Virtual Methodist

Starting 2020 in similar vein to where I left off in 2019,  thinking about how we deal with the past and with fear of the future. In this I pick up on the legend concerning the location of the Omphalos (navel) at the centre of the world by Zeus. He supposedly set off twin eagles from either end of the Earth and they met over Delphi, which was the site of the mysterious oracle of Apollo. In later Christian tradition the "omphalos" was said to be in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, a place which again has not been devoid of conflict. The place where two eagles meet Past and future fighting on the wing While down below The profound present Remains to be explored. Selah

Well today the Beijing Olympics came to an end… And while the closing ceremony was not quite so over the top as the opening ceremony, it was still astounding, especially in terms of the lack of expense spared and the sheer numbers involved moving with split-second sychronicity. The Olympic motto is "Citius, Altius, Fortius." "Swifter, Higher, Stronger." And that has been fulfilled in these games… This has been an Olympics of superlatives. The performances of Usain Bolt on land and Michael Phelps in water… And the British athletes exceeding all expectations with their best performance in a century, the best performance by any cycling or sailing teams ever, and a medal haul which, in proportion to the size of population is 12 times as successful as China’s and over twice as successful as the Americans. The only problem is… How can Britain top that when the show comes to London? We cannot hope to match the scale of the opening ceremony. We will be very fortunate to mat...

During the conversation on Theology and Practice of Reconciliation last week the lead participant from the activist side was Dr. Duncan Morrow, the Chief Executive of the Community Relations Council, while his correspondent from the theological perspective was Professor Drew Gibson, a specialist in practical theology from Union Theological College in Belfast. Drew argued vociferously for a Christian ethos based upon a theology of the last times, or eschatology to use the technical term... Just as he was standing up to make his response to Duncan's initial paper, someone who was clearly as desperate for caffeine as I was said "I can hear a trolley coming..." What we hear, or want to hear coming, can sometimes drown out what people are saying now... Causing us to miss the opportunities of grace that God has for us here. Yes, there is an extent to which our theology should be future-focused, but it should never make us so heavenly minded that... well, you know the rest... In...