The blog of Richard Hall, a Methodist Minister in Wales.
From the monthly archives:
Had to take Greenbelt at a steady pace this year and there was a deliberate lack of rushing from one venue to the next. I took a very relaxed attitude to the timetable and felt good about that. Chilled, you might say. Billy Bragg was my festival highlight: a great gig on Friday night, but [...]
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What gives most trouble to Christians of all epochs is neither lack of faith nor excess of criticism; it is Jesus himself, who bestows freedom so open-handedly and dangerously on those who do not know what to do with it. The church always gets panic-stricken for fear of the turmoil that he creates when [...]
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Thought the communion service was very good this morning. The 'ribbon thing' was impressive, and all was well led. Nobody was trying too hard. Good sermon on the opening verses of John's gospel on taking "flesh"seriously. The service concluded by singing Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer, and that will never get a complaint from [...]
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Breakfast done, ready for the fray. Billy Bragg played a fine gig last night. Also saw Show of Hands and a magic show. Good programme today: lets get to it!
Posted via email from Richard Hall’s perfectly pointless blog
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Arrived safely at Greenbelt. Tent up, kettle on. Coffee and a chockie bickie…
Posted via email from Richard Hall’s perfectly pointless blog
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Words are drilled
on the parade ground
of the paper? No
they are the casualties
of thought’s war. Page
after page they
bring up the rear in
the retreat of meaning.
R.S. Thomas, Residues (Highgreen, Tarset, Northumberland: Bloodaxe Books, 2002), p. 17.
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Don’t ask me;
I have no recipe
for a poem. You
know the language,
know where prose ends
and poetry begins.
There should be no
introit into a poem.
The listener should come
to and realise
verse has been going on
for some time. Let
there be no coughing,
no sighing. Poetry
is a spell woven
by consonants and vowels
in the absence of logic,
Ask no rhyme
of a [...]
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Such a style! The incredible untroubled
Faraway look of twice-doubled
Concentration: one, two, three, four.
One ball caught by the crook of the neck,
She steadies a little to countercheck
The rhythm, tosses it back into orbit.
Five. There’s a long career ahead;
A genius called Rastelli once fed
The air with ten at a time. But there
Among the primroses, [...]
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Let earth and heaven agree,
Angels and men be joined,
To celebrate with me
The Saviour of mankind;
To adore the all-atoning Lamb,
And bless the sound of Jesu’s name.
Jesus, transporting sound!
The joy of earth and heaven;
No other help is found,
No other name is given,
By which we can salvation have;
But Jesus came the world to save.
Jesus, harmonious name!
It charms the [...]
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We might … enquire whether this universal salvation renders our historical lives pointless. If, in spite of what we have done with our lives, God will nevertheless save us, then why worry about any moral seriousness, repentance, striving, and faith? But when it is put this way it makes it sound as though [...]
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Open, Lord, my inward ear,
And bid my heart rejoice;
Bid my quiet spirit hear
Thy comfortable voice;
Never in the whirlwind found,
Or where earthquakes rock the place,
Still and silent is the sound,
The whisper of thy grace.
From the world of sin, and noise,
And hurry I withdraw;
For the small and inward voice
I wait with humble awe;
Silent am I now and [...]
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God, in many ways you meet us,
speak to us in world and church,
in the quake and in the quiet,
when we flee and as we search.
In the splendour of the sunlight,
in the sparkle of a star,
we see something of your glory,
catch a glimpse of who you are.
On the canvas of an artist,
in composer’s sacred song,
through the [...]
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But this is: http://faith-theology.blogspot.com/2011/08/more-damn-doodlings.html
Posted via email from Richard Hall’s perfectly pointless blog
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There is a saying that to understand is to forgive, but that is an error, so Papa used to say. You must forgive in order to understand. Until you forgive, you defend yourself against the possibility of understanding. Her father had said this more than once, in sermons, with appropriate texts, but [...]
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