Lent Reflections...

Just a brief plug for a few resources that might be worth following over Lent...

For those of you who fancy a bit of theological stimulation, the Methodist Church in Ireland are fielding a series of reflections on the Atonement... As the former convener of Faith and Order I tried, and failed, to prompt some sort of coherent thinking on this issue for a number of years, but my successor, RevMac has at least managed to get a blog up and running... so it should be interesting to see where it goes...

That is also true of another blog that features in my sidebar... Shouting at the Devil, by anabaptist lay canon David Porter, director of the Coventry Cathedral Reconciliation Programme. He's promised daily blogs throughout Lent... we'll see...

But if you are decidedly old school and prefer your thoughts on paper rather than pixels, the book I have just finished reading, "Walking the Edges" by David Adam, would repay study either on your own or in groups over the coming weeks...

If anyone has any alternative suggestions to the above, please feel free to pass them on, to help see us through the wilderness time that is Lent...

Comments

Banbridge Consumer Blog said…

I've just read, Barefoot Disciple: Walking the way of passionate humility by Stephen Cherry. It is the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book for 2011.

I found it tremendously challenging for myself as I thought about my own regard for myself and my approach to the challenges in my life.

Wednesday, March 09, 2011 2:51:00 AM

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that ...

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65

Living under the Empire... (2) Where is Babylon?

We were driving back from school last week, talking about books that we had been reading and my younger son, Ciaran, asked me "Where is Babylon?" I have to confess that my history is better than my geography, and I said that it no longer exists as an inhabited city, but its ruins were to the north west of the current capital of Iraq, Baghdad. When I checked however, I discovered that it is actually about 50 miles south of Baghdad and the modern town is the administrative centre of the province of Babil... But just as the modern city is but a shadow of the historic capital of 2 ancient empires, first under Hammurabi in the 18th century BCE and then the "Neo-Babylonian" empire (under Nebuchadnezzar etc) in the 6th century BCE, so the earthly Babylonian empire/s was/were fleeting in comparison to the enduring metaphorical idea of Babylon. The original Empire under Hammurabi was probably the ultimate origin of some of the early Biblical stories, including the ...

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