Apologies

Sorry I haven’t been posting much.  I am on holiday from work at the moment and that means I am a little lackadaisical in my posting.  We have entered that summer period church wise where everyone goes on holiday so there is less influencing my posting.  As well as that I am spending too much time having fun doing stuff that isn’t relevant. 

As well as this, I am spending a lot of time stressing about my vocation.  Sorry that this is interfering with the flow a little.

I promise that I will be back up and running when the church blogging is flowing from me a little better.

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Inspire // Summer Break

I totally forgot to blog the Inspire worship gathering last night.  The theme was “Come to me all who are weary…”.  It was a really good night and it was great to see so many people there.  There seemed to be loads of people I didn’t recognise and that can only be a good thing.

Inspire wont be having an event in August because everyone seems to be away at that point.  The next one will be September.

Retelling the Narrative

Often referred to as the greatest story ever told, the life of Jesus is one that touches millions around the world.  There has been much academic movement to discover ways of making the Gospels heard in a world that is 2000 literary years away from them.  The cultural difference between the time and place of the original writers and the modern day west is huge.  However, the gulf between the culture of the now westernised church and the hindu world of India is just as alien. 

Latha Rajasekhar is a Hindu woman who has been so touched by Jesus message that she has penned an epic 900 page saga of the life of Jesus as though written by the author of the Ramayana or the Mahabharata.  She decided to write the epic after having a vision of Jesus at her door.  Since then she has visited the holy land as part of the process and has published the work.  The poetic work is produced in the Kannada language that is spoken in Karnataka.  The launch was presided over by Bishop Vasant Kumar of Karnataka central diocese.  Read more here.

I guess that is one answer to the question ‘How do we preach in a narrative culture?’

Are Fresh Expressions Always a Good Idea?

What do you think of this?

Equality in Church Structure

It would seem that the Church of England has decided not to pussyfoot around the issue of womens ordinantion to the episcopate.  This I am sure is a welcome change for those women it affects over the way that the ordination of women priests unfolded in the early 90’s.  At least they have agreed in principle that women are not to be second class bishops.

Inspire // Come to Me All Who Are Weary

The next alternative worship gathering for Inspire will take place on the  evening of Thursday 17th July at 7:30pm in St Peters Church Morley.  The evening will be based upon Matthew 11:28 and will have lots of time to bring our concerns to God.  The eveing will have quite an interactive feel to it.  Please bring anyone you want with you.

Do the Green Thing

Do the Green Thing is web site that uses celebrity endorsement to come up with fun ways of being more environmentally friendly.  I first heard about it a few months ago through Justin Hawkins blog on Myspace.  He produced a song for the site called ‘Do it in the Dark’ – a truly ingenious way of saving and using energy all at the same time 😕

Go along and have a look.  Sign up to their email newsletter and start saving the world!!

Death of an Institution

Sorry, this will mean very little to anyone inside of the USA.  Some people become so ingrained into the psyche of a nation.  One of these people is Clive Hornby.  It doesn’t matter if you watch Emmerdale or not, for the past 28 years Jack Sugden played by Hornby has become the iconic image of British farming.  Clive Hornby died today at the young age of 63.

Time to move on

All good things must come to an end and Kester has decided to hang up his blog to focus on a new book.  It will be a shame not to have his regular insight on the world we live in.  The synopsis for his new book sounds very interesting so lets look forward to it.

General Synod and Christian Unity

One of the overarching principles of Anglicanism is the desire for Christian unity whilst those around us are drawing battle lines.  Unfortunately the and/both method of Christian unity is starting to fail and headlines are being created over the issue of women’s ministry and the ‘controversial’ vote in synod this week.  This, combined with the traditionalist divisions in Jerusalem, is turning out to be a trying time for the Anglican communion. 

The Anglican church has something wonderful to offer the church through its unifying approach to faith.  Lets pray that we do not forget the defining characteristics of our faith and that we can continue to walk that path of unity through diversity.  Lets not forget that that unity is not through practice or our ecclesiology, it is through Jesus.