My biggest congregation

I spent some of yesterday and today writing my "Wednesday Word" to be broadcast tomorrow, Wednesday afternoon. I do these "God slot" talks for the BBC roughly ever other month. The routine is that the Religious Broadcasting producer assigned to the slot phones on the Monday and we talk about topics. I have to scour the paper over breakfast for something appropriate. Once we have agreed, then the main business of writing has to be done during the rest of Monday so that I can email the text to the producer, who will then phone me back on Tuesday with her comments. That's the nervy bit, but now that I've been doing it for a few years I'm not too bad at judging what kind of stuff they are looking for. So having agreed a final version, on Wednesday afternoon a taxi picks me up about 2pm and I do the broadcast live at about 2.40pm with Roy Noble. Everyone puts you at your ease, and Roy himself is great, exactly the same off the air as on.

So what's my topic this time? Well, my attention was caught by the discovery in Yorkshire of an ancient helmet. From there I get on to the way we tend to indulge ourselves in "What if?" type questions, and even "If only..." type regrets. But if you want to see how I get from helmets to "If only...", well, you'll have to tune in, won't you? Radio Wales 2.40pm or on iPlayer.