Sherlock Holmes wrote:

Don't get me started...lol...non-canonical stuff made to look like canon really annoys me. Like when I went to the Sherlock Holmes Museum they were selling Sherlock Holmes Family Trees which were of an entirely ficticious nature, with made up family members that were never actually mentioned in the canon.

As to this question, it's not actually something I've ever really considered before, not being a religious type myself...but I'll certainly have a read through your article.

Have to admit that I "discovered" Sherlock Holmes' smarter younger sister in my pastiche The Odessa Business.

Indeed there is almost nothing canonical about the Holmes family - I've read through the relevant bits of Baring-Gould (I assume we're on the same book here). The arguments there don't sound incredibly convincing to me, though. Now if you are going to look at the family of John Clay, then there's quite a lot of intelligent detective work to be done there.

I feel it is more than likely that he was, but rejected the faith. I have written a little about it here, and welcome comments on this.
http://beneathgrayski.es/?p=1486

I recently had a long conversation with "S.Sigerson" of the Stormy Petrels about Sherlock and Holmesian matters generally. The results were posted here - http://stormypetrels.wordpress.com/2012/09/22/of-earthquakes-and-untold-tales-conversation-with-hugh-ashton-8312012/

This also contains a link to the interview that my Dr. Watson gave to Dan O'Brien.

Now available as a Kindle-only download at http://www.amazon.com/Trepoff-Murders-Deed-Watson-ebook/dp/B009EGRBTO and somehow got mistitled by Amazon (as the Trepoff Murders). Why, I am not sure. There is more than one murder involved in this story, but only one Trepoff gets killed (I haven't spoiled the plot, don't worry).

Anyway, this is a story mentioned by Watson in A Scandal in Bohemia, where Sherlock Holmes travels (read "is despatched") to Odessa, where he finds himself in the thick of a departmental intrigue inside the feared Russian secret police, the Okhrana - and more!

Mycroft, I feel, was a Trinity (Cambridge) man, but I don't think his younger brother would have felt comfortable under his shadow. An intriguing possibility of course, is that Sherlock attended Trinity College, Dublin. Though Holmes was no team sports player, I think a little attachment to his alma mater would have at least made him aware of the 'Varsity match in MISS, and also there might have been some mention in MISS or 3STU (Three Students) of his previous existence in the university there. 3STU doesn't mention either Oxford or Cambridge, of course.

Hey, NW16XE - just noticed your signature. Roger Scruton was my Director of Studies at Cambridge for my first year. That dates me!

...which is probably why I am writing Sherlock Holmes pastiches from the exotic location of Kamakura, a little south of Tokyo. There are now eleven tales - some novella length, and some short stories - and a full-length Holmes novel. I am a great lover of the BBC Sherlock series, and I think that Martin Freeman's Watson has helped me flesh out Conan Doyle's rather placid character.

I've had enormous fun writing my Tales from the Deed Box - I have tried to keep them as authentic as possible, at the same time as making them detective puzzles in their own right. One other nice thing is that Holmes and Watson have come more alive in my stories than I ever thought they would, and this is at least partly due to the Sherlock series striking sparks in my imagination.

If any of you have read any of my stories, I will be delighted to hear your reactions to them, and answer any questions you may have about them.