Virtual Methodist

Many years ago when I was only a first year ministerial student, the minister I was serving with assigned me the challenge of preaching on the phrase "he descended into hell" from the (old style) Apostles Creed, at our Good Friday service, as part of a series we were doing on the creed at the time. It took me down a whole rabbit hole looking at medieval theories of the "harrowing of hell" which has stuck with me down through the years because of their poetic power. And  there is also a part of me that finds it hard to shake off the medieval imagery of hell that you find in the attached picture of  "Christ's Descent into Hell" by a follower  of Hieronymus Bosch (mid 16th cent.)  from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.   However,  when I look back at the text of that sermon (yes... I've surprisingly still got it though, for good reason I have never preached it again) I didn't major on that idea. That's because the original Greek text of the ...

As part of out circuit Holy week events this year on Wednesday evening we hosted "Play It By Ear", otherwise known as Chris Neilands and Ross Jonas who are funded by the Methodist Church in Ireland to use drama to explore faith issues. They performed their latest piece "The Chair, the Table and the Cross" which looked at the events of Holy Week from the perspective of a Jerusalem carpenter's workshop. It was an all age piece, so it didn't go too dark or deep, but thinking about it later took me back to a a couple of things. The first was the attached oil painting, "The Shadow of Death" by William Holman Hunt, this version being his earlier, darker one painted between 1879 and 1883,  in the Manchester City Art Gallery. And the second is a scene I posted here before, way back in 2008 in the wake of watching an episode of "The Passion" produced by the BBC that year (I've still not seen the whole thing).  My thoughts then took...

Today was another "last" with my friends and colleagues at BCM HQ (including some of the Puddleducks team included in this picture) hosting a farewell coffee morning. Unlike most of the other events I prepared my reply to the nice things said about me, including this concluding Benediction, taken, in part, fron a longer series of beatitudes in my recently published book of poems " Hedge Songs ." Blessed are you who are burned-out and  overworked, picking up the pieces of broken lives in a broken world, because you will know the breath of God filling your lungs and spirits. Happy are you who say “Stop! This is not right!” in the face of impossible odds, because God’s got your back. Blessed are you who are changemakers rather than just reacting to change, because change is the crack in the universe through which God pours in opportunity. Happy are you who weep now at partings, but refocus on the future, because the same God who blessed you in the pas...

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...