Category: reflecting on faith

reflecting on faithLeave a comment

Sunday prayer April 10th

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Lord, Your peace and my peace are very different things, help me not get confused by the word. My peace comes at the end of a busy day when I am exhausted and drained, when I can “relax”, when I can watch mindless stuff on television in an attempt to get my mind to slow down. Your peace comes at the start of the day when the world is fresh and I can face all my little worries with calm and let you enter my mind. When I can share with you my challenges and failures and don’t feel bad … Continue reading Sunday prayer April 10th

Reader, reflecting on faithLeave a comment

God in others

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Leading the first Compline of Advent this evening, I wondered how to share this quiet awe and sense of gratefulness I was feeling. Using Steve Brady’s BRF Advent book for the meditation, the early themes based on Genesis seemed too powerful for the message I was trying to express. In the end I used his reflection on the Garden of Eden , which cited the well-known verse “one is nearer God’s heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth”. He goes on to reflect that we are nearer God’s heart when we are close with other people, in God’s … Continue reading God in others

Reader, reflecting on faithLeave a comment

Faith and Science

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Really helpful annotated list of resources on these debates, passed on by a fellow Reader – thank you Robin. The author of the list is Rev Stuart Cashman, Associate Minister, Duke Street Church, Richmond, Surrey Selected Science and Faith Resources: *Collins, C. John, Science & Faith: Friends or Foes, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2003). This is an excellent overview of the whole debate. It is clearly written and covers all the major questions. Collins is an engineer turned biblical scholar and the book was originally written to help parents who were home-schooling their children figure out what do with the dinosaurs. Davidson, G.R. When … Continue reading Faith and Science

reflecting on faith, working together with other churchesLeave a comment

Ecumenism and inter-faith

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Wow, two huge topics and only a few remarks here. In a discussion on the difference between these two headings this week, the conclusion was drawn that studying ecumenism tended to refer to Christian churches attempting to work together and resolve doctrinal difficulties as well as divergence of traditions in liturgy, worship, rituals, and that inter-faith dialogue is the term used more commonly for a variety of faiths looking at similar things, including but not exclusively Christian. One Church. How to get there? So many have tried. Scripture points us towards a oneness, God’s love for all. Meanwhile, we have … Continue reading Ecumenism and inter-faith

music in church, reflecting on faithLeave a comment

It is a thing most wonderful

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The author of this hymn is Bishop William Walsham How. Bishop How was known as the “omnibus bishop”, a reference to his preferred method of travel around his diocese in the East End of London where he worked among the miserable social conditions of the nineteenth century slums. He is also a well-loved hymnist. This particular hymn comes from his Children’s Hymns of 1872.  It was later included in the English Hymnal under the “At Catechism” section, but clearly there is something about how the hymn offers theological meaning through childish words, which has earned it a place in the … Continue reading It is a thing most wonderful

reflecting on faith, spiritualityLeave a comment

Spirituality -what’s that?

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Lately I have been trying to work out the distinction between spirituality and emotional experience. Maybe I don’t need to and maybe there is little difference, but I think there should be. When we talk of emotions we envisage sensory feelings – tears, joy, depression, excitement, outrage and so many more expressions of emotional experience. But they seem to be linked to what we feel and those feelings have both internal or mental, and physical expression in body language and sensation. When we talk of spirituality, there is something else going on.  Emotions are definitely involved, but there is more. … Continue reading Spirituality -what’s that?