Glowing after the deluge

It had been raining heavily all day, but, towards the end of daylight (sadly early, these days!), the clouds began to disperse, and the last rays of the setting sun illuminated the stones of my college to give a lovely warm glow. Magnificent!

And what were we doing in College at 6pm on a Sunday afternoon? Not, I regret to say, arriving for evensong in the cathedral. Rather, we were leaving following an afternoon party given by a former Canon of the cathedral and his wife. The party was to celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary, but a bit late, because they had been away in California on the actual anniversary date.

My former (we are both now retired) colleague Keith Ward is a distinguished British philosopher, theologian, pastor and scholar. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and an ordained priest of the Church of England. He was a canon of Christ Church, Oxford until 2003. Comparative theology and the relationship between science and religion are two of his main topics of interest. From 1971-75 he was Lecturer in Philosophy of Religion at the University of London. From 1975-83, he was Dean of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was appointed F. D. Maurice Professor of Moral and Social Theology at the University of London in 1982, Professor of History and Philosophy of Religion at King's College London in 1985, and Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford in 1991, a post from which he retired in 2004.

I have set up a small gallery of photographs taken at the day's celebrations. The photographs were taken hand-held and in the low ambient lighting without flash, but I hope they give an impression of how jolly the occasion was, with very nice speeches from both Keith and Marian, and good drink and eats! There is a fine cake with magnificent decoration amongst the photographs....