Ebenezer Moneypiece

Aficionados of Bishop Paul's devotional verse will know that his poems fall into two categories: the short, reflective poems of prayer, and the longer 'narrative' pieces, woven round historical or life-changing events, which serve as parables for us today. The title poem, 'Ebenezer Moneypiece', is a stirring tale of high and low life, with a highwayman and his estranged son at its core. The second major poem uses a German submarine, 'U-666', as an extremely apt symbol of evil - an evil diffused by the miraculous intervention of St Nicholas of Myra. Geographically, Bishop Paul moves from his native Hollesley in Suffolk ('Sunday Bells') to the Holy Land of the Gospels and behind his reflections on the past and present ('Today or Tomorrow?') are the abiding themes of selflessness, prayer and redemption through suffering. If life was always easy, we wouldn't understand what God is offering us. Given that it is hard, we may need God's help.