Virtual Methodist

Oops... Haven't been paying attention... This was supposed to go online on Tuesday, but I've been a tad busy over the past few days... However, it seems as if a lot of you had picked up on it already. It touches on some of the issues I raised in my post on Sunday, but was originally inspired by the fact that for various reasons I, and others have been looking back to significant anniversaries over recent weeks. You can find it online for the next few days at BBC's iPlayer at 26 and 86 minutes, but here is the original text. Two weeks ago was my 20th wedding anniversary. Last week it was the 40th Anniversary of the opening of our church building in Dundonald. A few people remember the first of those 2 anniversaries… many more remember the second… But infinitely more will remember the events of this day 30 years ago… Because today in 1979 Pope John Paul II became the first Pope to step onto Irish soil. Those who subsequently saw him at Phoenix Park, Drogheda or Knock will nev...

This time last week I was looking forward to my 20th wedding anniversary. This week I’m looking forward to the 40th Anniversary Celebrations of the opening of our church premises in Dundonald. We’ve all sorts of things planned and I hope that it will be both enjoyable and challenging for all who join with us. But one of the things that will be said, and has already been said a hundred times over, is that despite us celebrating the 40th anniversary of the opening of the church building… the church itself is NOT a building, but the people who meet within and minister from that building… It was Winston Churchill who once said “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” I don’t think he was talking about churches specifically when he said that, but it is a statement that was never truer than when referring to places of worship. On the negative side, church buildings can be erected to facilitate certain actions carried out in God’s name at a particular time and place… But time moves...