The first time I heard the Rev Canon Ann Easter in the Pause for Thought slot on Radio 2’s Chris Evans Breakfast Show I thought the Old Woman had been borrowed from Steve Wright in the Afternoon. How odd that one of the Queen’s chaplains should sound like a Pearly Queen.

Not much causes surprise in this daily dose of Rev J.C. Flannelling but there was certainly one for me recently when the two-minute homily was given by a leading Methodist, the Rev Dr Leslie Griffiths, the Superintendent Minister at Wesley’s Chapel, in London.

He began by saying he was looking forward to a reunion with his old mates, Merve and Tone. No further information on their identity was given, but since Dr Griffiths sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords as Baron Griffiths of Burry Port, I did wonder if the second might have been the Rev Tony Blair.

The surprise I alluded to did not concern this possibility, though, but the nature of the reunion in prospect. This was to be over “a long, a very long lunch”. And a well-lubricated one, too. The reminiscences would take off, he said, “perhaps after the third glass of wine”. He added: “We’ll laugh till we cry.”

The surprise, of course, is to find a Methodist owning up to the consumption of alcohol at all, let alone in quantity sufficient significantly to exceed — three glasses and perhaps more to come! — what doctors consider a safe amount.

I know that that booze is no longer proscribed by Methodists, if it ever was. But it is not much encouraged either. Their website says: “Total abstinence is a matter for individual choice. It is not a condition of membership. Methodists are recommended to make a personal commitment either to total abstinence or to responsible drinking.”