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Showing posts from June, 2011

Northern Ireland in the Headlines (Again)

The circumstances that have prevented me blogging so regularly have been exacerbated recently by a number of crises, but once again I'm back on the blog... and once again Northern Ireland has been back in the headlines… for mixed reasons… On the positive side, Rory McIlroy united people right across Northern Ireland, and the world, in his victory in the US Open. Even I, who am happy to agree with Samuel Johnston or Mark Twain or whoever it was who described golf as a good walk spoiled, was really frustrated not to be able to watch it on TV (being too tight to give Rupert Murdoch money for Sky Sports) and had to make do with regular internet updates and good old BBC Radio 5 Live. I was right behind the lad from Holywood, Co. Down, and while the fact that he went to my old school gave me a soft spot for him, the combination of what happened in the US Masters a couple of months ago and his refreshing demeanour endeared him to everyone... And I think that has increased in the wake of h

Dust on the Breeze

Writing this at stupid o'clock, because I've just come down from a local hilltop where I had the privilege of sharing in the scattering of ashes of a member of my congregation. Her husband is a Kiwi, and it is, he tells me, a Maori tradition to do such things at dawn... I've been to the top of this particular hill for dawn services before... but those have been at Easter, at a time of year when the sun has the decency to lie in for a bit... This morning we had to be there for shortly after 4am. I needn't have bothered going to bed! Anyway, my body clock was clearly worried about missing my early start and I was up even earlier than I needed to be... And as I thought about what was to come, both this service and a later more conventional interment of ashes, I made a start on this short poem/reflection, which I finished on my return a few minutes ago... So this is for Carole, Paul and family... Dust on the breeze Is that what life comes to? A hilltop offers fresh perspect

I haven't been Raptured...

In the light of the last post, and yesterday's celebration of Ascension Sunday, I just wanted to reassure(?) any remaining readers out there that I haven't been raptured, promoted to glory or otherwise translated to another realm. I've simply been trying to balance work with the rest of life, and part of that is that I've put rules on me being nowhere near the computer at certain times of day and certain days of the week... If truth be told I'm breaking one of those rules right now... But life has been a little busy recently and so I haven't had a chance to post anything. Not sure how the next week will be either, given that Virtual Methodist is going to have to spend time with a lot of other flesh and blood Methodists at our Annual Conference towards the end of the week, as well as doing my day job! Maybe by this time next week I'll wish I'd been raptured... Shalom