Discernming the people, the communities and the church we are called to be at this time and place
Discernming the people, the communities and the church we are called to be at this time and place
As part of my pilgrim role I facilitate the church’s partnership with the environmental group, Transition Portishead. In North Somerset apples and the apple harvest are a big deal, and in the autumn there are apple-pressing events in various parts…
I don’t want the new Bishop enthroned. For all kinds of reasons. Firstly, this: “You know those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with…
Broad-shouldered, muscly men walked faster. One crossed to the other side of the unlit path to avoid me. I’m not surprised. I was a bit worried too. I’d started involuntarily talking out loud to God, expressing my frustration and sense…
Easy-to-organise last-minute creativity for a Christmas service if you’re pressed! Goes well with Luke 2:8-20 (or radical choice – instead of!). “We’re the unsung heroes, you know…No one gives us the blindest bit of notice. You’d think we were dirt,…
Mary and her Mum Christmas 2013 Quick-and-easy (although best if well-rehearsed) sketch on newness and change for your Christmas service picking up Messianic prophecies… Aftertones of weepy mother-daughter bonding sessions. Goes well with the annunciation reading… A: Mary…. B: What?…
Foreseeing: a Christmas reflection Luke 2:19 At the Bath and Wells Clergy Gathering Matt Harvey our poet-in-residence talked to us about the Norwegian concept of ‘kenning’. I’d never heard of it before – the art of ‘describing a physical object…
Led to reflect on what had made the Diocesan Gathering so generative of rich kingdom-flavoured outcomes I realised how significant the underlying structures had been. The whole gathering was shaped by a large team drawn from different parts of the…
I’m not long back from the Bath and Wells Diocesan Gathering. Three days of encounter, laughter, applied spiritual wisdom from varied speakers and sources, creativity in word, art, music, dance and (dare I say) theatre… Worship, prayer, story-telling, carousing, and…
A group of ladies were making their way towards us along the corridor, a little unsteadily, led by care assistants. We’d started the worship-service-cum-hymn-singalong in the second floor lounge while they made their way up from the bottom floor: it…
It was a joy to see our church members serving the punters at the Flower Show. It’s not part of our church culture or tradition to be so ‘out there’ in terms of pointing to an invisible Other. Our congregations…