All articles by Alan Clifford
Alan Clifford is the minister at Norwich Reformed Church
websiteThe two-part TV programme The Path to 9/11 (BBC 2, 10-11 September 2006) demonstrated clearly enough that the motivation of the Muslim terrorists was purely religious. Contrary to the claims of multiculturalists, therefore, the problem of Islamic terrorism is rooted in the fundamental fallacies of Islam itself. Until these fallacies are seen for what…
Read moreThe BBC2 two-part screening of The Path to 9/11 (10-11 September 2006) was compulsive viewing. It was impossible to miss the purely religious motivation of the Muslim terrorists. Despite the depressing 'PC' discussion that followed on Newsnight, when we again heard that the majority of Muslims reject the violent activities of their more fanatical…
Read moreLast month we left Thomas Cartwright in Geneva, where Theodore Beza had assumed the mantle of John Calvin. But friends in England regretted his absence, and Cartwright was encouraged to return in 1572.His advice was sought concerning negotiations with Catherine de Medici over Queen Elizabeth's possible marriage to the Duke of Anjou. Cartwright's opinion…
Read moreThe year 2003 has supplied us with a feast of anniversaries, including John Wesley (b. June 1703), Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153) and Jonathan Edwards (b. October 1703). If they deserve our attention, so also does Thomas Cartwright - who died in December 1603 and was, according to Daniel Neal, the 'father of the…
Read moreThe immediate background to Bernard's life was the 10th-century revival of monasticism. The centre of this revival was the monastery at Cluny in France (between Dijon and Lyons) founded in 910 by Duke William of Aquitaine. It was believed that the highest state of spirituality could only be attained by means of monastic seclusion.…
Read moreOf all Doddridge's hymns, O God of Bethel is probably the best known. It was one of his earliest hymns, being written in 1731. The original manuscript still exists, and is headed 'Jacob's vow', the theme being derived from the patriarch's first encounter with God. The version of the hymn most commonly sung is…
Read morethe hymns of Philip Doddridge (3) by Alan Clifford When James Montgomery said, 'Blessed is the man that can take the words of this hymn and make them his own from similar experience', he was speaking of the ever-popular O happy day, that fixed my choice. The hymn takes its inspiration from the Old…
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