He braved the hordes of time-stressed commuters at Reading Station last Monday morning, offering them the gift of an egg-timer as a reminder of the gift of time.  The message – beyond the gimmick – was to switch off and do nothing for three minutes.  To turn the egg timer over and then allow yourself just to – be.

The idea of handing out egg timers at a station is a little bizarre I know, and he had the grace to acknowledge it must have been a bit much for some people as they steeled themselves for the start of the weekly commute.  But the reactions he describes are interesting.  Some people, of course, rushed past muttering "I haven’t got time!".  Others struggled with the idea of doing nothing, even for three minutes.  One woman took the timer, breathed a deep sigh of relief, and said this was just what she had been waiting for.

It turns out the bishop was rushed off his feet for the rest of the week dealing with media enquiries, responding to interest from journalists all over the world.  The pace of modern life is not a new story but it seems we can’t get enough of it: reminding ourselves how busy we are, how desperate we are for some ‘time out’ and yet how hard it remains to stop the clock, to turn the egg-timer and still-be for a while…

If you were granted the gift of just three minutes this week – would you take it?  And what would you use it for?