Virtual Methodist

My last Thought for the Day for a while, broadcast live today on Good Morning Ulster (as usual approximately 25 & 85 minutes into the programme), influenced not only by my anniversary today but also the Haass talks and the Hope and History campaign ... Don't forget to sign up and help shape a more hopeful future for this province. A few years ago I pre-recorded a thought for the day that was due to go out on my wedding anniversary and I used that as the introduction to my talk, but then forgot that I had doe so AND forgot to tell my wife Sally that I had mentioned it… This then caused her great puzzlement when lots of people wished her happy anniversary throughout the day…  Well, it is once again our anniversary… I won’t tell you how many years except to say that for some unknown reason the recommended gift for this year is a musical instrument… So I hope Sally enjoys the kazoo I’ve bought her!  I’ve many happy memories of our wedding day, when people from all the di...

Another quick linkdump without much comment, due to packing and unpacking boxes being a priority this week. The big issue in Ireland this week has been Warren Gatland not only not giving Brian O'Driscoll the captaincy for the final showdown with the Aussies this morning, but not actually picking him for the matchday squad... Now the thing is BoD did have a bit of a shocker last week, with a couple of wayward passes, but he is still the most creative player out there, and arguably the only leader they have left... I really don't understand why you wouldn't even have him on the bench as a game-changer... Instead Gatland has gone for blunt force... With Manu Tuilagi on the bench incase Jamie Roberts crock's himself again... No plan B, despite the fact that this approach has never served Wales well against Australia in the past... But never mind, I said I wasn't going to comment much, and, that said, let me encourage you to read BoD's response to being dropped ...

Just got wind today of this new £1 coin celebrating my native city of Belfast. It has elements of the city's coat of arms on it, with a prominent sailing ship reminding us of Belfast's maritime and shipbuilding heritage... Slightly more fitting than the irony-free continual evocation of the Titanic everywhere you go here. I do find it amusing that the coin on the first day cover isn't quite level, suggesting that this sailing ship might head the way of the Titanic as well. But it did set me thinking what the coin would have looked like had it been designed by locals... or indeed those who only know Belfast from the news headlines. Balaclava clad gunmen? Peace walls? RUC Landrovers? Orange marches? Bonfires? Thankfully we don't feature in the international headlines quite so often these days and perhaps need to get on with fashioning an identity free of those images. But could I also ask for a moratorium on images of the Titanic, the Somme and George Best... Even C.S. Le...

In the view of my rantings last week about hymns that I hate, I paid close attention when I read another blogger referring to C.S. Lewis' famous quote about certain hymns being "fifth rate poetry set to sixth rate music." And that was before the "modern worship" explosion of the 1980s and the industry that produces the poppy praise pap of today. But reading the quote sent me scurrying back to find the context for it... his book of semi-catechetical essays entitled "God in the Dock" , where he writes of his experience in gospel halls shortly after his conversion, a salutory lesson to any social, spiritual or aesthetic snobs (not that I would fit into any such category): "I disliked very much their hymns, which I considered fifth rate poetry set to sixth rate music. But as I went on I saw the great merit of it. I came up against different people of quite different outlooks and different education, and then gradually my conceit just began peeling of...