Theology

Chalke and cheese: Oasis and the Evangelical Alliance

Just over 20 years ago I went to the Christian festival Spring Harvest for the first time.   One of the seminars I went to during the week was on ‘Green Issues’ and was part of a series entitled Soapbox.  The speaker was highly engaging and charismatic and I still vividly remember some of his lines: “Green… Continue reading Chalke and cheese: Oasis and the Evangelical Alliance

Ethics & Christian living

Psalm 23 Antithesis

Photo by JESHOOTS.com on Pexels.com The clock is my dictator, I shall not rest. It makes me lie down only when exhausted. It leads me into deep depression. It hounds my soul. It leads me in circles of frenzy, for activities sake. Even though I run frantically from task to task, I will never get it all… Continue reading Psalm 23 Antithesis

Theology

Jesus in a shell suit: the best moment in BBCs ‘Rev’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yo-UYCoZ9o You don’t get much more C of E than my family.  My Dad is a former Parish vicar and Archdeacon. Both my brothers are currently vicars, and my mum has only just stopped leading a Parish church as a job share with my Dad in their ‘retirement’. You cannot throw a stick at a… Continue reading Jesus in a shell suit: the best moment in BBCs ‘Rev’

Theology

It’s the Church and State that should ‘consciously uncouple’

Photo by Sonya Livshits on Pexels.com This Wednesday, the Bishop of Oxford, John Pritchard went with Rev Keith Hebden to deliver a letter to David Cameron’s constituency office in Witney.  The letter, signed by 46 Bishops and over 600 Church leaders, called the government to take urgent action about food poverty after it was revealed… Continue reading It’s the Church and State that should ‘consciously uncouple’

Poverty

Make a stand this Wednesday against food poverty: join the End Hunger Fast Vigil, 6.00 – 8.00pm, Westminster

"Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions which strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them is a dry-as-dust religion.  Such a religion is the kind the Marxists like to see - an opiate of the… Continue reading Make a stand this Wednesday against food poverty: join the End Hunger Fast Vigil, 6.00 – 8.00pm, Westminster

Homelessness, Recommended books & reviews

‘The Weight of Mercy: a Novice Pastor on the City Streets’ – by Deb Richardson-Moore [Review]

Deb Richardson-Moore worked as a journalist in the deep south of the USA for over 27 years. When the newspaper she worked for wanted her to cover religious and faith issues, she decided to study theology.  This led her to leave journalism and become Pastor of the Triune Mercy Centre, a church in a desperately poor community in… Continue reading ‘The Weight of Mercy: a Novice Pastor on the City Streets’ – by Deb Richardson-Moore [Review]

Ethics & Christian living

National Day of Fasting, April 4th: spiritual resources for justice

Photo by jamie he on Pexels.com Friday 4th April is the National Day of Fasting.  I want to encourage anyone who is reading this to join the fast and stand with those experiencing hunger in the UK today. In the last few weeks, End Hunger Fast has achieved an incredible amount for a truly grassroots… Continue reading National Day of Fasting, April 4th: spiritual resources for justice

Social commentary

Me, My Selfie and I – by Hannah Martin

In the last couple of weeks the #NoMakeupSelfie has gone viral. Thousands of women have taken pictures of themselves without any makeup and posted them on Facebook, then nominating their friends to do the same. The craze quickly became an incredibly successful fundraising campaign as people also donated to Cancer Research, raising to date over… Continue reading Me, My Selfie and I – by Hannah Martin

Ethics & Christian living, Recommended books & reviews

What would you include if you could write your own obituary?

What do you really want to be remembered for?  What legacy do you truly want to leave? Actually sitting down and writing your own obituary is one of the exercises recommended at the end of the first chapter of the book God of Surprises.  I am currently re-reading it for Lent.  The author, Gerard Hughes explains:… Continue reading What would you include if you could write your own obituary?

Ethics & Christian living, Recommended books & reviews

Justice, mercy and humility: three ways to a transforming Lent

I see Lent as an opportunity to realign ourselves.  A time to re-commit to an integrity between who we are on the outside and who we are on the inside.  To seek a wholeness between the person that we present for the world to see, and the person we are when no one sees.  And faith… Continue reading Justice, mercy and humility: three ways to a transforming Lent