We've just come to the end of the 2025 Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in Ireland. It's been a short but busy agenda, not leaving too much room for blogging... But as our former President Rev Dr John Alderdice reflected on his year in office at the opening Ministerial Session, he pointed us again to his installation service the previous year and the image of a cracked, clay jar allowing the light to get in (as per Leonard Cohen and, long before him, Rumi) but also out... but also that of Paul's unknown "thorn in the flesh" revealing the surpassing grace of God... And from those thoughts came this... Grace comes in the form of a thorn that can never be extracted but gets down deep beneath the skin and cosmetic surface shallowness, working its way into the heart, and probing at raw nerves en route. Grace is conveyed in cracked vessels, free flowing through jagged fissures. Only broken bread can be shared. Only a broken heart can heal. Only when we see we...
News of Pope Francis’ death broke just as I was about to go into a series of workshops I was taking part in in Derry/Londonderry yesterday as part of the Passion+ fringe festival to the Walled City Passion. At the beginning of each of those workshops there was a brief period of silence. And it struck me that silence was probably the best response. The only verbal response to the death of Christ was a short statement by a Roman officer, which in many ways was the culmination of this year’s Walled City Passion narrative, yet was variously reported in the gospels, perhaps depending on their audience. By contrast the internet and traditional media was filled with responses to Pope Francis’ demise, some carefully crafted for their intended audiences. Some vox pops offering people little time to reflect. Most respectful, even where their religious perspective or general worldview would have been widely different from that of the deceased. But a few that I saw were, frankly, appalling...