February 2011

LOVE WINS. from Rob Bell on Vimeo.
This forthcoming book from Rob Bell is causing quite a stir around the interweb, with all sorts of people falling over themselves to condemn it as heresy before they’ve even had the opportunity to read it in full. It’s very strange how eager Christians are to condemn other people [...]

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The Kneeler: Six Degrees of Separation

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Sunday worship on Radio 4 this morning came from Bethel URC in Sketty, Swansea — the church pastored by one Kim Fabricius. If you want to listen it’s available on the BBC iPlayer for the next week. Kim didn’t preach, which I thought was a pity, but it was good to hear his voice as [...]

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Father of Jesus Christ — my Lord,
My Saviour and my Head –
I trust in thee, whose powerful word
Has raised him from the dead.
Thou know’st for my offence he died,
And rose again for me,
Fully and freely justified
That I might live to thee.
Faith in thy power thou seest I have,
For thou this faith hast wrought;
Dead souls thou [...]

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Commenting in a recent thread on a link by Pam BG to Morna Hooker on Paul’s concept of holiness, Tim says, “Wow! I’d love to have been a fly on the wall at that lecture by Morna Hooker, Pam (BG). I’ve got a great admiration for her as a NT scholar.” Professor Hooker lectured [...]

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It’s been suggested in a recent thread that perhaps, in Richard’s absence, Connexions needs some lightening up. How ’bout some fun with some (10) puns?
Anyone who jumps off a bridge in Paris is in Seine.
Dijon vu - I get the feeling that I’ve had that mustard before.
Practice safe eating - always use a condiment.
A [...]

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THE world’s largest ecumenical body, the World Coun­cil of Churches (WCC), has expressed “deep concern and disappointment” at the decision by the United States to veto a UN resolution that condemned Israeli settlements in the Palestinian Territories.
In a note sent to all its 349 member Churches, the WCC asked them to pray and “to be [...]

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“Jesus is Lord, and everything else is bullshit!”
– Stanley Hauerwas
(responding, in an interview in the March Reform, to the question: “What for you is the centre of Christianity?”)

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Mendip recently mentioned in the thread of “Questioning as unbelief?” that Herbert McCabe is a must-read contemporary theologian (specifically referring to the book God Matters). Here is a post I did for Ben Myers in July 2006 as part of a series: “Why I love Herbert McCabe”. (I also did one one on [...]

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Many Christians regard questioning as equivalent to unbelief. In the Church they have been taught what to believe about God and how to behave, and they have built their lives on this teaching. What they want from the Church is the assurance that they are loved by God, that the lives they lead [...]

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As I listened from a beach-chair in the shade
To all the noises that my garden made,
It seemed to me only proper that words
Should be withheld from vegetables and birds.
A robin with no Christian name ran through
The Robin-Anthem which was all it knew,
And rustling flowers for some third party waited
To say which pairs, if any, should [...]

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The ten minutes are up, Lord.
And just as I expected, you didn’t turn up.
Or maybe it was I who didn’t turn up.
But I’ve got an excuse: I’m all over the place:
my soul is full of crap, my mind is profoundly trivial,
and how do I know what my heart desires?
But you’re divine – so what’s your [...]

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Heck, Richard seems to have left the building - no Sunday hymn! So here’s the reblog (August 2006) of a - well, I’d call it a woship song, except the term makes me reach for my gun. Anyway, Ben Myers praised it, so I’ll risk the repeat. If you’re a James Taylor [...]

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To engage with the Church’s past is to see something of the Church’s future. If we relate to the past as something that settles everything for us, something whose meaning is utterly and finally plain, it is to treat the texts of the past as closing off history, putting an end to our self-awareness [...]

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O God, I am hellishly angry;
I think so-and-so is a swine;
I am tortured by worry about this or that;
I am pretty sure I have missed my chances in life;
this or that has left me feeling terribly depressed.
But nonetheless here I am like this,
feeling both bloody and bloody-minded,
and I am going to stay here for ten [...]

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Do I love God? How can I know?
By following the rules?
No, rules are guides that can’t divide
the faithful from the fool.
Do I love God? How can I know?
By keeping to the creeds?
No, right belief brings no relief
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I have come to the conclusion, not least from personal experience, that prayer is a way for Christians to be narcissistic with both a good conscience and public approval.

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From the Institute for the Study of Christian Zionism
Christian Zionist leader, John Hagee, is on record prophesying that Egypt will become the next Iran, meaning, a new head for the many-headed beast that is Islam, and this despite the fact that those who understand the dynamics of Egyptian history and society (not to [...]

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Simply to touch her hand
And know the undertow
Of feelings without names
That pulls my mouth to hers,
To listen for the laugh
That falls between her words
And live there all the week,
A lazy animal,
To run my fingertips
So slowly down her thigh
And feel the honey thicken
Inside my newfound flesh,
To ease her heavy hair
Away from ear and shoulder
The better to [...]

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