Ian Black
@ianblack-62.bsky.social
Anglican priest, spiritual writer, still curious and questioning. Dean of Newport in South Wales. Posting in a personal capacity. 💻 https://deanofnewport.wordpress.com
Re-commenced reading this and it is opening up the gospels in ways I had not even imagined. Moved on to Matthew (he started with Mark) and he dates the planetary alignment associated with the Magi on 17th April 6 BC. And puts the Magi at the centre of East meets West political tensions.
Riddles, and love of God and Neighbour. Sermon this morning at Newport Cathedral, with a thought about the 60th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster. deanofnewport.wordpress.com/2026/10/25/r...
Riddles, and Love of God and Neighbour
This may delight you or fill you with horror, but it is just under nine weeks to Christmas. If you are anything like me, you won’t even have begun to think about shopping, writing cards (if you sen…
deanofnewport.wordpress.com
The cuts to the BBC are alarming. Even more announced today and it feels like it is being given a death by a thousand cuts. I’m pleased to see that the Daily Service will continue, though local radio and Iplayer is no use for car radios unless you know where you are! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
BBC Three, BBC Scotland and Radio 4 Extra channels to close
The closures are announced as the corporation continues to try to save £500m over two years.
bbc.co.uk
Watched Aberfan on BBC 1 Wales. Man made disaster, and the ministers of the day did not come out of it well - including George Thomas who went on to become the Speaker of the House of Commons. My view of him has changed! An avoidable disaster, profits put before people. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...
Aberfan: The Village That Fought Back
Aberfan’s grieving community takes on the government, demanding justice and the removal of the remaining tips after the disaster that killed 144 people.
bbc.co.uk
St Luke, Stories to counter Christian Nationalism. Sermon this morning at Newport Cathedral. deanofnewport.wordpress.com/2026/10/18/s...
St Luke, stories to counter Christian Nationalism
Today we are celebrating Luke the Evangelist. Probably the author of the third gospel as we have them in our bibles. By a process of elimination, he has been identified as the author of the Acts of…
deanofnewport.wordpress.com
All done with very little disturbance during the night - well to us. The road was closed. Stow Hill back open for the morning commutes and school runs, and busses.
Just been told by Welsh Water that they are closing Stow Hill by the Cathedral tonight to carry out the repair to the leak. I understand diversions will be in place. Should be all done by 8.00am tomorrow (Thursday). The hole will be right outside the Deanery gates.
Updating my bible commentaries with a new one by Paula Gooder on Mark’s Gospel. Ready for Year B.
A predecessor remembered in the Church Times. William Taylor was still spoken of with great affection in All Saints Maidstone when I arrived as curate several years later.
The 2nd lesson from Wm Tyndale’s translation of the New Testament as we commemorated him at Evensong this evening. This year is the 500th anniversary of his 1526 translation arriving in Britain and the foundations it set for subsequent versions including the journey to the Welsh translation in 1588.
Lots of excitement in the Cathedral this evening - and not just from the parents dropping off the choristers.
Newport Cathedral (St Woolos)@newportcathedral.bsky.social · last mo.Choristers setting up for their sleepover in the Cathedral - or it might be the mums.
Today’s maths test. How many zeros does a zettajoule have? From the Guardian.
Grumpiness met with grace. Sermon this morning at Newport Cathedral. (Apologies - no picture, Wordpress is playing up) deanofnewport.wordpress.com/2026/09/27/g...
Grumpiness met with grace
Grumpiness and grace mix in our readings this morning. The people are grumpy in the first reading (Exodus 17:1-7). They want water and so blame Moses for their troubles. They harp back, romanticisi…
deanofnewport.wordpress.com
I think I’d be Olympic standard on this rowing course! 😱🐊🚣♀️
Like so many others, I can remember where I was 25 years ago when I learned of the planes crashing into the World Trade Centre towers. I was standing by my car on a country lane having had a head on collision ... Image: Coventry Cross of Nails in Newport Cathedral.
Climate Change and the Audacity of Hope. Sermon for Christ in Creation Sunday, Newport Cathedral this morning. deanofnewport.wordpress.com/2026/09/06/c...
Christ in Creation: Climate Change and the audacity of hope
What a summer it’s been. Record temperatures, longest spells of unbroken heat and dry weather. The hills have literally been on fire with the smell of the smoke even reaching the Deanery. It has be…
deanofnewport.wordpress.com
It’s a beautiful day… morning sunlight through the trees at Newport Cathedral before Morning Prayer.
One of my favourite saints day today - Aidan of Lindisfarne. His shrine is remembered in Bamburgh Church, photo taken a few weeks ago on holiday. A missionary, prepared to go into unknown places ‘and never be the same’, but be blessed in the encounters.
40 years on. Meal this evening in the Alnwick Garden Tree House to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary tomorrow. It seems like no time at all and I am a very lucky man.
Finding a cooler place in Edinburgh today for the Fringe. Came up to see the uber talented Tom and Becky from Lamphouse Theatre and their show War of the Worlds (on a budget). If you’re up here this week, well worth it at the Pleasance Courtyard.
Our guest for afternoon tea this afternoon and a sculpture of the sound wave made by the Roseate Tern (there are a lot of them here).
Warm, friendly welcome at St Michael’s Alnwick at their Parish Eucharist this morning, marking Mary Sumner Day, complete with intercessions written by ‘someone in the Diocese of Monmouth’!
This seems the perfect opportunity to get the children to write a story with the title ‘the day the scarecrow came from the sky’! www.facebook.com/share/1EjpYV...
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Thoughtful piece from Katherine Randell on AI, young minds, and how AI is a danger to fresh thinking. Long read, but worth it, which is part of her point.
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3mo ago‘I hate what AI is doing to the minds and happiness of the young’: Katherine Rundell on the view from the classroom
It’s taken a few episodes, but I’ve finally got into BBC1’s The Rapture. Now I’m hooked. share.google/v8qeFuIQ9TFt...
The Rapture
As temperatures rise, a convicted murderer foretells apocalyptic disaster - is she a manipulative psychopath or does she know the truth? High-stakes thriller crackling with danger.
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St Davids Cathedral in the morning sunshine. Here to represent fellow deans as Sarah Rowland Jones steps down as Dean. And taking advantage of their cafe for a red velvet Welsh cake. During the Eucharist the choral scholars sang from the organ loft. The sound floated in that wonderful space.
