New Kid on the Blog

Here's my bit for the paper, and for the first time ever... it is in advance! listen to ‘Pentecost thought’ on Audioboo

Woohoo - it's celebrate Church day! Here are my thoughts and words from this morning, at least the script - there was a fair amount of departure from said script! Year C Pentecost (2013) RCL Princpal Acts 2.1-21  Genesis 11.1-9 John 14.8-17,25-27 Celebrating Church Today is a celebration – a day to celebrate Church!  Not a phrase we use very much – hooray let’s celebrate Church is not the usual attitude I have experienced in my years of ministry.  And for those of us in the business of leading within the Church our minds are more often than not on ‘how’ we are doing Church in any given week and how the component parts are going to fit together when we get there! It’s not often, I suspect, that any of us really think about what it means to be Church and why we ‘do’ Church.  We just get on with it – sometimes struggling, sometimes anxious about what is going to happen. So to hear the stories of Scripture – the amazing start of the Churc...

The title says it all :-) listen to ‘Clutter thought’ on Audioboo

This is a surprisingly honest, thoughtful, reflective account of the Creed frontman's experience. From the vivid opening statement of a 'fall from grace' (and from the balcony of a hotel) through the rollercoaster of Scott Stapps life this is an honest, intelligent reflection on the story of a creative, thoughtful, troubled soul. A more cynical listener might dismiss this as Stapps trying to explain his reasons why all of the criticisms levelled at him are unjustified. If one listens carefully, though, there is an almost brutal honesty about his own failings, the pain he has felt and darkness that has often been overwhelming in his life. The big surprise is how articulate Stapps is about his own faith and life - obviously he's a creative singer and writer, but the way he is able to talk openly about an abusive father, substance addiction, his own 'hero complex' and rejection of narrow Church experience is a revelation. This six and a half hour opus i...

Well, it does seem that today I have overdone things...  Whilst I have the impetus I am making the most of it... So here is a thought for the week listen to ‘Mindfulness and love’ on Audioboo

.... but now we are back A little bit of Trek humour there, with words from the Romulans in Star Trek The Next Generation.... Though we might question the merits of bringing the Romulans back anyway... but I digress... Yes yes yes, it has been a while, amazing how time flies.  The irony being that this Lent, during which I didn't managed to blog once, I set out to have a slower, more reflective approach to this season of penitence and praye. It turned out that it was my busiest most frenetic Lenten season ever so all of my hopes of thoughtful blog posts disappeared, as have the weeks!  Now we are nearly at the end of the Easter Season and once again the time which seemed to abundant weeks ago has slipped by. So much for all my 'mindfulness' practise, my 'slowing' and indeed my 'praying'.  Not that I haven't been praying, but not in the centred, reflective way I was expecting to.  Which leads me again to question both the wisdom of my own model...

It has (again) been awhile, I could have spent hours writing up the experiences of the past few weeks but have been processing them rather than proclaiming them.  Maybe I'll come back soon, but for now, this moving piece of poetry is too good to miss.  It was taken from The Blog of Kevin and comes from the remarkable Saying Goodbye Charity that is there for those who dealing with the loss of a baby.  There is lots in this short video that deals with the theme of loss for any of us, and it is beautifully put!