Virtual Methodist

“Old Man in Sorrow (On the Threshold of Eternity)” by Vincent Van Gogh (1890) in the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands Some of you may be aware that for a number of years now I have posted pieces of art from all sorts of sources on social media as a reflection on the Revised Common Lectionary readings, weekly during "ordinary seasons" and daily throughout the major festivals (Advent, Christmas, Lent and, where we currently are, Easter). During the early days of lockdown I used these posts as a jump-off for reflections that I hope helped people through those difficult days (I was just watching another drama series last night that was referred to that period and again I found myself slightly traumatised by it... tho' as I will elaborate, yesterday was probably not the day to be watching such things...) but on the whole I have left the pictures to speak for themselves with no explanation or exposition. I have absolutely no training in art history or appreciation,...

Earlier in the week Sally posted a video on Facebook of the result of my repair job on her beloved (but frankly disturbing) dancing Rudolf. It is now 19 years old and after so many years of frantic gyrations some of its plastic bits inside had broken off and its wiring had frayed. Against my better judgement and with no real knowledge of what I was doing I set about it with a screwdriver, modeling knife, soldering iron double sided sticky tape and (inevitably) gaffer tape. And the result was the posted video of restored reindeer dancing across the dining table and throwing itself off the edge at me, much to many people's amusement. The irony was that the next day I felt that I too was about to teeter off the edge... and it wasn't funny.  I have my own version of perished plastic and frayed wires... but as of yet I have found no permanent fix... no means of soldering the connections and hoovering out the errant fragments that keep jamming up the works. But  I do have the psycho...

Bit of a black dog day today. Actually I am surprised I haven't had more of them in this lockdown period - I suppose I have been careful to keep a bit of a balance most of the time and haven't allowed myself to get too run down...  But for various reason, fido came calling today... So, I did the work that I absolutely had to do. I put on the required PPE (ie a laugh and a smile for those who didn't need to know) and I downed tools for an hour or two this afternoon... Actually for some of it I simply sat in the garden and sorted out buttons... and it was just what I needed. Let me explain.  A couple of weeks ago I got a message from both our CEO and a member of one of our churches talking about NI-Scrubs and the work that a team of volunteer sowers (seamstresses is too gender specific, and as we can see from the Great British Sewing Bee, another great black-dog-tamer, its not only women who sew) are doing to provide scrubs for frontline health care staff (chec...

I'm heading off on sabbatical to Holden Village in Washington State at the end of this week, where I am speaking about Jonah among other things. I was asked to preach at vespers there this coming Sunday. Foolishly I said I would do a responsive version of the set Psalm for that Sunday Psalm 42 or 43, which seemed appropriate in that Jonah found himself literally "down in the depths..." Unfortunately I now don't have time to prepare that together with everything else I have to do, so I slightly reworked this paraphrase of Psalm 42 and 42 that I wrote some time ago when I was in a particularly bad place. Thankfully I am no longer in that place and part of the means of escaping there was this discipline of lament and rehearsing the goodness of God. Today I have been with others who are in a bad place, and there will be many others there too... I hope these words help: As a wanderer in the desert gasps for water,   so my soul is gasping for you, O God,   My hea...

Over the next few days I am going to be a tad preoccupied with preparing for seasonal services and the sleigh ride of home communions and visits that are the rhythm of the run-in to Christmas. So for the next couple of days I've pre-posted a few interesting/amusing pieces that I have found elsewhere... Starting with this one on the "equal-opportunity mongrel" that I have had as a regular companion over the years... It is in tune with WhyNotSmile's piece that I referred to yesterday... Please take time to watch... You may not have such an unwelcome pet in your life, but I guarantee that someone close to you does and it might help you to understand and support them a little better... Cheers

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 ...

It's a beautiful day. Blue skies. No wind. Slight bite of winter still in the air. It is a day when it is easy to praise God as you go for a morning walk in the park. It even makes a journey to work a little less depressing.  But it brought to mind a passage in Eugene Peterson's "The Contemplative Pastor." (Yes, I'm back there again.) It is probably my least favourite part of the book, where he does a miniature hagiography of Annie Dillard , the American author who has written much on the spirituality revealed in nature and the problem of pain.  But in this section Peterson, drawing on Dillard's writings, says: 'It is child's play to "appreciate nature" when the sun is shining and the birds are singing. Something far more strenuous is involved when we face and deal with the cruelty and terror that creation also deals out in spades.' Previously he makes reference to the 10% of living creatures that are parasites, which Dillard ...

This is a veritable landfill site of linkdumps this morning... Read them all and you could be still sitting here tomorrow. So I'll just group them under appropriate (?) headings and keep my comments to the minimum: HOMOSEXUALITY & SAME SEX-MARRIAGE In the week that has seen England and Wales make the first legislative steps towards the recognition of same-sex marriage there have been a number of stories that have caught my eye... An article by Alice Arnold on her relationship with TV sports presenter Clare Balding, and why the term "marriage" is important to them... A piece by Michael Bird , prompted by an "ex-gay" conversion story and the response to it, asking how those who advocate "Queer Theology" (an unhelpful term I believe), relate to those who call themselves "ex-gays"... In response to the same story Scot McKnight points to some research that suggests that such conversions are not only real but produce statistically...

A couple of years ago I reposted a pair of Ben Myer's posts, one on sadness (that spoke profoundly to where I was at the time, and where many will be today - indeed I nearly reposted his prayer for Newtown Connecticut ),  and another on "Joy." As I said at the time I firmly believe in what Gerald Coates (always interesting, frequently bonkers) said at one time: "If the joy of the Lord is our strength, it's little wonder that the church in Britain has been so weak and ineffective." Gerald Coates (1984) But recently for some reason this repost has been appearing in the weekly top read list on my side bar, and I thought, in the light of yesterday's Advent Candle theme of "Joy" it was probably worth dusting off Ben's "12 Theses" on the subject. 1. As icons are painted on gold, so the lives of saints are written on a background of light. 2. Evelyn Underhill knew a saintly man, Father Wainwright. ‘He was an indifferent ...

Depression is one of the most common mental health problems. It is reckoned to affect one in six people in the UK at some point, and that 5% will experience major, or clinical, depression. I am one of the 5%, although in Northern Ireland , this figure is probably higher.  A 2001 survey revealed that those directly affected by the Troubles were twice as likely to show signs of depression and other mental health issues as others.  Depression is, however, one of those illnesses that sits uncomfortably with Christian faith. Tony Campolo writes that years ago, one of his students tried to explain that he had been too depressed to study and asked to be excused from a scheduled exam. He refused and told him to get over it. Only hours afterward, the student jumped to his death from a high-rise apartment building, leaving behind a suicide note telling his parents that he just couldn’t endure the sadness that had been torturing his soul. Campolo never took depression glibly ...

About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" When some of those standing there heard this, they said, "He's calling Elijah." Matthew 27:46-47 (ANIV) We all go through dark days... some deeper and darker than others... even the most righteous. Jesus himself cried on the cross "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" quoting the Psalmist. There have been whole twisted theologies pinned on this one line (not to mention a few controversial hymn lyrics), and it is a potent point in the passion narrative... But I think it is telling that those standing nearby misunderstood Jesus' quotation of the Hebrew for an appeal to the prophet Elijah... either they weren't very familiar with their Psalms in general, or else this is not a Psalm that they heard much in synagogue... I suspect the latter... That then, as now, there was a reluctance t...

Well, it's been a while... Haven't been blogging much for a combination of reasons... First I was quite busy last week in a way I haven't been for months. Then, this week, I have been feeling a bit down again and just haven't had the mental energy for much more than crawling out of bed (just call me yoyo man). And finally, I've been doing a bit of thinking about the motivations for, wisdom and etiquette of blogging, prompted by a couple of events and conversations... First, a friend of a friend found herself seriously burned by the print media because of a blog she had been writing... no names, as I don't want to play by the same appalling sensationalist rules the papers do... Essentially she'd been writing a blog based on her life against the background of the current economic ills. It had recieved a little attention in the Sunday Times business section last November, but last week the Guardian/Telegraph/Mail and Express (and probably a few others that I ha...

This post actually started out as a facebook status update... But it got so ridiculously long that I thought I'd write it up here instead... According to those who know about such things (like producers of daytime chatshows on TV and radio) this is "blue Monday"... the unhappiest day of the year, thanks to weather, bills from Christmas, family tensions that have been boiling up over the holiday incarceration with the family etc. According to Ben Goldacre, the author of Bad Science , back in 2006, it's all a piece of spurious maths prompted by Sky Travel , but the story still keeps rolling out year after year regardless. I, however, am quite happy to buck the supposed trend towards doom, misery, hopelessness and despair today... Despite some sad news from a friend yesterday, this is the best day of the year so far for me... After weeks of physical ailments, including a chest infection and more recently food poisoning, I'm feeling relatively healthy this morning (de...

Currently the methodist Church in Britain is gearing up to release a new "worship resource" or as it would previously have been called, a hymnbook. Entitled "Singing the Faith" it is the first official Methodist Hymnal in Britain since 1933, as the 1983 publication "Hymns and Psalms" was an ecumenical (and largely unloved) affair. Whilst many Methodists bemoaned the loss of many Wesley hymns from first the 1983 and the most recent list, I must confess that the hymn omitted from "Hymns and Psalms" that I missed most is not one by Chuck or JW, but the one below by William Cowper... And, unless my eyesight is failing me it has also been omitted from the most recent collection ... It was a particular favourite of my mum's, and I suppose it is in my mind because the anniversary of her funeral was last weekend, and it was one of the hymns we sang at it. But I've often wondered why it was omitted, first from the 1983 and (less surprisingly give...

Let me make this clear from the outset... I'm not a fan of Mr. and Mrs. Robinson; he represents the constituency that I currently live as both an MP and an MLA, while she currently represents the area that I work in at a council, assembly and parliamentary level, and I have encountered them numerous times in numerous settings since I was at school. It's not primarily the brand of politics that they represent, but the manner in which they have tended to conduct themselves in the past, including, particularly on her part, a very vocal profession of faith whilst showing little public grace. She has, I will admit done some impressive work for local constiuents, but even in that I would, at time have been critical of how she has gone about that. In the past week, however, I have had to rethink my attitude to them and to politicians in general. First came Mrs. Robinson's announcement that she was standing down from political life because she was struggling with mental illness, or...