Virtual Methodist

O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us! Last Thursday I had the honour of being invited to deliver the “Selkirk Grace” at the beginning of the Linen Quarter’s Burns Supper in the salubrious surroundings of the Grand Central Hotel in the heart of Belfast. I did not don a kilt for the occasion. No-one needs to be subjected to the sight of my legs before a meal... Instead I donned a newly purchased tartan bow tie, as my wife, who is from from Burns country, would not let me out of the house without some nod to her homeland... However, it was a “Tyrone” tartan, with a nod to my own family’s origins (who knew that Tyrone had a tartan?) Among the various bits of Burns poetry quoted, in the original or in “English” translation the above quote was sadly not included. It is from the last verse of Burns poem “To a Louse”, where the author sees this “ugly, creepan, blastet wonner” on a fine lady’s bonnet at church, and thinks that if she could see it herself, she might...

Are you listening? The theme for this year's 4 Corners Festival , which began last Thursday evening and runs to next Sunday evening in St. Nicholas' Parish Church, is "The Art of Listening". Yesterday at Fitzroy Presbyterian, the church where 4 Corners founder, Steve Stockman , is the current minister, my friend and colleague, Heather Morris, preached a challenging sermon on that theme, and it is worth a listen (or a read) . But we began the festival with an event organised by EmbraceNI , in the City Hall; "From Syria (and elsewhere) with Grace , looking at the plight of refugees and asylum seekers coming to this city and what we as churches might do to help. It was important to be warned of the danger of our compassion for Syrian refugees here and elsewhere adversely affecting refugees and asylum seekers from elsewhere... to hear about the gap between the granting of asylum and the ability to access benefits or be permitted to take a job... and heart-breaking to...

A couple of weeks ago various news providers picked up on a supposed scientific model for the parting of the Red Sea in the Biblical Book of Exodus. According to a team from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, the waters could have been divided by an east wind of 63 mph blowing for 12 hours… not on the Red Sea proper, but the shallow, but still treacherous Sea of Reeds some miles to the north… Apparently such winds could have created a land bridge about two miles long and three miles wide for four hours. They don’t, however, explain how the Israelites could possibly have crossed this land bridge in the teeth of such a gale. Given meteorologists inability to predict the weather tomorrow with any accuracy I’m not pinning my belief structure on the scientific truth of this fanciful computer model. Actually, I’m not interested trying to find modern scientific models to explain these and other events described in scripture, but to see what light such stories s...

I was alerted to this via Ruth Gledhill's column on Christmas Eve and I thought for a moment that it was a spoof, but it is not and is proof-positive that the UK Border Agency is an irony (and perhaps compassion) free zone... Just check out the words that make up the tree... Those are just the sort of things you want to celebrate at Christmas... But it makes the perfect illustration for a short piece that I have written for this morning on Downtown radio. The story continues… and we come to another episode that you rarely see in Primary School Nativity plays… Jesus, Mary and Joseph the refugees in Egypt… Lets give thanks that Egypt didn’t have the same border controls as we have… If they did then Jesus and his parents may have been sent back to the tender loving care of Herod and his regime… Or locked away in a secure institution like those children of refugees and asylum seekers who were refused a visit from Saint Nicholas at the beginning of December… Or reduced to begging on t...