We have had a hurtful time recently where lots of people seem to be saying and doing things which might be thoughtless or not respect our beliefs and faith.

For myself I see with sadness a letter in this month's letterpage which is attacking all the goodwill and dedication of God's ministry in the village.

Of course I do not take hurt from this personally. But when so many of you invest such efforts for which I am very grateful in doing God's work you will feel the attack as much as me and we must all turn the other cheek together to get though these things.

And I know that the filming of a drama in the village has caused sadness and hurt as there seems to be glorification of things which are like the goings on in Ur and Gommorrah.

Of course, times have changed with respect to Sodom and the fact that one of the BBC characters is an open and professed homosexual is not something we complain about any more. Which is good because love comes in all forms. And we must remember that God is love, so if we love God then we must love love whichever form it takes.

I was talking to the lovely lady who comes to help me with jobs around the house and I could tell she agreed - so it is something which is true across the community.

It is part of my calling and the proudest part of my work that I love all men and in particular all the women in the village. I respect all my flock's strong views about what is right, but ask that you try to love the person who hurts you and then talk them out of it politely.

After all, Jesus said "Love thy neighbour as thyself" and didn't say that it depended upon what that neighbour did or created films about. So we must all love our neighbours (whoever they are) and we must also love ourselves.

But it would be nice if people did nice things rather than causing trouble in the first place. Please think today what you can do which is nice rather than not nice.