Virtual Methodist

I'm coming to the end of my period as Superintendent of Belfast Central Mission and before I take up my new appointment in July I am taking a 3 month sabbatical during which I have a number of writing projects I want to complete. During a previous sabbatical I had been to write and direct a community Passion play for our sister mission in East Belfast at the Skainos centre, but due to the ongoing flag protests and other reasons at that time the wheels came off that project. Instead they scaled things down and staged 3 of the monologues from the play as a devotional event on Maundy Thursday at East Belfast Mission. The first of those offered the perspective of a Roman centurion watching the events of Palm Sunday, and it was performed by Jim Allen. I've subsequently used it in the Agape Centre and as part of a Palm Sunday broadcast. I was back over at Skainos this week for an event challenging us to revisit the work of reconciliation in this part of the world, and thi...

There are times when I am jolted out of times of worship by a phrase or image that strikes me in an unexpected way, and whilst I may return to worship after a moment or two, the jarring image can stay with me. Be it the more poetic metaphors of traditional hymns or some of the Biblical language and images lifted in a cut and paste fashion in many contemporary praise songs there is often a niggle akin to Inigo Montoya's oft repeated line from "The Princess Bride" - 'I do not think it means what you think it means...' This happened to me yesterday with the phrase "Let your fire fall down." We obviously tend to think of this in Pentecostal terms, but rarely do we think of the revolutionary long term implications of that first Pentecost after the resurrection. But I've also been feeling a bit burned-out myself in recent months, and am hearing the voice of my wise friend Derrick Poole reminding me that "God wants us to be living sacrifice...

Last night I had another in a long line of "lasts." This was my last formal meeting with our Circuit Good Book Group, which I first established on being stationed to Belfast South Methodist 13 years ago. I haven't counted them but I reckon we have read and discussed over 60 books in that period and I trust it will continue to explore many more in the years to come (starting with " The Middle Eastern Jesus: The Christ of the Gospel and the Culture of God " on Thursday 28th May, at 7pm in the Agape Centre). But the last book we read together (and which after 13 years is the first one I haven't finished - not for negative reasons but because I want to give it the time it deserves) is " The Missing Peace " by Chris Whittington, which is an introduction to contemplative practice. During the discussion I mentioned the fact that, as I have said on this blog before, I have a difficulty in "switching off" which means that contemplative...

I was delighted to see that around three years after their removal from the former Ulster Bank building at  Shaftesbury Square, Belfast,  Elisabeth Frink's iconic statues have found a new home on the outside of the Ulster Museum extension in Botanic Park. Just a pity they hadn't appeared a couple of weeks ago or they would undoubtedly have featured in the treasure hunt I devised for my wife Sally's significant birthday... I previously wrote a piece about their unannounced removal , but given that I am currently planning to compile another collection of my scribblings during my upcoming sabbatical, this one a series of pieces with a specific sense of place here in Belfast, I thought I should revise both the poem and attendant blog to take account of their reappearance. As I previously wrote,  Elisabeth Frink  (1930-1993), a Sussex born artist was commissioned in 1961 by the Lurgan architects Houston & Beaumont and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland to create a s...

My wife Sally always wanted a magnolia tree in the garden. When I was appointed Superintendent of Belfast Central Mission and we moved into the manse on the Malone Road she at last got her wish and in spring it is a joy to look out on it each morning as it is coming into bud and finally full bloom, until the inevitable fall of the blooms with their sticky petals. She also recently came across a letter she had written one springtime to her mum talking about "feeling her sap rising" with t he change of seasons, a phenomenon she experiences and notes every year. But this year both in terms of weather and emotions, spring feels more like autumn, as we prepare to move again. In many ways I had hoped that my appointment here would see me through to retirement. But, for various reasons, it was not to be, and I go where I am sent... So I find myself in a season of "lasts" - last board meeting, last church council, last school assembly, and many more to come this...

A piece that I started in Rome after our walk, through the rain along the Appian Way (because we got off at the wrong bus stop) to visit the catacombs of St. Sebastian. I didn't get a chance to return to it afterwards in the busyness since then, until Steve Stockman asked me to contribute a couple of poems at an event on Sunday evening to give thanks to our 4 Corners volunteers and to reflect on our pre-festival Rime trip. I shared "In the Room" and "Brothers Embrace" which had been prompted by our different aspects of our trip, and which I have previously posted here. But I thought I would take anither run at this piece in the light of our festival theme if "Journey" and subsequent world affairs. So here it is There's a widely held belief  that all those roads that they say  lead to Rome, are always straight, driven right through or over every  obstacle, in order that  the armies of the empire  might not be impeded as  they went about ...