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But I find the glossiness of the brochure, the pushiness of the prose, the urgency of the appeal and the confidence about the supernatural quality of it all a bit scary.It is not just that I am jealous of a happy, growing church. For this blessing and its ministry are much concerned with power and, while some of the language is reasonably pastoral, much of it is worryingly apocalyptic.I can see a place for charismatic experience, indeed for laughing, tingling and vibrating in today’s world. Much of their work involves administering the Toronto blessing, which consists not so much of the traditional charismatic excitement of speaking in tongues as of laughter, tingling and temporary paralysis which leads to collapse.Such experiences do not come without controversy, of course, and in some ways that is exactly the point. Alongside the key words “Toronto” and “blessing”, all the words and pictures which I have mentioned fall (no pun intended) into place.
The covenant ministers are, by their own diagnosis, on fire with the Spirit. No, it can’t be that, because here is a feature on “Restoration”. The magazine is, in fact, a product of “Covenant Ministries International”.

There are lots of pictures of golden ears of wheat and the happy slogan “It’s Harvestime!” Surely a mistake This is the winter edition. But then again all the talk about “Times of Refreshing” suggests that this is a promotion by a health club. But other headlines suggest that what we have here is an offshoot of Farmer’s Weekly. I have just read a very glitzy magazine. On its cover an enormous wave is breaking from its deep turquoise colours into sun-splashed crystals of white. Is this a travel brochure, I wonder? The slogan “and the wave rolls on” appears on many of the pages.

He had a personal warmth of manner which never infringed stylistic good taste and the highest musical standards.Alan DensonFrederick Craig Riddle, viola player: born Liverpool 20 April 1912; OBE 1980; married 1936 Audrey Langford (died 1994; marriage dissolved), 1946 Helen Clare (three daughters); died Newport, Isle of Wight 5 February 1995.. His passionate musicality was twinned with deep cultural awareness. Beecham again invited Riddle to be soloist in Walton’s concerto in May 1956, at the Festival Hall. An eager exponent of contemporary music, Riddle joined Beecham in Rubbra’s Viola Concerto at the Festival Hall, in 1954, and premiered Giorgio Ghedini’s concerto (1953), also with Beecham.Riddle was good-natured, a genial colleague, a sympathetic teacher.