Virtual Methodist

Last week a well known Facebook friend posted that they had recently been experiencing the effects of burnout and that they were taking action to look after their mental health. I'm glad and wish them well. Almost exactly 15 years ago I started to go through the same thing. I had run out of energy and things that I previously took on my stride were starting to cause me real anxiety. Throughout my adult life I had struggled with periodic low mood/borderline depression, but, on the advice of a helpful doctor I had never gone down the route of medication, but simply “watched the gauges” and when the tank was verging on empty I eased off until I could get a break. However that year, I had experienced a number of physical injuries that disturbed the rhythm of my week and my mental heath, and after the busyness of Lent and Holy Week, we took our customary week away in Scotland, but on my return there was no “lift off” and I limped my way to our summer break in France. We had ...

Based on today's Gospel reading from Luke 4:1-13 for the first Sunday in Lent. What might my trials be? What tempting shortcuts  might Satan offer instead of the Spirit-led way  through the wilderness? Some pharmacological magic to win my war with weight, without tiresome exercise, or turning away from tasty bread, made from stones, or not? The benefits of power and fame without the responsibilities? Shout outs from the cool-kids; Selfies with the star of the show, before their fall from grace? Miraculous protection from the laws of gravity, and other limitations of earthly existence, that means I get hurt by my own and others missteps? I doubt that angels will act as catchers, or even as post-fight, or flight, paramedics, but I know their luminous  fallen friend will return soon. Selah

This is a piece that has been percolating for a few months now, from the time of the L.A. wildfires, and some startling images, including the attached one, of tall palm trees remaining standing amongst the destroyed homes of celebrities, millionaires and ordinary people. Of course there were those who used those same images to fuel conspiracy theories about the fires being caused, not by our calamitous attitude to climate change, but laser beams and other "heat attack" weapons being used to destroy the American way of life and force people into socialist 15 minute cities. If the original stories didn't make me weep, those conspiracies did.  But the images stuck with me until this morning with my Lenten reading of Malcolm Guite's "The Word in the Wilderness" where his own meticulously crafted sonnet for Ash Wednesday touches on similar themes from a broader perspective. His commentary provided the phrase "the detritus of destruction" whi...

I am not a linguist and have failed to learn, in any functional way, numerous "foreign" languages, relying shamelessly on my wife, who isn't daunted by such things, or, with one health related conversation on a recent trip, Google Translate, to keep me alive in places that don't speak English. But over the past couple of days I have realised again that there is a deeper translation issue at play in the world, that Google Translate or Duolingo will not solve... There’s a certain type of person, who, If they ever venture out Into the big bad world Beyond the bounds of the familiar, Do not try to learn or use, The language of those whose Land they are trampling over. Instead, they simply speak Slower and more loudly In their own language, that Has served them adequately Until encountering such rude Individuals who have not learned, Or will not use, their visitors’ tongue. The volume increases and the gestures become more frenetic, Until, t...

Monday night of this year’s 4 Corners Festival took us to a favourite haunt, the Duncairn Arts Centre on the Antrim Road, where a packed house gathered for "Naming Belfast", to hear Father Martin Magill and Dr Paul Tempan take us around the 4 corners of Belfast and down through the years to explore our city by way of the sometimes surprising stories behind its street names. The origin of this event is that because Martin, one of the 4 Corners Festival founders, doesn't own a TV, he needs to find other ways of switching off, and his latest “hobby” has been researching the street names that he has come across when criss-crossing this the city. This has resulted in the development of a Belfast Street names website belfaststreetnames.com that was launched at last years Imagine! Festival in the Linenhall Library. For the 4 Corners event he and his collaborator Dr. Tempan, were ably assisted by Linda Ervine who delved into the too frequently forgotten Gaelic history of some o...

When we booked Dr. Lorna Gold as our opening keynote speaker for this year's festival, with its theme of "Home?", it was because 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of Laudato Si', the challenging encyclical by Pope Francis, where he invites us all to take better care of our shared home, the earth...  Given that Lorna writes extensively on global economic, social and environmental issues just , has been involved with the global "Laudato Si'" Movement from its inception and is an inspiring speaker, we were delighted when she agreed, especially when she agreed to both speak in depth at our evening event at Jennymount Methodist and to be our speaker earlier that day in our live Radio Ulster Morning Service from John the Evangelist Parish Church. Our delight was doubled when two days before she spoke it was announced that she had actually been appointed as the new Executive Director of the worldwide Laudato Si' Movement in a special private audience with Pop...