It is the odd mixture that strikes me at the moment. Deep tragedy mixed with the strange amusement of a novel situation. Yesterday I conducted a funeral for a lady (that I didn’t know) who had died in her 80s. There were two others present and the service ended up taking around 10-15 minutes. I […]
None of us will ever forget last night. The time when the Prime Minister was forced to order us to stay in our houses. “Surreal” is a word that I have heard a lot over the weekend. We struggle to believe what is actually going on. How can life change so much so quickly? And […]
Last autumn the elders decided that our vision verse for 2020 would come from 2 Corinthians 1:9. The apostle Paul had faced various difficulties and persecutions- to the extent he felt like he had been sentenced to death. But he notes that these happened that “we might not rely on ourselves but on God who […]
It so happens that I am drafting this second part en route to speaking about sexuality issues in London. I am looking forward to it, for as I argued in the first part, it is not really possible to speak biblically about sexuality without speaking of the message of Jesus. Here are some remaining thoughts […]
Last week I was asked to speak to a group of church leaders on the above title. I suspect I was asked to do this on the basis that I seem to speak (or blog?!) about nothing else these days! However I understood the dilemma. We are conscious that Christian sexual ethics are regarded with […]
To be honest I ended up preaching Jude by accident. We had a couple of spare weeks before our main autumn series started and Jude seemed to fit. Given that it is not the easiest letter I thought I probably ought to tackle it myself rather than give it to one of our younger preachers. […]
I had long been aware of it but had never actually read C.S.Lewis Screwtape Letters until my current sabbatical. You may be familiar with the overall thrust- they are imaginary letters from a senior demon (Screwtape) to his young nephew (Wormwood) offering advice on how to lead somebody away from the Lord (The Enemy). The […]
I have faced an interesting discipleship issue this week. For the first time in my life I am living in a country where I dislike our Prime Minister. It is not simply that I disagree politically so much as that I think character matters. There is no fundamental break between our public and private personas. […]
Now I am conscious that there appears to be no end to the number of people wanting to comment about Israel Folau and Billy Vunipola. For those who have managed to miss it, Australian rugby star Israel Folau published on social media a group of people including atheists and homosexuals and announced “Hell awaits you.” […]
A couple of weeks ago I had a conversation with a friend on Brexit. We were on opposite sides of the debate and I was aware, from my end, that my emotions were running higher than I would have wanted. That was understandable and I suspect I am not alone in that at the moment. […]