Virtual Methodist

And now, the end is near And so I face the final curtain... I won't go any further, because, I'm not a big Sinatra fan at the best of times, and I particularly loathe, hate and detest that song, which is the perfect anthem to contemporary individualism... But having got that rant out of my system, this is just a short placeholder-post, given I am moving today and I'm not too sure whether the phone/internet will be up and running in my new gaff... So I may be offline for another day or two... I've been too preoccupied with boxes this week to post anything... The image of "final curtain" is an appropriate one however given my theatre background and the fact that when I started in Dundonald 9 years ago, I began by warning them that I was a "hypocrite", the Greek word for mask-wearer or actor... But I promised that I wouldn't be "playing a part" as their minister... that what they saw would be the real me, and for the most part I...

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...