Virtual Methodist

A poem for a new year. We are only a short way into 2023. The past few years, globally, locally and personally, have been difficult, unnecessarily made worse at times by both deliberate and unknowing dissemination of falsehoods for different reasons. Into that I offer this short but fairly direct reflection. What lies ahead? Or what truth? You choose. Selah

It's been a while since I've done a longer "end of year reflection"-type blogpost, and given that fewer people than ever are reading this blog (or indeed any blog if media-watchers are to be believed), I am under no allusions that this is more for my own benefit than anyone else. Its slightly ironic in that I picked up the questions that frame this from a tweet by Courtney Martin, via the feed of Sarah Williamson, given that I have seriously backed off social media in general, and Twitter in particular in the second half of this year, indeed that may be the single biggest thing about this year for me... My motivations for that? Well maybe that will emerge as this reflection progresses. 1. What was the best adventure you had this year? This has been a largely "adventure-free" year... Indeed, despite numerous short trips to various places, most have been about doing as little as we could get away with, rather than anything new... But there is a degree to which...

Happy new year... Too busy to blog yet... But just to keep you going here's a wordle of recent VM output... Some important words in there, especially in the wake of the Haass talks, and with the dawn of a new year full of challenges and opportunities... Blessings for this year we now find ourselves in... Shalom

This is the pre-recorded Thought for the Day that should have gone out this morning on Radio Ulster. Not sure what time it was broadcast at as the schedules are all over the place with the holidays, but I'm sure you can find it on iplayer under Good Morning Ulster.  For those who have been around this blog for a while you might recognise part of it as I shamelessly cannibalised an earlier post for it... Happy New Year! No I haven’t lost the plot. Over 400 years ago, when they changed over from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, they moved the New Year from the beginning of April and spring, to the beginning of January. And those who refused to change were treated as fools. They were invited to non-existent parties and other pranks were played on them, and it’s thought that this may be one of the origins of April Fools’ Day. But actually all around the world, in many different cultures there are light-hearted festivals at this time of year celebrating the change from win...

Earlier this month I posted "Accentuate the Positive" which was the first song I heard on Radio 2 that morning, but I could equally have posted the last one I heard that night, which was this haunting lament by Alison Krauss, "Get me Through December" because, if truth be told, that was closer to how I felt, with the hectic run-in to Christmas after a bruising year. How pale is the sky that brings forth the rain As the changing of seasons prepares me again For the long bitter nights and the wild winter's day My heart has grown cold, my love stored away My heart has grown cold, my love stored away I've been to the mountain, left my tracks in the snow Where souls have been lost and the walking wounded go I've taken the pain no girl should endure Faith can move mountains; of that I am sure But faith can move mountains; of that I am sure Just get me through December A promise I'll remember Get me through December So I can start ...

As the year hurtles towards its conclusion, its the season of award shows and so I thought I would round it off with my own special VM Awards - an assortment of plaudits regarding some of the other offerings out there in the virtual world - the winners get nothing except my admiration and adulation... Favourite Methodist Blog: Given that I call this blog Virtual Methodist, I felt duty bound to include this category. In terms of Irish Methodist's there aren't too many consistent bloggers out there (they've probably all moved over to twitter now, leaving dinosaurs like me behind) although Paul Ritchie continues to write "To Whom it may Concern". But extending my view beyond these shores, it will be no surprise to those who have noted the number of links to (and lifts from) it that I would see Connexions as the most consistently interesting (and eclectic) Methodist blog out there... Richard/Kim et al are also one of the few who churn out more stuff than I do... Nev...

I wrote this for broadcast on Downtown this morning, but anyone who heard it either didn’t get much sleep last night, or else they were only just going to bed at the time… But increasingly I come across people who take no part in New Year's Eve festivities, but simply go to bed as normal on the 31st of December, and wake up at the normal time in a brand New Year… And there is a fundamental question at the back of that: what’s the big thing about a change of year? So often I hear people say, with a heartfelt sign, that they’re glad to see the back of the previous year because of the tale of woe that they experienced during it… yet the truth is that disaster and woe cannot be corralled by calendar months or years... but neither are God’s blessings to us… Throughout the Christmas season, in songs and readings we repeatedly hear Jesus being described as “Emmanuel” which means “God with us.” But that doesn’t just apply to this time of year... To high days and holidays… it also applies t...

The theme that I am working on for my end of year sermon brought this dialogue back to mind... I posted it earlier in the year , but I thought it was appropriate for old year's night and the dawning of a new year. May the Light of Christ's Love burn brightly in your life in the coming year despite the gathering darkness of economic depression... The darkness will never overcome it. WOMAN: A night for singing songs… MAN: Old songs and new songs All based on an older song… WOMAN: THE song… MAN: The song of all songs WOMAN: The song of a lady for her lover MAN: The Lord for his beloved… WOMAN: A song which began before creation… MAN: A song of love which called light into being A song of love which breathed life into clay WOMAN: A song of love which gave us liberty… Yet pursued us when we went astray. MAN: I have loved you with an everlasting love… I have been eternally faithful to you. WOMAN: If only I could say the same. Yet I have not loved you as I should; I have not lived the...