Virtual Methodist

Again, something from the earliest days of this blog, this time a  little something for Trinity Sunday... That Sunday when all sane preachers fein illness, and congregations stagger out of church after sermons that try (and invariably fail) to "explain" the trinity... A day when I am happy to live with mystery rather than try to comprehend the fullness of God in my tiny mind. We believe in one God, A Community of Three in a Unity of Being. We believe in the Creator, Creator of sky, earth and sea, Creator of birds, animals and fish, and us… Creator of all that is, seen, unseen and unimaginable. We believe in Jesus Christ, Born of God… Born of woman… Born, lived, died, and rose again, Born to teach, save, and give us hope. We believe in the Holy Spirit, The all pervading breath of God. Who breathed life into us in the beginning Who breathed life into the church at Pentecost Who brings gifts and strength, and encouragement. We believe in God, the T...

Our local church of Dundonald Methodist has recently started a Friday night class for those interested in sequence dancing… and it is proving a great success across the generations and with people who haven’t been involved with any previous church programmes. Perhaps it’s the high profile of TV shows like “Strictly come Dancing” and “So You Think You Can Dance” that have captured people’s imagination… In fact we have called our programme “So you think You Can’t Dance” as it is aimed at people who know they are never likely to be Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers. Not everyone has been in favour as the Methodist church, along with some others, traditionally saw dancing as an excuse for inappropriate intimacy between the sexes, and for a long while it was actually banned on church premises. But that is no longer the case, and while I haven’t actively participated myself, I can assure anyone who is worried about it that there is nothing lascivious or lewd about what is taking place in our ch...

Not every preacher follows the church year slavishly in their sermons… but those who do and are preparing for this coming Sunday may well be considering picking an easier subject, or as Colin Morris used to suggest, feel themselves developing psychosomatic sore throats… It’s known as Trinity Sunday and has stretched more than a few preachers’ abilities to reflect theological truth to breaking point… As someone once said, “Trying to explain the Trinity is like trying to describe the sound of three hands clapping." Three persons in one? It’s the single doctrine that unifies Jews and Muslims in opposition to the Christian understanding of God… and even some strands of Christianity don’t buy it fully… Yet no matter what some revisionist theologians and populist writers of recent years may say, the Trinity was not dreamed up by a church council a few centuries after Christ, it is woven in and out of the whole of the New Testament, including the words of Jesus in the Gospels, and it doe...

I don't dance - so don't ask me. My poor wife has only ever had a handful of dances out of me in the course of our 22 year relationship, and the current crop of "celebrity" (oh how I hate that term) dance shows is not going to change that... The latest is "Lets Dance" where celebritys with nothing better to do are booked to humiliate themselves in front of the nation performing iconic dances from screen history. It's all in aid of Comic Relief, so I suppose that tells us how seriously we're supposed to take it, but I bet it will only be a week or two before there is yet another "BBC phone vote scandal!" Anyway, through a combination of accident and design I managed to "miss" last night's offering, and I shall endeavour to do the same throughout its run... But the reason it has stuck in my consciousness and made it into this blog at all is the fact that I've been reading the late Dennis Lennon's book on prayer entitled ...

A little something for Trinity Sunday... That Sunday when all sane preachers fein illness, and congregations stagger out of church after sermons that try (and invariably fail) to "explain" the trinity... A day when I am happy to live with mystery rather than try to comprehend the fullness of God in my tiny mind. We believe in one God, A Community of Three in a Unity of Being. We believe in the Creator, Creator of sky, earth and sea, Creator of birds, animals and fish, and us… Creator of all that is, seen, unseen and unimaginable. We believe in Jesus Christ, Born of God… Born of woman… Born, lived, died, and rose again, Born to teach, save, and give us hope. We believe in the Holy Spirit, The all pervading breath of God. Who breathed life into us in the beginning Who breathed life into the church at Pentecost Who brings gifts and strength, and encouragement. We believe in God, the Three in One. The One in Three The blessed, sacred Trinity. An eter...