Virtual Methodist

On arriving at Faith UMC in Grand Rapids I was delighted to see that the tag-line for the Congregation, proclaimed on 2 beautiful banners outside the front doors, is: Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors. Certainly a sentiment I want to endorse. But it reminded me of a recent experience when I was asked to do a presentation for an congregation in north Belfast about Church, Community and Change , a Bible-based community engagement programme developed by Tearfund UK and administered by CCWA (NI). It must be said that the congregation I had been invited to, are already doing a good job of reaching out to their local community in a very difficult area. They have already established an independent Community Charity, but I was struck by its name: Open Doors Limited. In the United Kingdom any organisation which has that wee word “Limited” in its title is an incorporated body with specific rules governing its activities and the liabilities of its board of directors, protecting them from the i...

Cead mille failte... A sign that you see all over Ireland, although perhaps not in Ballybeen where I work, since Gaelic is not the lingua franca there. But it wishes guests a hundred thousand welcomes... And frankly I feel as if I and my family have received a hundred thousand welcomes since our arrival here in Grand Rapids. I only hope and pray that my exchange partners Geoff and Pam Hayes feel as welcome back in Belfast. Both Geoff and myself decided to preach on the theme of welcome this morning since the lectionary reading from the Gospel for today was from Matthew 10 when Jesus sent his disciples out telling them "He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.” (Matthew 10: 40 Revised Standard Version) But its all very well when the person you are to receive comes with a lot of notice and wearing a clerical collar, but how welcoming are we when Christ comes incognito and unannounced. A few years ago I spent a 3 month sabbatical going rou...

I am a hypocrite of the highest order... I'll come back to that later, but first to say that I haven't posted anything for a week because I have been working flat out to get ready for my US exchange in Grand Rapids... clearing my desk... preparing material to take with me... cleaning house (well Sally largely did that, doing without sleep in the process)... preparing material for our exchange partners etc. Add to that the fact that I had another funeral (people die at the most inconvenient of times), had to dash back and forward to doctors and hospital with Owain (who not only has a broken arm but also tonsillitis) and I just ran out of time to even look at the internet, never mind post anything. But now I am safely ensconced here in Grand Rapids, and I thought I would start as I mean to go on by posting some reflections... And in this case it doesn't reflect too well on me. You see, I'm forever telling people things like "The journey is as important as the destina...

A call to worship and act of corporate confession based around the Shema (Hebrew for "Hear..."), which is the call to worship in Jewish Synagogues (Deuteronomy 6: 4-5), and Jesus' incorporation of this in what he described as the 2 greatest commands in the Law. Hear, O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Which is the greatest commandment in God’s Law? 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' The second is? Love your neighbour as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. There is no commandment greater than these. From Matt 22:36-40, Mark 12:29-31 and Luke 10:27-28 Response O Lord our God, the one and only We confess before you our lack of love. We have not loved you as we should. We have not loved others as we love ourselves. We have been self-centred and self-satisfied. Yet out of your eternal love for us you sent your son To show us how to love and to ...

This week Stormont has hosted 2 acts playing what is likely to be their last gig in Ireland this week… And I was proud to be there for one of them. The second one… the Police Concert on Friday night… spending an outrageous amount of money to stand in the open air trying hopelessly to recapture my youth, when I could have saved my cash and listened to the whole thing from a hundred yards away where my house is! Ah well, the foolishness of middle age! But I was not there for the first one, on Monday, when George W. Bush and his gas-guzzling, gun-toting entourage brought the whole of East Belfast to a grinding halt as he popped in to meet the Folks on the Hill… I couldn't be bothered walking the 5 minutes it would have taken me to get to the gates of Stormont, be it to cheer nor jeer. And, by the looks of the TV coverage, very few people, were there at all. There was a widespread feeling of “What’s he doing here?” And none of the euphoria which surrounded Bill Clinton’s visits, nor th...

It's confession time again. Yes... I publicly admit it. Every year at Christmas my wife and I add to the unnecessary slaughter of trees by sending round a circular letter to all the people we haven’t managed to catch up with the previous year… We’re not the only ones who do it. I’m sure you send or receive them yourselves. Well last Christmas, someone (perhaps as a form of revenge) bought us Simon Hoggart’s book entitled “ The Hamster that Loved Puccini ” (Don't ask...), a second volume of extracts from Christmas Round Robin Letters… Extracts that do not show such letters in a very good light… And which reveal how much many of their recipients dread them landing on their doorsteps in the run-up to Christmas. It has made me seriously rethink sending ours again this year… especially when I read the chapter devoted to specifically Christian round-robin letters. Full of pious platitudes and glib answers to difficult questions, the examples quoted from do not reflect the proud tradi...

Back to Conference then, and further reflections on Martyn Atkin's challenging address on "Sharing Faith Today". Moving on from the assertion that, in the words of Donald English, lives and lips need to be in agreement, he quoted the words of Minucius Felix , a church leader from the mid second century, who reputedly said: 'Beauty of life... causes strangers to join the ranks... we do not talk about great things; we live them.' Minucius Felix c160ad Not terribly familiar with the writings of Mr. Felix, but it does chime well with the Elvis Presley song, sexed up for Nike's 2002 World Cup Ad, A Little Less Conversation ... a little more action please... Now, on the whole, this is a sentiment I heartily agree with. I want to see a lot more action. But I don't want us to stop talking... I believe we can actually talk and act at the same time. The problem is that we don't EVEN talk about great things, never mind live them. We talk a lot, be it in Conferenc...