit from God, grows a beard he can't shave off, attracts every animal within a hundred-mile radius, and ends up building a massive ark in the middle of suburbia. In other words, it's Ark Building for Dummies with Steve Carell at his comedic best. I caught it on TV recently and realised I hadn't seen it for years. I'd forgotten how warm, funny, and genuinely feel-good it is. It's one of those increasingly rare family films that manages to entertain without cynicism, leaving you smiling by the end. Steve Carell is brilliant as Evan Baxter, a politician whose life is turned upside down when God calls him to build an ark. The film is packed with laughs, memorable moments, and a strong message about family, perseverance, and making a difference in the world. As entertainment, it works w...

  In a world that often emphasizes self-reliance, the Bible calls believers to something different: carrying one another's burdens through prayer. One of the most beautiful expressions of Christian love is praying for others. It is a simple act, yet Scripture teaches that it can have a profound impact on both the one praying and the one being prayed for. What Does the Bible Say? James writes: "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." James 5:16 (NIV) This verse does more than encourage prayer. It instructs believers to pray for each other. Prayer is not meant to be limited to our own needs and concerns. God invites us to stand in the gap for our families, friends, churches, and communities. Looking More Closely at James 5:16 At first glance, this verse appears straightforward, but it contains several important truths about Christian community and prayer. First,...

Image by Pete from Pixabay . The theme of this year's 2026 Durham Miners' Gala, "The Past We Inherit, The Future We Build," is both simple and profound. It speaks of gratitude for those who came before us and responsibility towards those who will follow. While Jesus never used these exact words, the idea runs deeply through his teaching. The theme invites reflection not only on the mining communities of Durham, but also on the wider question of what we receive from the past and what we owe to the future.  The Gala itself is rooted in memory. It honours generations of miners, families and communities whose labour shaped County Durham and much of modern Britain. Their struggles, sacrifices and achievements are part of an inheritance that cannot be measured merely in economics. They handed down values of solidarity, dignity and mutual care. Yet inheritance is never meant to be an end in itself.  Jesus often taught that what we receive carries with it a responsibility. I...

  We  don’t always wake up thinking, “Today I’m going to ignore God.” We wake up thinking about what needs to get done.  The bills, the messages, the job, the family. Alongside it all, there’s something else quietly shaping us, a desire for stability, a hope that things will work out, a longing to feel secure, valued, or at peace.  Life fills up quickly with these things, and before we realise it, our attention is already spoken for.  It’s not that we’ve rejected God. We’ve simply become busy, preoccupied, distracted. And it’s into that very normal, very human reality that Jesus speaks: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” At first, it can sound like a call to simply “put God first.”  But as we sit with it, we begin to see that Jesus is not just talking about where God sits in our lives. He is challenging what shapes our lives in the first place.  Because the real issue isn’t just that we...

There are moments in life when everything seems to slow down.  A waiting room late in the evening.  A quiet house after difficult news.  A long pause in a conversation where no one quite knows what to say.  These are the moments when the usual distractions fall away, and we are left with our thoughts.  And sometimes, almost without warning, a question surfaces:  If there is a God, where are you right now? Not always as a challenge. Not even always with anger.  Sometimes it feels more like a quiet reaching, honest and unguarded.  But this question does not only arise in private moments.  It can also come while watching the news, or listening to what is happening in the world. Stories of conflict, suffering and loss can leave us with the same quiet, unsettled thought: Where is God in all of this? For many people, the question of suffering does not begin as an abstract idea. It begins here, in ordinary life and in the world around us: when somet...