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

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

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

Catching up, here's mid January's thought on the fact that prayer isn't just about words.  Forget what you have been told, prayer is whatever way allows you to listen and speak to God... listen to ‘Prayer Thought’ on Audioboo

Well, here we are two weeks into the New Year and all I have managed to post is a YouTube vid with a whisky drinking Minister!  I'm glad I didn't make blogging a New Year's Resolution or I would have failed miserably already.  In fact I made no New Year's Resolutions, the reasons for which can be heard here - I would hope that sense of new life, of change would be a part of the daily walk of every Christ-follower. But I've already said that, so I don't need to repeat myself, not that this normally stops me... So here we are two weeks of 2011 gone and I wonder how the promise and hope for the New Year is doing!  I find myself in a strange position - both excited and anxious about the coming year.  Excited because I have a sense of anticipation for the coming months, not one I can explain but a sense that something is happening and that it might even be good!  Anxious because these kind of things need vision and hard work, which means some letting go and some se...

So all that time I though I would have for reflection and writing has zipped by, only to filled with the joy of family and lots of fun - so no regrets! Before I get to the next year though, I thought I should stop by and wish you all 'Happy New Year'  I hope 2011 is a good one for you and yours.  God bless, and I will leave you with my thought for the New Year from the Midweek Herald.... Listen!

You've never had it so good... Two posts in one hour (removes tongue from cheek).... Listen!

Perhaps adding my thought for the week as something spoken will fill this sadly slightly unloved space.... Listen!

Bonsoir, Toute la Monde (not sure I got me le's and la's right there) ! I am winding down (though it feels a bit like winding up at the moment, there is sooooo much to do) for my annual holiday in France. I am pleased to say that over the next three and a half weeks for the most part I will be relaxing, maybe a bit of writing, plenty of reading and time with my beautiful wife and family. So I thought I would pop by and say that the potential lack of being around that this will bring is not evidence of further neglect of this blog, but the likelihood of a lack of Internet connection in the wilds of Sud-ouest France. So here's another of those pesky thoughts for the week... if I get time tomorrow between meetings, funeral, wake, visits and admin I might be back, but I make no promises! This one is from mid May... Strange Church Having a couple of days knocked out of this week by a stomach bug I realised how much I depend on my routines, the same things that crop up with ...

Another thought for the week.... catching up gradually... never realised I thought so much! Go to the Midweek Herald for current thought and local news from East Devon.... Pray? Do you pray? There’s an old quip that ‘there are no Atheists in a foxhole’ and I know that faced with difficult times, with nowhere else to turn, people often to try to ‘open negotiations’ with ‘someone up there’ in the hope they might be heard. But prayer isn’t just about asking God for things, like a kind of religious shopping list, but includes praising God for who He is, thanking God for all He’s done and trying to find God’s will and guidance for our lives. That means we can pray with music, with silence, with others, alone, by reading the Bible, by going to church, by walking in the fields, by laughing, dancing, sitting, kneeling, standing. Prayer isn’t about trying to get God to do stuff for us, but about making time to be with God – find your own way to pray, and ask others how they pray!

Thanks for comments on last few posts, and conversations which have ensued on Twitter and Facebook! Whilst I am considering whether to write anything else on those particular themes here's another thought for the week... This one from the week before our General Election I’m not going to tell you how to vote but I am going to ask you to vote. Some people say “Faith and Politics shouldn’t mix”, but I would say “nonsense” to that. If faith doesn’t leak in to every part of our lives then it seems a pretty worthless faith. Being a Christian isn’t about ‘my’ belief or what ‘I’ want, but about holding to values which reflect God’s love for every one of us – so if we follow Jesus’ call to “love God with all your heart, soul strength and mind” and “love your neighbour as yourself” then when faced with a ballot paper we should think not just about what is good for ourselves, but what is right, good and best for those most vulnerable, the poor, the sick, the isolated. Let your faith come ou...

Yep, as I seem to be on a roll, blog wise at least, I thought I would throw another 'Thought For The Week' out there, courtesy of the Midweek Herald. This one from 21st April... Stop Talking I have sat looking at my computer screen for some time and haven’t been able to think of anything to say. Which makes me think about saying nothing! What I mean is (and I’m sure you didn’t expect me to leave it there!) that often our world might be a better place if sometimes we said less… If politicians could stop pretending they have the answer to everything, if Christians (including Clergy) didn’t try to give trite responses to some of the most difficult parts of life, if all of us were willing to not talk our way through the world but occasionally leave a bit of space for silence. Sometimes, if we have nothing to say, its better to say nothing. Sometimes having the honesty to admit that we don’t know, that we have no answers, and to be quiet and listen would be by far the best resp...

I should be writing this week's thought for the week, but am preparing for a wedding, so here's one from a few weeks back - three weeks after Easter to be precise. These 'thoughts' are, as always, from the local paper - the Midweek Herald . Still Easter So the choccy supplies which received such a great boost a few weeks ago are probably pretty run down now. The bank holiday memory is dwindling, the school term has begun and life will probably get back to something like normal. Easter feels a long time ago. Except it’s not. In the Church we formally celebrate Easter for 50 days until the day of Pentecost (also known as Whitsun, the birthday of the Church). Even more than that, though, Easter for those who are Christians is not just the one day, but every day. The new life that Jesus brings isn’t a one off, to be kept in a box and enjoyed with chocolate once a year, but a relationship which is ongoing. Christian faith is concerned with how we live our lives and...

It is my dream that one day I will catch up with all of these, and will be in sync with the local paper that prints them. It's called the Midweek Herald and can be found here . A Thought for the Week for the week after Easter! There are some things we tend to take for granted, some things that are so much a part of life that we don’t really notice them. Churches are like that, in villages they get used for special events, for the important parts of life and death, people use them in directions to get some place, every now and then you might even feel a need to go in, have a look around, take a moment of quiet or say a prayer. But on the whole they are just ‘there’. But the Churches I have been a part of are powerhouses, they work hard to make communities function as communities, they care for the sick, visit the lonely, help the needy. They run events and activities. They worship the God who made the universe. Churches are important, they will support you in need, and need y...

It's not THE thought for this week as I am still playing catch up due to my ongoing propensity to leave this blog for longer than I like and then come back with a flurry of posts... Here's the one from Easter - but as Easter should be a 24/7 - 365 experience for us as Christians I am happy to post it now... and you might get half a dozen more in the next couple of days :-) Have you ever been a part of something that has changed the world? Maybe you’ve given to a charity? Run in the race for life? Been a part of a world record attempt? Or perhaps you’ve been to Church? Yes, the Church has changed the world, or more accurately Jesus Christ changed the world. When he died on the first Good Friday he took upon himself all the evils and wrongdoing in the world from all time. An innocent man taking to himself the sin of the world. And when he rose again from the dead, as we celebrate on Easter Sunday, all of the effects of that sin, the death and brokenness of the world, all o...

Ok, so I thought I would get back into the swing of this blogging business and after that wee flurry of postings earlier in the week decided to hold off a day or two before the next round - then the lurgy struck! I think I picked up the same sickness bug that my children had at the end of last week, whatever it was/is it has taken two days out of my week and I am still feeling grim and not eating - though my wife says the not eating is a good thing! I am disappointed that I didn't feel well enough to take the Ascension Day service this evening and grateful that I have a very able and gracious Associate Priest who took on those duties. I think that in the past sixteen or so years I have only missed one other Asc Day service, so am a bit glum about it, but not only did I feel a bit ropey, I didn't want to be spreading any sickness around! When I did finally make it out of bed today I made myself sit in front of my PC and wrote all the articles and bits and bobs I needed to sen...

So, here goes again, a small flurry of blog posts... thoughts for the week continue In our group of parishes our Lent course has been talking about how in the Gospel stories everyone who meets Jesus goes away changed in some way. For some the challenge of giving up their comforts to follow Jesus is too much, others find healing and forgiveness – even those who nailed him to a cross. Meeting Jesus changed people, and still should. But alongside the change that being a Christian should bring there is also reassurance that, as an old prayer says, amongst ‘the changes and chances of this mortal life’ God’s love remains changeless. The question to ask ourselves is, then, “when changes come (as they always do) to what do we cling, to whom do we turn, to give us security”? Faith doesn’t protect us from the changes or troubles of this world, but if we allow God to, he will give us strength to get through them. Also as an aside, I have got 'Foxy Tunes' set up on my Firefox, so you...

In the UK we celebrate Mothering Sunday on the fourth Sunday of Lent - which is where I have got to in my Thought For the Week catchup! Having just had 'Mother's Day' in the US & Canada it seems appropriate to put it up now. So here it is.... On March 14th, this coming Sunday, the Church celebrates Mothering Sunday (one of my grumpy quirks is that it isn’t Mother’s Day, which is an invention of Card Companies, but an old English Tradition of Mothering Sunday!). It is an important day where we give thanks for those who have cared for us and raised us, for the Church which – at it’s best – nurtures us and we remember a God who is tender and compassionate. Though we use ‘Father’ as our most common way of talking about God don’t confuse that with God being a man, or even just like our own fathers – God is like the best, most perfect father and mother, loving, caring, nurturing, challenging, encouraging. This Mothering Sunday, as you take your wife/mum/granny breakfast...

Still catching up! here's one from early on in Lent! My wife and children are away visiting family, which I thought would give me a sense of freedom and a glimpse again of the bachelor lifestyle: watching what TV I want, junk food, not doing the washing up, loud music and playing guitar into the early hours – things which I couldn’t get away with when there are others around. Sitting here in an empty house it doesn’t feel like much fun, though, it’s actually quite lonely – not at all like the picture in my head! The grass may seem greener on the other side, but it rarely is. Our fantasies are not often like real life. Jesus said to focus on today, on what we have, and make the most of it; not concerning ourselves with tomorrow or the next day but what is right and good here and now and trusting God to be with us through it all.

This one is from the second week in Lent! I will get through them all soon, promise On the whole our national news media seem to enjoy pointing out the mistakes made by the Church at large or the points at which it struggles. My experience of Church has been, though, that the true face of the Church is the local fellowship – though I am happy to be a part of a wider Church family and I hold my Bishops in great respect. In the end, don’t judge Christian Faith by news reports (except the good things our local papers say!). If you want to explore faith, and see the Christian life in action look to Christians around you, to your local fellowships of all different traditions, to those who are seeking on a day to day basis to follow Jesus. We do fail, we make mistakes, but we are trying with God’s help to live and share the Good News of Jesus Christ where we are.