Today...

...the memory of Dr George Bell, Anglican bishop of Chichester, was honoured, at Evensong in the church of St Martin-within-Ludgate in the City. I went along, as I wanted to be there to honour his memory, which has been cruelly smeared in recent months by a crude and unsubstantiated allegation of sexual abuse. A number of people have been involved in seeking to clear Bell's name, and a full investigation  may well do so....but it is cruel and horrible that these smears were ever publicised. At Evensong one of his sermons was read - calling for a strong Christian renewal in the years immediately after the Second World War. He had been a courageous friend of the anti-Nazi Germans, and with equal courage spoke out against the massive slaughter of civilians in the bombing roads on German cities.