As a temple warden I get to listen to a lot of sermons. Unkind individuals have been known to comment that I, in point of fact, sleep through a lot of sermons but I would dispute this. If I have the ability to enter into a state of higher spiritual awareness, untroubled by the clutter of normal life and removed from the hectic nonsense of the day, then surely I am giving the preacher even more of my attention than the person who sits, apparently rapt, but is in fact frantically trying to work out how to make one small joint go between nine people, given she has just spontaneously invited several of the congregation to dinner.

But still, I have always made a point of listening assiduously to Maljie when she has the opportunity to preach. This isn’t something that happens often, and normally it is more her giving…