Dear Rev. White,

I have arrived via a link to the cybernaughtsawake debate via the Telegraph and many stops between. What a marvelous web site you have. Congratulations.

Greetings to the faithful in Christ at Tardebigge, seems an appropriate start. I have visited Tardebigge many times on canal holidays and every time come home refreshed and restored, if sometimes also very wet.

I should like to share with you a wonderful insight given to me some years ago as I travelled the stretch out of Birmingham down to Kings Norton.

I stood on the stern, cold and alone, mulling over the problems I had tried to leave behind in Plymouth. The canal was black with the sludge of many years fallen leaves. The oily diesel belched around the tiller as I looked down into the detritus of many years neglect. Bottles and plastic waste, bricks and rubble, polystyrene and shopping trolleys all in the swirling water. The rubbish of peoples lives floating past.

In a moment a movement; a flash of iridescent light, shot from the canal bank and lifted my eyes from the murky water to the bright tree lined view in front. A kingfisher in splendid colours of orange and iridescent blue streaked only a few feet above the surface and perched ahead of me.

In that instant I was reassured of the presence of the King of Kings. When all around looks grim, when the darkness and filth of life seem to be all there is for us, when we seem to be alone, look up from these momentary things and see Christ himself has gone before us and even now waits to show himself in splendour and majesty.

I was thrilled by this insight and though I have seen many kingfishers since, I have never been touched in the same way. I guess he just knew my needs and used the wonder of His creation to speak his truth to me.

yours in Christ

Andrew Thorburn, St. Paul's Stonehouse Plymouth