№ 44: 2024 in Review

Another year filled with writing, moving, speaking, travelling, and creating!

Alastair: As I write this, we are on a train back from Hudson, having spent a delightful few days upstate with Susannah’s father and stepmother. There is a light fog over the Hudson River, ice along the banks, and islands and buildings shrouded in the mist faintly visible on the farther shore. This remains one of my favourite routes that we regularly travel.

It is good, at the end of a year, to have occasion to look back over the past twelve months, considering the various experiences and achievements that have filled them. In both 2022 and 2023 we concluded the year with a review post and we intend to keep up the tradition.

In March we moved house in the UK (the third move for each of us in as many years) and we are continuing to settle into our apartment in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. While our lengthy season of weddings might be slowing down, we still attended three of them this year. Early in the year, we attended the baptism of Susannah’s new goddaughter and, in November, we suffered the sudden tragic loss of Susannah’s uncle Joel.

We have once again travelled very extensively, although often not together. Highlights of the year included visits to the Republic of Ireland, Venice, the South of France, an island off the Amalfi coast, and shorter visits to Rome, Naples, Slovenia, and Croatia. In the USA, we have had several trips to upstate New York, have visited Boone, North Carolina, and Boston. Alastair has visited the Greenville area a couple of times, Birmingham (Alabama) three times, and the Bay Area once. Susannah has returned to the family home in Mystic twice and also visited DC and Los Angeles. In the UK, we have had several trips to and stays in London, Susannah has also had a stay in Cambridge and Alastair in Stockport. We have had day trips to many locations, including the North Wales coast, Lyme Park, Chester, and Jodrell Bank.

Revisiting our review of 2023, we commented upon the challenge of so much travel (most of it work-related), a challenge compounded by our personal commitments on both sides of the Atlantic. If anything, 2024 was even more demanding on this front: Alastair has had nearly thirty flights over the course of the year, and Susannah’s tally is probably not too far behind. Intense trips can be both exhausting and disruptive of our routines; it is often a day or two before we fully hit our stride again after returning from them. Susannah’s recent bout of the flu, which she picked up on her UK trip—she is still coughing badly, while assuring random bystanders that she is no longer contagious—is an example of another downside of conferences that we often need to factor in. By far the worst aspect of our travel commitments of the past year has been the amount of time we had to spend away from each other: probably around three months in total. All this said, the blessings of our peripatetic and migratory lifestyle are manifold and together they more than compensate for the real disadvantages.

This is our eighteenth Substack post of the year. Within those posts, we have written thirty reflections, with a combined total of over 70,000 words (compared to under 60,000 words in 2023), including among them ‘Lewis the Anglican’, ‘Why Mordecai Did Not Bow’, ‘Relitigating the Deception of Isaac’, ‘The Internet is the Negative World’, and ‘It’s About Time’.

In addition to lots of book-writing, over the past year, fourteen articles of mine have been published in various places, including ‘Tech Cities of the Bible’, ‘Pentecost and the Gift of a New Politics’, and ‘The Christological Character of Typological Reading’ (I have written several more that have yet to be published). I have read dozens of books for research and pleasure.

I have participated in thirty-three episodes of the Mere Fidelity podcast and thirty-seven episodes of the Theopolis podcast, produced twenty-three episodes of my own podcast, and been a guest on twenty-seven other podcast episodes: one hundred and twenty podcasts in total. I have appeared in ten videos for Theopolis (several more have yet to be published). My biblical reflections series have begun to be translated into French.

I have preached seven times. I have participated in three colloquia and attended a few conferences. I have been the speaker at one day conference and another two-day conference, delivered several other conference talks, and taught in two rounds of the Theopolis Fellows Program and the first year of the Te Deum Program.

I have taught three courses for Davenant Hall—‘The Bible and Politics’, ‘Man and Woman in Modernity’, and ‘A Christian Account of the Sexes in Conversation’—each of which with over twenty hours of teaching time and around ten further office hours. I have supervised a few student projects. I have had countless meetings, both online and in person. This said, online teaching is one thing I have done a little less of in 2024.

I knitted two blankets, one large throw, two scarves, one vest, and almost finished another sweater (probably the most challenging pattern I have made to date), making 2024 by far the most productive year I have had to date on the knitting front.

In an ideal world, we would travel less, be more settled, and we would both have the time and energy for all the writing we need to do. We had much the same hope at the end of the past two years, but it did not materialize. The indicators for 2025 are not great either…

This said, if 2025 is anything like 2022, 2023, and 2024, it will be a joy-filled year, jampacked with events, with wonderful sights and experiences, and with time spent with friends and family. We cannot wait!

Here are some of the highlights from 2024.

January

We enjoyed a few days with family in Stoke-on-Trent over the Christmas period, before a short trip to the US. Alastair spent a couple of weeks in Birmingham, Alabama for the Epiphany term of the Theopolis Fellows Program and then went to Davenant House in South Carolina, while Susannah was in New York and DC.

We flew back to London, where we spend a couple of days, attending the UK Davenant Convivium, catching up with some friends, and seeing some of the sights. Alastair spent the remainder of January in Stoke-on-Trent, although Susannah’s time in Stoke was limited, as she had another London trip for a Plough readers’ meetup on Burns Night.

February

In Stoke, we helped Alastair’s parents prepare for their move and also started to prepare for our own, as we were moving into their old house.

We visited Stone.

Susannah left for Carnevale in Venice early in the month and Alastair flew out on the 18th to join her. It was Susannah’s third Carnevale, besides other visits to Italy, but was the first time that Alastair had seen the city.

Susannah: I get that this Carnevale habit seems uhh a little much. I can’t really deny it. I basically have nothing to say for myself. Here, in any case, are some pics from this past year.

We had planned to meet up in Venice back in 2020, but COVID upset our plans. It was one of the highlights of the year finally to spend a few days together in Venice. We were not a couple (and Alastair was not looking for us to become one) in February 2020: it feels so much more apt to spend time together in Venice when you are a couple in love!

After five days in Venice, we went to Ljubljana, where we met up with some dear friends of ours, with whom we also stayed for a day in Croatia, before returning to Stoke-on-Trent.

March

With the help of Alastair and his brothers, Alastair’s parents moved into an assisted living apartment in Stoke, while we moved from the cramped quarters of our old house to the spacious three storey house which has been Alastair’s family home since 1996. We enjoyed spending time with Alastair’s brother Jonathan over this period and moved literally hundreds of boxes of books.

We visited Biddulph Grange Garden and had afternoon tea at World of Wedgwood.

We went down to London again, where we went around the British Museum, before flying back to New York the next day.

We concluded the month with a visit to Boston for the baptism of Susannah’s goddaughter and also celebrated Easter.

Susannah: This was such an honor for me: Clara is not just my goddaughter but also the daughter of my godson. I love the family very much, and I look forward to being part of her life as she grows up.

April

April started off on a good foot, with a visit from Brad Littlejohn and his family, and several other friends.

We were able to spend time with several other friends in the city, enjoyed the blossom in Central Park, and also attended a wedding. Susannah especially enjoyed returning to the regular whirl of social events. Susannah spoke at a couple of Interintellect events. We saw a partial eclipse.

[Susannah: The wedding was John Garry and Stephanie Larsen’s: Mecha and Pip, as they are known to New York leftcath society. I’ve known Mecha since he was 20 years old, which is insane to think about. If anyone is looking for a portrait photographer/news photographer in NYC, ask me and I’ll get you in touch with him.

As for a whirlwind of social events, I can only think that this refers to the Lamb’s Club Hollywood Babylon party that Alastair didn’t go to. Well I guess there were other friend hangouts too. But it’s not like I was out every NIGHT!]

Alastair flew out for a conference in Oakland, but before he did, we had breakfast with Derek Rishmawy. Susannah was also able to hang out with Derek and Andrew Wilson while Alastair was away.

[Susannah: I also got to hang out later that day with 50% of the Mere Fidelity gang: Andrew Wilson was also in the City, both of them there for a Keller Center thing, which I went to too.]

May

The first half of the month was spent in New York City, one of the longer stints without travel that we enjoyed. We got a lot of work done, while settling comfortably into city life. We also celebrated our second wedding anniversary; it is strange to think that we have not been married forever!

Susannah: There was also another Lamb’s Club party: a Celebration of America, organized by Steve dePass, one of the oldest Lambs. Steve thought that the culture wars were tearing America apart and what it needed was a good singalong, wherein all the old Broadway folk who are the club’s members could perform the sort of Irving Berlinish patriotic songs that they’d done on stage in the 50’s and 60’s and had mostly not done after the 70’s. So he got everyone to dress up in red, white and blue and perform. He was in a sort of silver zoot suit, which was spectacular.

OK brief explanation: the Lamb’s Club is one of the two theatrical gentleman’s clubs in NYC (now including ladies too). I have been a sort of knockoff member since just before Covid, but this year made it official, and it’s enormously fun. The club members are 3/4 people over the age of 75, and 1/4 my friend group, mostly under 40; somehow it all works. We started meeting there during the winter, and in a particular spot under a tree in Central Park during summer, during Covid when restaurants and other things were closed or weird or difficult; we could keep gatherings small and as needed in the open air. It has blossomed into a truly weird New York institution. Or at least - it had been one before, but now we are all part of it. When I was interviewed they grilled me about what I would bring to the club: I am after all a journalist rather than an actor. But they let me in anyway.

It lost its own clubhouse due to its members’ characteristically theatrical lack of ready money, and has decanted all its memorabilia into the fifth floor of the clubhouse of the Women’s Republican Club, which we now share. This can make for some interesting cultural interactions at the bar which we also share.

The Women’s Republican Women were, I think, a little confused by the Lamb’s Celebration of America, but it all worked out.

Towards the end of the month, we flew out to Birmingham, Alabama for a few days at the Civitas colloquium, a Theopolis group in which we have been participants for a few years.

We flew back to New York on Friday 24th, and attended the wedding of our friends Stiven and Rebecca the following day.

On Sunday, we flew out to Dublin, for the start of a ten-day trip with some dear friends. Alastair grew up in Ireland, yet had not properly visited in twenty years. Eight of us toured the country together in a single vehicle, having an incredibly special and memorable time.

Starting off in Dublin, we spent a half day there before travelling down south by way of Dún Laoghaire.

We stayed in Tybroughney Castle, a fifteenth century castle in Piltown, County Kilkenny, easily one of the most remarkable buildings we have ever stayed in.

The next morning we drove to Clonmel, County Tipperary, the town in which Alastair grew up. In the afternoon, we went up to the Rock of Cashel.

From there we drove to Killarney, where we would spend the next few days. On the Friday, we started the day exploring Killarney National Park and then did the Slea Head Drive from Dingle, finishing at the most westerly pub in Ireland.

June

Our Ireland trip continued, with more exploration of the National Park, a jaunting car ride, and a visit to Ross Castle.

After worshipping in Killarney, we drove up to the seaside town of Kinvara, our base for the next couple of days. We walked out from the town to Dunguaire Castle.

The next day we saw the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren, spending time at the Poulnabrone dolmen, probably the oldest megalithic site in Ireland.

We returned to Dublin by way of the picturesque medieval monastic site of Glendalough. Later that afternoon, we visited the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin and had a final meal together.

While our friends returned to the US, we stayed on one more day and met up with a couple of Dublin friends.

Although we had done some work on our holiday, we had a huge backlog upon our return, so much of the rest of the month was exceedingly busy. However, we had several meals with friends and some long walks in the city.

We celebrated Alastair’s birthday with a trip on Clipper City, the schooner on which Susannah had been a deckhand.

Susannah: Also ran into Tom Burton, the owner, who every time I see him is a little miffed that I am now a journalist and out of the sailing business.

Susannah: I went to another Lamb’s event: a staged reading of my friend Jane Scharl’s verse play Sonnez Les Matines, a theological murder mystery set in Paris in 1529, at the time when John Calvin and Ignatius of Loyola were students at the University, and Francois Rabelais was being a louche layabout not yet enrolled as a student. That isn’t a what if: that actually happened. But WHAT IF they were a friend group? WHAT IF that friend group found a dead body?

We travelled to Boone, North Carolina, for the wedding of a dear friend of Alastair’s from his time in Durham University, Paul. Alastair was one of the groomsmen. We also met up with some online friends on the way back in Charlotte.

The month ended with Susannah attending the Plough Young Writers’ Weekend and us both going to spend a few days with her father and stepmother upstate.

Susannah: The YWW was at the Mount Academy, the Bruderhof’s boarding high school (also open to non-Bruderhof members) in Esopus, NY. It was an absolute blast: lots of Plough writers and others in our sphere as speakers, with a cohort of college students interested in media and journalism there as the attendees. I gave a talk about magazine journalism and another about the importance of writing in the age of AI.

July

The first few days of July we were upstate, but returned on the 3rd, in time to celebrate the Fourth of July with two sets of friends in the city.

Susannah: There were literally two picnics, the Lambs’ friend group and our church friend group, about a quarter mile away from each other in Riverside Park; we went back and forth until the two picnics merged into one.

Some other friends were up from Philly that weekend. Alastair went around the Met Cloisters with them and then wandered around Central Park. After church on Sunday, we spent the early afternoon with them as well.

To celebrate Susannah’s birthday, a few days early, we watched Cabaret at the August Wilson Theatre, our only Broadway show this year. Later that week, we attended a talk given by Susannah’s stepmom about her latest book, Strong Passions: A Scandalous Divorce in Old New York at the Salmagundi Club, and met up with her and Susannah’s dad the next morning for breakfast.

Before Alastair’s flight for Birmingham, for the Theopolis Ministry Conference, we visited the Met, on the morning of the 13th. Alastair was in Birmingham for the next two weeks, speaking at the Ministry Conference and lecturing at the Fellows Program and the first Te Deum Program.

On the Wednesday afternoon, between the Ministry Conference and the start of the Fellows Program, Alastair went around Birmingham Zoo with a friend. On the following Tuesday, Alastair also visited the Birmingham Museum of Art again.

Meanwhile, Susannah did a sea chantey sail on the schooner Pioneer in New York Harbour with the friend group.

Susannah: Well I also had another Lamb’s party: our Bastille Day party, which involved my friend Daisy spending about a week trying to make a Bastille out of clay, to be ceremonially smashed on the evening of. This was moderately successful. She also made everyone liberty caps, which were extremely successful. And we had a French Revolution Trivia activity, at which I excelled.

Alastair flew back to the UK on the 27th, where his brother Mark and his family were visiting from France with one of their friends. He spent time with them and his parents.

While Alastair returned to the UK, Susannah flew out to Rome where she spent a few days.

Susannah: I also went to LA for a weekend to hang out with my brother and sister in law and their daughter, which was enormously fun; plus we had my birthday. Rome was a sort of extra two days before I met up with friends on a little island off the Amalfi coast. More about that in the next section.

August

Alastair enjoyed some time with his brothers and their families, who were visiting his parents in Stoke and returned to his UK work routines. He also continued to sort out the house, which we had left shortly after the move, so much remained to be done.

Susannah’s gallivanting continued, as she went on to Naples and an island off the Amalfi coast. She returned to the UK by way of Naples.

Susannah: All right, here are your island pictures. There were an absolute ton of us, around twenty two over the course of two weeks; we basically took over this one little auberge and my friend’s mother’s house nearby. It was extremely wonderful; I also got to hang out with my goddaughter again, as her parents were some of those who joined us. It was incredibly hot. You don’t understand. It was so hot. We ate so much seafood, and cooked for each other, and sang a lot and swam a lot. There were cats. The cats seemed really hot also.

Look, it was a working vacation. I’m serious.

Naples was wonderful: the first time I had been, a kind of blend of Vienna and NYC in the 1980s. Everyone gave off raffish semi-criminal vibes, but in a really good way. Also there was air conditioning in the AirBnB. Also I ran into Mount Vesuvius, which shouldn’t have been startling but was.

A number of Susannah’s friend group went on to London, where several members of their New York club were having a shared trip. They watched a few plays and saw some sights.

Susannah: Let me explain. It was a Lamb’s Club theatrical trip: we saw Anthony and Cleopatra at the Globe, and Viola’s Room, an immersive theater thing by Punchdrunk, which is the same company that does Sleep No More. There were a couple of other potential shows that I didn’t go to, because frankly I was absolutely basking in the overcast rainy slightly chilly weather. My skin was peeling basically OFF, so I had to balance going to shows with spreading aloe on my face.

Also at Anthony and Cleopatra the final five minutes were shut down by what we were all convinced at the time were race riots, but which in the event turned out to be football hooliganism.

We also went to the very weird and wonderful John Soane’s Museum.

On one of the days of the trip, Alastair travelled down to London with his brother Jonathan and his family and one of Susannah’s Stoke friends. Together with Susannah they walked around London, visited Greenwich and the Royal Observatory.

The next day, Alastair had a wonderful day with his brother Mark and his family at Lyme Park (the site of Pemberley in the 1995 BBC version of Pride and Prejudice). After the day out they met up with Alastair’s parents and walked back home along the canal.

The day after, Alastair’s youngest brother Peter and his wife, Fernanda, joined the rest of the family for a meal in Stoke. Susannah finally arrived back at the end of the week and was able to spend a short time with Jonathan and Monika and their family before they returned to Hamburg.

The rest of the month was a busy one, but we also cycled and walked a lot in the area. We did a lot of blackberry picking, explored new parts of the canal network, discovered new places to walk in our neighbourhood, and visited some nearby sites like Mow Cop.

Susannah: This was when I learned about the concept of Going for a Walk into the Countryside. It blew my mind. It’s a whole THING.

We ended the month with another visit to Biddulph Grange Garden with a former elder of our church and his wife. Some Durham friends also stayed overnight with us.

Susannah: These Durham friends were our godson and his mother and his dog.

September

September began with a trip to the North Wales coast with our Durham friends and Alastair’s favourite dog in the whole world, a Ruby Cavalier Spaniel named Penny. [Susannah: You’ll notice he has named the dog but not our godson, whose name is Jacky. Jacky’s mum is Barbara-Anne.] We visited Llandudno and Conwy Castle.

On the way back, we stopped off for an hour in Chester.

It was a Heritage Open Day on the 7th, so we took advantage of the opportunity to visit Gladstone Pottery Museum, Etruria Bone and Flint Mill, and Our Lady of the Angels and St Peter in Chains church.

Susannah: I have to say that I do not fully share Alastair’s nearly endless appetite for the West Midland’s industrial heritage, but these were good times. The church was one at which Tolkien’s son was a priest. The lady who showed us around had known Fr. Tolkien.

Later in the month some dear friends from Long Island visited us and we walked with them along the canal. After church the next day, we visited Middleport Pottery and Little Moreton Hall.

Susannah: There were a lot of blackberries picked during this time. A lot.

We continued to do lots of exploration—both walking and cycling—of our surrounding area. Alastair also took Susannah to Trentham Monkey Forest, part of the Trentham Estate attached to Trentham Gardens, which is a frequent haunt of ours.

On the 21st, we travelled down to London again, where we spent a day together, visiting Churchill’s War Rooms, among other things. We met up with our Long Island friends again on Sunday after church and then went to the British Museum. The Reading Room had recently been reopened, and we were eager to see it for the first time. From the Museum we walked around London, seeing Buckingham Palace and ending the evening with a pleasant pub meal.

The next morning Alastair and our friends went to Westminster Abbey, joining Susannah later for afternoon tea.

In the later afternoon we had the remarkable and memorable experience of seeing a replica sixteenth century Spanish galleon, the Andalucía, passing through Tower Bridge. While our friends watching a performance at the Globe Theatre, we went back to our shared accommodation.

The next morning, before returning to Stoke-on-Trent and parting from our friends, we visited the galleon in St Katherine Docks.

October

Susannah travelled down to London on the 4th, en route to New York. However, before she did we visited the Brampton Museum in Newcastle-under-Lyme and Ford Green Hall, both of which neither of us had visited before, even though they were on our doorstep. We were apart from each other for the rest of the month.

Susannah went up to Mystic, Connecticut for a family reunion and then again, a couple of weeks later, for the seasonal close-up of the family house. She enjoyed quality time with our adorable toddler niece.

Alastair visited Jodrell Bank with his parents and his brother Peter and his wife, Fernanda. During October, he was able to spend more time with his parents and also enjoyed a visit from his uncle and aunt. He also got to know some local Anglican ministers, after his father arranged a meeting with them.

On the 24th, Alastair met up with our friend Hannah, who was passing through the Midlands and spent the afternoon in Chester.

Alastair flew out to Marseille on the 27th, to spend a week with Jonathan and Mark, to celebrate Mark’s fortieth birthday. Alastair stayed in an apartment next to Mark and Alice’s.

On the first day of the trip they visited the Frioul archipelago.

The next day, to celebrate Alastair’s niece Jane’s birthday, they joined Alice’s parents and went to Les Baux-de-Provence, visiting a light show in an old bauxite mine and a castle.

On the Wednesday, Jonathan run from Marseille to Cassis, where he met up with Alastair, Mark, and Jane. We had the second leg of our honeymoon in Cassis, so it is a place with many special memories.

Aix-en-Provence was the next day.

Susannah: I, meanwhile, was back in the States, having flown over early for a mini-family reunion - just with the immediate Keehn family, my mother and her five younger brothers and their kids. They had had a vacation together - just the siblings - in Baja California the year before, and this year decided to let their spouses and children in on the fun, so we all gathered at the family house in Connecticut.

It was a wonderful, magical time; nearly all of us together, with lots of the baby and toddler cousins who had never met each other doing so. My cousin Alex, the youngest of my generation, is twelve: he was wonderful with his baby and toddler first cousins once removed, patiently reading to them and going on little adventures with them and watching them. At one point he and my niece Oona spent about 45 minutes wandering around together in the little wooded area near the house. When they came back, Oona had a bunch of sticks she’d collected, which she liked to break. “I taught her to do that,” said Alex, proudly.

The six siblings - my mom and her brothers - sat at a sort of high table under the tent we’d rented, holding court. We did all the usual activities: burning things in bonfires, discussing land acquisitions and trust matters, reading aloud, playing bridge. My uncle Benny did an experiment involving pouring gasoline and then kerosene on the outdoor fire to see how they burned differently. Then we had fireworks, which the uncles had rustled up somewhere.

There was a great deal of conversation about the watershed - this is not unusual - and many visits to a local pond which had drained after its dam had burst during a storm the previous year. Or possibly had been sabotaged. It was unclear. Anyway, the pond was mysteriously back, and it turned out that a family of beavers had repaired the dam. So we went to check out their work, and then we went to another pond that, like ours, was a mill pond; it had been made around the same time, in the 1780s, and they still had a working saw mill. And then of course we had to go to Clydes’s, the steam powered cider mill, and show that to Oona, and to the local farmstand, Whittle’s, and show her the pumpkins. Toby and Langan and Oona and I stayed on a bit after the reunion broke up, and I accidentally smashed her finger in a folding chair and then she got a tick, which resulted in intense googling but ultimately no Lyme disease, thank God.

Toby and Langan and Oona came back with mom and me to NYC and we spent some satisfying time together. I could very easily write all of my substack posts about Oona but her mother has her own substack, called Safe ‘n’ Warm, which you can subscribe to. It has more Oona stories and many other things in it and is extremely funny. It’s extremely good to meet and love the spouse and then child of your beloved sibling. I recommend it.

The following weekend Mom and I were back up at Mystic for the closeup weekend, where you turn off the water to keep the pipes from freezing and so on. My uncle Joel and his wife Joan had in a moment of ambition decided that the kitchen — only faintly modernized from its original 1783 state — needed to be redone. Not modernized. But at least whitewashed, and the horrible old mouse-eaten furniture gotten rid of, and a new fridge (there are three outlets in the house, reluctantly installed in the 1970s; the fridge plugs into one) and a stove that actually works as opposed to the current stove which did not. So we spent the weekend hauling out and burning the old cabinetry and the old appliances, and painting. Joel had no painting clothes, so he stripped down to his boxers. These two weekends, because of what happened afterwards, are some of my most precious memories.

November

For Alastair, the month began with a short hike to Sormiou, one of the nearest calanques to Mark and Alice. That evening they went to Pointé Rouge, where they watched the sun go down.

Jonathan returned to Hamburg on the Saturday. After dropping him off at the airport, Alastair and Mark travelled on to Nîmes, a city with a lot of Roman heritage. They spent a relaxed Sunday together, Alastair visiting Mark and Alice’s church for the first time, before Alastair flew back on the Monday morning.

Back in Stoke, Alastair had a busy but steady routine, and was able to spend some more time with his parents. He also was able to visit Bethesda Chapel, the former so-called ‘Cathedral of the Potteries’ for the first time.

On the 16th, Alastair went up to Stockport, where he delivered three talks on the Saturday and preached twice on the Sunday.

That weekend, we received the awful news that Susannah’s uncle Joel had fallen while hiking and died. While it had been difficult to be separate from each other for so long, it does feel like a blessing in retrospect, as Susannah was able to spend time with her mother and family when she needed to be with them.

Susannah: I’ve written a little bit about this, and about Joel, in a previous substack. I think I don’t want to write more about it now. The family is hurting, but healing. Please, if you are praying people, pray for us.

At the end of the next week, Alastair flew over to New York. Before leaving he was able to finish knitting a blanket for his father, his second completed large project in as many months.

We celebrated Thanksgiving in New York with Susannah’s father and stepmother.

December

December began with a welcome week of a slower routine. On the Sunday, after church and meeting up with friends, Alastair flew out to Greenville, where he had a Davenant event for a couple of days.

He arrived back on the Wednesday, with a couple of hours overlap with Susannah, before she left for a few days in the UK for a conference that she had helped to plan. In the evening, he spoke at Hephzibah House. Later in the week he attended a performance of Handel’s Messiah in which a friend performed.

Susannah’s conference was a huge success and was followed by a memorable Sunday morning, going to church with the historian Tom Holland and the musician Nick Cave. Alastair met up with a friend after church, saw the skull of St Thomas Aquinas, and went to the building Christmas party.

Susannah arrived back on the Monday, but with a nasty case of the flu, meaning that we had to quarantine from each other for several days, more painful on account of how long we had been separated over the past few months. We were in adjacent rooms, with glass doors between us. Susannah binge-watched 30 Rock and crocheted, while Alastair worked and did the cooking and the other household work.

Fortunately, Alastair escaped infection and Susannah was not infectious for Christmas. We had a relaxed Christmas with Susannah’s mother and a family friend. Given the recent loss of Susannah’s uncle, there was sorrow admixed with the joy, but it was a very good day.

On St Stephen’s Day, we joined a friend to visit the Met Museum.

On Friday, we took the train upstate to spend a couple of days with Susannah’s father and stepmother and a family friend. We enjoyed a wonderful second Christmas celebration with them.

We have been blessed immensely with each other and our life together. 2024 has been filled with both the joys of family and has also contained sorrows and struggles through which our families have drawn closer together. We are thankful for our churches, our employers, and our colleagues, who have been such constant sources of encouragement and support. It is a privilege and a delight to be led by and to work with such good and faithful people.

We are also immensely thankful for all of you who take an interest in our work and lives. It is a joy to share our joys with you and your generosity with your time and attention is an inspiration to our continued labours. May God bless you all this Christmastide and grant you a new year filled with his goodness.

Much of Alastair’s work—including all his work on these Substack posts—is as an independent scholar, funded by donors. His primary goal is to create thoughtful yet free Christian material for the general public, most notably his largely-completed chapter-by-chapter commentary on the whole Bible (available here and here). If you would like to support his continuing research, teaching, writing, and other content production, you can do so here.

Much love,

Alastair and Susannah