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John Stevens

Date posted: 1 Jun 2024

Last month a gold pocket watch worn by John Jacob Astor, the richest passenger on the Titanic, was sold for £1.2m at auction.

The watch was not recovered from the wreck but had been found when his body was recovered from the sea. Rather like ‘My Grandfather’s Clock’, it had stopped at 2.20pm when the ship slipped into the freezing waters of the Atlantic.

John Stevens

Date posted: 1 Nov 2022

A couple of weeks ago I had a great evening seeing a tribute band at the De Montfort Hall in Leicester. I had been given tickets as a birthday present by a friend. Elio Pace and his band played the ‘Billy Joel Songbook’. It took me back 40 years!

I had previously been suspicious about the idea of a tribute band, fearing it might be something like a poor karaoke performance. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The quality was outstanding, and about as close as possible to attending a genuine Billy Joel concert.

John Stevens

Date posted: 1 Mar 2022

In January, George Linnane joined the South and Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team. He volunteered after he had spent 54 hours trapped in a cave in the Brecon Beacons and was rescued by 300 volunteers. He joined the team ‘so I can help the next poor soul who finds themselves in this situation’.

As we approach the A Passion for Life Mission, and our churches begin to return to normal ministry after Covid, this story is a reminder of the essence of evangelism.

John Stevens

Date posted: 1 Sep 2021

This summer has seen the start of a new cricket competition, The Hundred. This has been developed to make cricket more accessible.

Each side faces 100 balls, bowled in lots of t e n balls rather than six- ball overs. The shorter games produce greater excitement, are more attractive to families and provide entertaining television. Needless to say, traditionalists are outraged. Simon Heffer has written that it is a ‘bastardisation of a once-great game.’ Many have repeated the obvious cliché that The Hundred is ‘just not cricket’.

John Stevens

Date posted: 1 Jul 2021

When the Equalities Act was passed more than a decade ago, it seemed to limit the freedoms that Christians had long taken for granted.

It became unlawful to discriminate against others on grounds of religion or sexual orientation with the result that, for example, a Christian-owned hotel could no longer refuse a room to a same-sex couple. Similarly, a Christian could not serve as a magistrate and take the view that children were always better adopted by a heterosexual couple. New laws against hate speech meant Christians were more fearful of preaching the gospel in case they offended others; and they faced the possibility of disciplinary action in the workplace if they challenged transgender ideology. These changes reflected the fact that we live in a secular, post-Christian context. Christian views and values are no longer widely shared across society and deemed worthy of privileged status. Instead, government has to balance the interests of competing opinions in a multicultural society.