Virtual Methodist

I've been using this book for a few months now as a devotional prior to going onto the wards of the Ulster Hospital as chaplain, ever since a number of them appeared there as a resource to share with those  wrestling with cancer. Its authors have experienced cancer themselves directly and within their families, and have a long pedigree of working within the sphere of prayer for healing, and this book finds its origin in a frustration that there was little written from an explicitly Christian perspective as they faced cancer. The title, tone and even the physical form of the book marks it out as being aimed primarily at women, but there is plenty in here that is useful for anyone going through the whole testing-diagnosis-treatment continuum of care, and those accompanying them on that journey, be it as chaplain, pastor, family member or friend. That is especially true of some of the prayers at the end of the book. The folksy "thought for the day" style will not appeal to...

Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half-dead.... a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' Luke 10:30, 33-35 (ANIV) Its a good job that the Samaritan didn't have to cope with privatised health provision or 2 silver coins wouldn't have been enough. According to the Sunday Times last weekend, German driver Resul Mor was flagged down by a man who asked him to take his desperately ill wife to hospital in Hamburg. On arrival hospital staff asked Herr Mor...

Back in the Ulster Hospital yesterday in my role as Chaplain there, and it made me think again about the "good old" NHS that has been recently so badly maligned by US right-wing reactionaries and renegade Tories. Now, as both an employee and a frequent user (both on my own behalf as a Type-2 diabetic, and the parent of a particularly accident-prone child) of the National Health Service, I am more than aware of its short-comings. But I am also personally thankful for and a constant observer of its strengths, and have been getting mightily ticked off by repeated ill-informed criticism from the other side of the Atlantic. At various times I have also had the opportunity to get a close up look at some of the health provision in different parts of the USA, and there is no doubt that at its best, the provision there IS the best in the world. But after all it IS the richest country in the world (at least for the moment) and yet, despite that, there are an inordinate number of people...

Sorry, got it all wrong... I'm not a diabetic because I have eaten far too much of the wrong sort of food and not taken enough exercise throughout my life... It's all my Mum's fault! And the fact that she gave me baby milk in bottles containing BPA... A chemical called Bisphenol A (BPA) which is to be found in many plastics including those used to make baby's bottles, the lining for food cans, tuperware, the plastic shielding in mobile phones etc. It is apparently being linked to obesity and diabetes... as well as some cancers. US manufacturers are withdrawing it from baby-related items, but British health watchdogs claim that uptake from such items are well below safe levels. I'm not making a judgment on the safety levels... Actually, I would tend to err on the side of extreme caution... We don't need to introduce any more active chemicals into our systems than we absolutely have to... Especially when we really don't understand all the side-effects. But PL...

I was a snattery child... One of those children who had a constantly runny nose. From September through to May I had cold, and from May to September I had hay fever. As a result, whatever I was wearing I had tissues secreted all over my body... In my pockets, up my sleeve, and on one occasion I even remember my Mum tucking a tissue into my sock. I think she had shares in Kleenex. I was also one of those children who never blew their noses quietly. I still don't. When I blow my nose today, fishermen in nearby ports turn around and scan the horizon for the fog bank they presume must be rolling in. But every week we went to church as a child, my Mum would warn me that I was not, on any account, to blow my nose during the prayers or Bible readings. So for at least four years I never sang the first line of any hymn. All through the prayers and readings my nose ran like a river, and as soon as the organ started up I would let rip. It was like having a tuneless trumpet fanfare at the begi...

Just a quickie. My wife pointed out this morning, a story on the BBC website about some research at Queens University that suggests that religious denomination can be a factor in health and mortality. Apparently Catholics had higher death rates. The report claims this is based on a demonstrable link between this and deprivation... nothing to do with a more relaxed attitude within the Catholic community to drinking, smoking etc? Strangely, Anglicans had the highest risk of dying from heart disease while Methodists have a reduced risk accidental death... In the latter case it is probably because Methodists are totally risk-averse!!! But I don't quite understand the former... Any suggestions? The most striking statistic, however, is that fundamentalists lived longest and had the lowest risk of dying from lung cancer or alcohol related diseases. I know now that there are those who will claim that this is a glowing endorsement of the lifestyle advocated by those of a more conservative, ...