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Showing posts from November, 2015

Just Pray - Or Just Argue About an Advert About Prayer

Is it safe to come out again? Or is everyone still up in arms about the Lord’s Prayer? According to the Daily Fail the Archbishop of Canterburywas “furious” about the decision of the Digital Cinema Media (DCM) agency, not to distribute the above innocuous 57 second advert to the  Odeon, Cineworld and Vue cinema chains. Really!? Furious!? Throwing teacups at the wall of Lambeth Palace furious? Certainly the little I have seen of Justin Welby would suggest that he doesn’t do furious the way I do furious, which, frankly, raises him in my estimation, and suggests that his particular discipline of prayer, including the Lord’s prayer, works for him. But were I Justin Welby, I doubt I would be furious with the decision of this commercial company not to show this advert in accordance with its stated policy of not accepting political or religious advertising content in its cinemas. I would however be exasperated with its stated reason that "some advertisements - unintentionally or

The Widow's Tale: 2 for a Penny or 5 for Tuppence

Yesterday morning, as part of our Remembrance Service, Shirley Krakowski, our Student Assistant delivered this monologue (it's more of a short-story than a monologue!) based on the lectionary reading from Mark 12: 41-44, together with  Luke 12:6-8 and Matthew 10: 29-31. I keep chickens… To earn me a penny or two. And sometimes, as I scatter the grain out for them to eat, I watch the little brown birds, sparrows I suppose they are, darting in to pinch a seed or two. I know how they feel. Just trying to snatch enough to get by… Meanwhile my cockerel struts his stuff across the yard… Thinking he is something… when really he is just as reliant on the seeds from my hand as those little sparrows. A wandering rabbi visiting our village on his way up to the Temple in Jerusalem for the feast, recently recommended that we should watch birds instead of worrying... I’ve got plenty to worry about, but he reminded us that God looks after our little feathered friends and so we shouldn’t