Virtual Methodist

This morning's Thought for the Day offering... Well today the back pages of the newspapers have been filled with stories of my beloved Liverpool's all-too-late thrashing of a weakened Chelsea side . As  Jimmy Greaves used to say of to erstwhile Liverpool player Ian St. John, “It’s a funny old game, Saint…”  And throughout this season it has been just that… Though funny in the sense of strange, rather than “ha-ha”. It has been on the front page of the newspapers as much as on the back… Allegations of racist language being used by high profile premiership players caused huge repercussions, not only to  Liverpool, where it may have contributed to their lacklustre season, but also to the English national team, necessitating the  appointment of a new England manager,  leading in turn to controversy about misjudged jokes in the press about the speech impediment of appointee Roy Hodgson … We also had the seeming suicide of Welsh national manager Gary Speed , ...

A very brief supplement this week as 1) there hasn't been much that has caught my attention on t'internet this week 2) life has been a little hectic... First, I'm one who frequently has complained about the lack of sportsmanship within the round ball variety of football, but not only was I encouraged by the positive response to the condition of Fabrice Muamba following his neear fatal collapse in an FA Cup game (and thankfully this week we hear that Muamba is out of hospital ) but especially by this story concerning IFA minnows Dungannon Swifts ... It was so newsworthy that I actually picked up the story in Scotland, probably the first time that the Swifts have made the national news, and all for the right reasons. Second, and finally, Kim Fabricius once again offers us his wit and wisdom with more Doodlings over on Faith and Theology - plenty there to stimulate, wind-up and/or amuse (delete as applicable.) Shalom

I've written a couple of pieces on chaplaincy recently ( here and here ) and so it was interesting to have this piece on hospice chaplaincy brought to my attention by a former intern. Meanwhile, reflections on Fabrice Muamba and his ongoing recovery have continued in various corners of the interweb, but the most interesting for me was Kevin Hargaden's comments on the ill-conceived  challenge of a group of cross-party MPs to ASA ban on advertising faith-healing . Their particular crusade (and I use that word advisedly) is part of the developing war between conservative Christians and militant secularists... Hardly a day goes by without coming across a link concerning the "persecution" of Christians in secularist Britain, usually via the Daily Mail or the Christian Institute/Voice and featuring some quote or other by George Carey, or, on the other hand, some campaign by Dicky Dawkins and his merry band of fundamentalist atheists. Indeed I could include many of...

At the moment the ConDem Coalition are pushing for a change in the legal definition of marriage in the UK to include same-sex partnerships, which has produced a number of high profile objections by the church and has led a number of individuals and organisations, both from a faith perspective and not, to form a Coalition for Marriage arguing for the more traditional definition... Those coming from a Christian perspective on this tend to talk a lot about a "Biblical model of marriage" but as this contribution from John Byron's "Biblical World" reminds us, a Biblical perspective on marriage is a lot more complex than we might like to admit. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury has not been as vocal on this issue as his counterpart in York, but any suspicions that he might go quietly into his recently announced, and widely lamented, retirement  were roundly refuted with a very bullish statement on the wrong-headedness of the government and secularists ...

My post today is not in any way unique... Similar comments are all over the front, back and editorial pages of most UK newspapers, it has been the subject of at least 3 "Pause for Thought"-type meditations on radio that I have heard, including one by my Methodist colleague George Loane on Radio Ulster ( 24 and 84 minutes in to todays Good Morning Ulster ), and will doubtless feature on many blogs over the next few days... Saturday was a day I had been looking forward to for a while... It was St. Patrick's Day and the culmination of the 6 Nations Rugby when Ireland were going to put England in their place... I had to juggle a lot of work to carve out time to watch the matches... And frankly, at the end of it all I wondered why I had bothered. Scotland were abject in the wooden spoon clash with Italy (putting my Scottish wife in a really good mood for the day ahead). The Wales/France showdown was dull as dishwater... with Wales claiming the championship and grand slam...