Holy impatience

It sometimes really gets to me just how much time we waste, messing around with our little agonies when we know what needs doing but just haven't the courage to do it. Look at the Anglicans, getting their purple knickers in a twist over the issue of women bishops! Having eventually got round to ordaining [...]

Overcast day, overcast soul

It's grey and gloomy and muggy here today. That reflects how I'm feeling. I don't want to live in a country where the Prime Minister – for whom I campaigned and voted in 1997 – gets up and, time and again, tries to silence criticism about Iraq. And does so by pretending that the only [...]

Permission to use The Dancing Madonna

Lis is happy to give permission for use of her photographs. Please just email her to ask and to let her know you like and want it! I'll try and trace the sculptor. I'd be glad to know, too, who found it helpful.

The Dancing Madonna

Isn't this stunning? It's the statue of The Dancing Madonna, from St Luke's Church, Duston. It was taken by Lis Mullen, minister of Carver United Reformed Church. It's something to meditate on. Look at the locked gaze between Jesus and Mary. Isn't the joy and thrill of the dance astounding? This is one of [...]

The politics of the rabbit hole

So Tony Blair thinks there's no connection between the London bombs and Iraq? What he means, presumably, is that there ought not to be a connection. After all, it's no good saying there isn't when the network claiming responsibility give that as part of their reason and justification. But Blair is essentially suggesting that to [...]

i’m church, therefore I blog

Interactive. Communication. Two keywords for plotting changing patterns in the way we relate these days. Remember BE (Before Email), BI (Before the Internet) and BMP (Before Mobile Phones)? It's difficult, isn't it? The organisers of Live8 were talking about how different it was organising the first LiveAid concert 20 years ago, and the one this [...]

it’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there …

Did anyone else see Amazon's 10th Anniversary Concert online yesterday, or catch the last chance to see it today? If you get this in time (today only!) go to www.amazon.com (ie the US site) and navigate from the ad on the RHS of the page. It featured Bob and Norah Jones – their two [...]

just chillin’

It’s one of the great things about living in the Lake District – after working today on the service tomorrow, I was down on the beach at Miller Ground, swimming. The water was like a warm bath – at least for the first 12″ or so. Cold after that! But a quick [...]

Eyes on the G8, not just London

Wasn't it amazing how effectively the London bombings knocked the Make Poverty History capaign and the Gleneagles summit off the front pages? I mean, just look at mustard seeds as an example! There's a post on the bombings, but nothing on the coach trip to Edinburgh. What an astonishing experience! Nearly a quarter of a [...]

Can we handle life in the highways and byways?

Lucy's comment on the "Visions to Avoid" post set me thinking (read that thread if you haven't – we need to develop it!). We're "selling" Jesus, she suggests. That's what we've got to offer. And she raises the question, "To whom?" I wonder what most of our church folk would answer if (a) the question [...]