Virtual Methodist

As part of the 2021 online conference of the Methodist Church in Ireland I was asked to offer a reflective response to this morning's business which included a piece by Dr Paul Chilcote on grace, something that we should be modelling for the wider world, but sadly, frequently don't. One of the things that came to mind was that the Methodist understanding of communion as an "open table" is a perfect metaphor of grace, and as I shared with my congregation at communion last Sunday, theologian and psychologist Richard Beck suggests that in the early church: "The Lord's Supper becomes a profoundly subversive political event in the lives of the participants. The sacrament brings real people—divided in the larger world—into a sweaty, intimate, flesh-and-blood embrace where ‘there shall be no difference between them and the rest.’" Richard Beck quoted by Rachel Held Evans: "Searching for Sunday" p151 As someone who isn't a particularly huggy person...

In the reformed tradition we generally use terms like Holy Communion, or the Lord's Supper, to describe the sacrament instituted by Jesus on the night before he died, calling on us to remember. Other traditions use the term "Eucharist" from the Greek word meaning "Thanksgiving." Today in Belfast South, as we do on the first Sunday in every month, we will be sharing in this act of Thanksgiving at 11am instead of at our usual time of 9.30am... You are very welcome to join us. In our continuing series looking at the Gospel according to Luke and our President's theme of "A People Invited to Follow" we are looking at Jesus telling his disciples about his impending death and inviting them to take up their crosses and follow him (Luke 9: 18-27). In the light of that, the following hymn by my friend Kristyn and Keith Getty and their longtime collaborator Stuart Townend seems appropriate, especially where it says: And so with thankfulness and faith we...

Just over three years ago a story came out suggesting that artistic portrayals of the Last Supper have been "super-sized."   There were a number of thoughts that occurred to me on reading it: the first was to check the date just incase it wasn't an April Fool prank... the second was one of despair regarding the usefulness of such research and the money expended on it... but the third related to the statement that: "Craig Wansink, who is a professor of religious studies, says the changes in portion sizes is probably a reflection of culture rather than theology." To how many things could that be said? And tonight, as people share, not in an artistic representation of the Last Supper, but a liturgical re-enactment of it, how much of what is said and done has been influenced more by culture than theology? Is the liturgy shared by the congregation, or predominantly led from the front? How much of that is out of a desire for extempore, Spirit-led worship (ev...

I was sent this book specifically to review after I responded to a post/tweet on facebook/twitter (can’t remember which) at a time when I was seriously thinking about the role of social media in society in general and my life and ministry specifically. It is a relatively short book written in bite-sized blog-like chunks, or, given the subject matter, perhaps that should be byte-sized chunks. Despite its brevity, it packs in a lot of scholarship and reflection, indeed at times it reads like a literary link-dump, citing other larger works that have a more specific focus, but it builds a good case for how all communications technology, including contemporary social media, are not simply neutral tools, but serve to shape individuals’ neurological function and human society in general for good or ill. It is not a luddite rejection of technological development and its often unintended social effects, but rather, is a measured appraisal by someone who uses these tools, but is seeking to ...

My life is measured out in words... words typed on a computer keyboard... words spoken from a pulpit or stage or over the airwaves... words arranged in huge blocks of prose or shaped into carefully crafted poetry... words thrown across a room like weapons... and words read from a page or screen. Recently I've been reading some of the wise words of Eugene Peterson in "The Contemplative Pastor" and they have sparked off a veritable torrent of words in my mind on this blog... I've already written, among other things, on the role of parable not only in communicating ideas but stimulating communion. Peterson himself, where he is writing of the creative word of God says: "Not all words create. Some merely communicate. They explain, report, describe, manage, inform, regulate. We live in an age obsessed with communication. Communication is good but a minor good. Knowing about things never has seemed to improve our lives a great deal. The pastoral task with words in...

I posted this monologue based on John 12: 20-28 earlier in the year as part of our Holy Week reflections, but I'm posting it again as we head into Harvest Season - we'll be using it this morning as we meet for communion in the light of some difficult news I have to share with the congregation -  more on that in due course... I’ve followed him from the day when John the Baptizer pointed him out to us… Following him has never been straightforward… But things recently have just been plain confusing… When we entered into Jerusalem it seemed as if everything was coming together… Some said it seemed as if the whole world was at his feet… though that was probably stretching it a bit… But then some Greek speaking Jews asked to meet with him and we realized that this was now bigger than we had ever imagined… But he didn’t seem to see it that way… yes he seemed to think it was important… But he started to talk sowing seeds and reaping more… I suppose with it being the harvest se...

No Saturday supplement today as most of the stories that caught my eye this week were anything but edifying or encouraging, many of them marking out the church at its most divisive and toxic, and while I have put my lenten discipline of "whatever is good" behind me, I don't want to spread vitriol, animosity and shame on the name of Christ on a sunny Saturday morning. Instead I thought I would pass on my find of the week (with a hat-tip to my wonderful wife who pointed me towards it). It is a short series of 15 minute documentaries about bread on Radio 4... It is available here on BBC iplayer and, so far as I see it isn't on a timed self-destruct fuse. It looks at the role of bread in the history of society, culture, religion and science. Although every nation has a different cuisine, with different emphases, nearly every nation has a form of bread as a basic. It may be a Mexican tortilla, Italian foccacia, pitta bread or nan bread, it may be German ryebrot, or Fr...

I've just finished my pre-Christmas round of home communions, with those who are no longer able, for various reasons, to make it out to church. I use two home communion sets, one which is the natty little pewter number in a zip up bag pictured here, which my previous congregation gave me as a farewell present and a fancy silver-plate one in a polished wooden box which was given to my current congregation in memory of a former member who died young. I usually take someone else with me on these occasions as it gives a greater sense of the sharing together of Christ's body the church, than if I was there as a representative member on my own, and that is an important element in the idea of coming together in unity, that "com - union" is, in part, supposed to represent... and given that many of these people feel that they have been isolated from the wider church by their age, infirmity or illness, I will do all that I can to emphasise their undiminished place in Christ...

Last week Channel 4 Newsreader Jon Snow got into trouble in the media over his reluctance to wear a poppy on TV ahead of Remembrance Sunday (actually he has form on this , so perhaps this isn't news at all!) A viewer left a comment on his blog admonishing him for not wearing the poppy and so dishonouring British war dead and our troops in Afghanistan… Mr Snow’s response was to refer to this type of attitude as “poppy fascism” before going on to say that it was to protect our freedoms, including the freedom of when or if we want to wear a poppy that British soldiers died in the last world war and continue to die in current conflicts… He said he prefers to wear his on Remembrance Sunday in Church rather than for weeks coming up to that date on the TV. I have to say that I agree with Mr Snow’s response… I referred last Sunday to the great price of our freedom have been purchased… And I will wear my poppy in proud remembrance of that fact both today and this coming Sunday (all be it wi...

Massive losses for the Democratic Party in this week’s US mid-term elections , mean that President Obama will have to deal with a somewhat hostile House of Representatives for the next two years (although they did manage to hold on to the Senate, and some commentators point out that it wasn't all good news for the right wing Tea Party …) I don't know why it came as such a surprise as, even from an observation point thousands of miles away across the Atlantic, that seemed to be the way it was shaping. Obama described the defeat as a shellacking, which produced a flurry of etymological debates ... Where did this unusual word come from? Again, I'm slightly mystified as to the surprise and confusion, I've seen and read this in American sports commentaries and gangster movies for years. Originally I, like most of the current crop of internet etymologists , associated it with the "shellack" varnish, in the same way that we might talk about someone getting "past...

Tomorrow's Gospel reading in the lectionary, from Mark 7: 24-37 is the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman, a frankly disturbing story where Jesus, at first seems to be responding in a somewhat racist manner to a woman in need. I say "at first seems" because many commentators are very careful to extricate the sinless Son of God from this accusation by various theological and sociological backflips, suggesting that he was only testing the woman (a fairly crass test in the face of need one might think), or that he was acting out the response she might have expected and would have recieved from the disciples to show them something, or that the term for dog he used was not an insulting one at all (unlike most Jewish references to dogs which are more akin to our use of the word "Bitch") but a pet term. Other, more liberal theologians suggest that this was a spiritual growth point for the human Jesus. Me. I don't know what to think. But as on most first sunday'...

This morning I will be leading a communion service as I usually do every month. Most Methodist churches in Ireland usually celebrate communion on the first Sunday morning in the month, where they have an ordained minister who can preside. Mr. Wesley would not be impressed. He argued for daily communion. I'm not sure whether this was out of his conviction that the outward and visible sign of communion should be a daily reminder of our fellowship with others in Christ, or simply because he was a High Church Anglican. I suspect the latter, as some of his writing on the sacraments (particularly baptism) were so esoteric as to be superstitious. Throughout the history of the Christian church the importance of Communion/the Eucharist/the Lord's Supper/Breaking of Bread has vexed generation after generation. Within one generation of the Last Supper, Paul had to put the brakes on the traditional practice of commemorating this within the context of a community meal, because of selfishnes...

Today, the theme of our service at Faith United Methodist Church in Grand Rapids, was our call to be United, as in the affirmation that we believe in ONE, holy, catholic and apostolic church... rather than anything to do with that football team from Manchester who must not be named. We shared in communion, that sign of our unity in Christ, which sadly so often is a sign of our disunity as believers, unable to commune around a shared table. But we also shared in the words of based on Psalm 133. How wonderful, how beautiful when brothers and sisters live together in unity. It is a sign of God’s anointing. It is like precious oil poured upon the head of God’s appointed priest; Running down Aaron’s beard and down the collar of his priestly robes. It is like fresh morning dew, from the cool heights of Mount Hermon falling on God’s holy mountain Because the Lord God has commanded his blessing: Everlasting and abundant life. From Psalm 133 © David A. Campton 2008 Shalom