Everyone is welcome

Monthly Letter

Cycling

September 2026

I spent the first heatwave cycling in Belgium for Palestine; in the only cold wet week of the summer, I cycled for three days for the Mothers’ Union. Thank you to all who helped me raise several thousand pounds. Once a month I cycle all day with Martin Jackson for between 30 and 70 miles.

I’ve long had a wedding sermon about bikes:
When you were young you probably had two extra (stabiliser) wheels added: don’t throw away the support of parents and siblings once you are married. Like two wheels on a bicycle, it is to be hoped that the married couple will go in the same direction; but they are still two wheels, each with their separate needs – tyres, air, oil, brakes (or friends, career, tastes, opinions); don’t merge the two into one.

Some people can ride a unicycle – living a full life alone; but that is the life for few. Too many ride a tricycle instead; adults on trikes almost always look ridiculous; they may seem stable but are much more difficult to ride.

A bike must go somewhere: leave it locked in the shed or garage, and it will soon go rusty and the tyres flat. A married couple also need a sense of direction. You may not get there or there may be obstacles in the way; but there is always an alternative, if longer and slower, way round; and that one may prove more rewarding.

A bicycle stays upright only as long as it is moving; a relationship between two married people may only last if it keeps developing. The wedding is supposed to be the beginning of an adventure, not the end of an engagement. There must be other things I could say about marriage by talking of chains or baskets or bells or lights or gears. You can finish the sermon for yourself.

You might end with a prayer: Our bicycle, who art in motion, hallowed be thy frame; thy destination come; thy wheels be done; on roads as it is on trails. Give us this day a sunny ride. And forgive us our trespassing, as we forgive all motorists who trespass against us. And lead us not into puncturation; but deliver us from accidents. For thine is the pedal and the power and the gearing, for ever and never.
Amen.
[Can you write one for your hobby or sport or job?]

Geoffrey Marshall