Virtual Methodist

As many of you know I'm currently on sabbatical and largely staying off social media and other sources of news, but the coverage of this week's English local elections and the Welsh and Scottish devolved assembly votes has been hard to avoid. But whilst rootling around on my blog to find material for a writing project I am working on about Christ as King and the Kingdom of God, I came across this dialogue that I posts almost exactly 10 years ago in the wake of elections that week and thinking about issues of sovereignty that were looming with the Brexit referendum the next month... how little did we realise how much the results of that would still be rumbling on after a decade!  So I thought it was worth another post, with a slight amendment... As I said then, I'm not entirely convinced by the fetishism of democracy, especially given it's tendency to be subverted by tribal interested or the undue influence of those with vast amounts of money, which has been emphasized o...

Whilst preparing for a service tomorrow I stumbled on this dialogue I posted at this time 2 years ago... it is again pertinent (with a slide amendment) in this Ascensiontide, in the wake of elections this past week and thinking about issues of sovereignty that will be thrown up by the European referendum next month. I'm not entirely convinced by the fetishism of democracy, especially given it's tendency to be subverted by tribal interested or the undue influence of those with vast amounts of money, although I would probably somewhat cynically agree with the idea that  “ democracy  is the  worst form of government , except for all the others” (whether or not Churchill ever said it).  But it is probably as dangerous to identify one form of government with the Kingdom of God as it is to identify one nation with it.  As I said before thanks (or should that be apologies) should go to John Bell and Graeme Maule of the Iona Community for the format if not the cont...

After a brief, pink-tinged diversion from politics, it is back to a recent recurrent theme, this time in the form of a dialogue we used in worship this morning while looking at the phrase "may your Kingdom come" in the Lord's prayer... It is particularly pertinent at present given the run up to European and local elections over the next week or so and bundles up a lot of the stuff I've been saying recently in a slightly different form, with thanks to (or should that be apologies to) John Bell and Graeme Maule of the Iona Community for the format if not the content...       Peter:           Eh... Jesus...? Jesus:          Yes, Peter? Peter:           Have you ever heard of democracy? Jesus:          Where’d you hear about that Peter? Peter:    ...

With the upcoming council and European elections I've been reflecting lately on the nature of Christian citizenship insofar as it applies to this corner of this island. My thinking is partly shaped by a series of Bible studies I'm leading at church based around the 25 year old, yet still painfully relevant, ECONI document, 'For God and His Glory Alone', partly by reading I've done around a sermon for this Sunday on what we mean when we pray 'your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven', partly by some of the ideas in  my ''banned'' Thought for the Day and partly in response to the attacks on the Alliance Party Offices in East Belfast on Tuesday night , and again last night . Whilst I do not believe that democracy, as we know it, is especially endorsed by God - indeed the Bible has nothing specific to say on the matter, I am worried by any state where it seems to be acceptable that the offices of a democratic party, a...

"A week is a long time in politics," Harold Wilson is reputed to have said 50 years ago... Time seems to have got faster in the subsequent half-century, and this past week has flown past, meaning that after promising further posts in a day or two, here I am not having posted anything in a week... But that week has seen a substantial range of political developments here in Northern Ireland... Including: Last Monday night Belfast City Council voted to extend a welcome to Pope Francis if there is a papal visit in the near future... This to the outsider may at first be seen as a step towards a more inclusive city, but Unionist councillors abstained in the vote, with the UUP's Jim Rodgers speaking out against the visit as he had done in the previous week's Belfast Telegraph, warning of possible trouble on the streets. Then throughout the week there has been a dingdong about Welfare Reform, with the DUP, from various angles( eg. here and here ), accusing Sinn Fein of ...

Had a few favourable responses to my "linkdump" last Monday, so I thought I would do it on a more regular basis, when I've accumulated a critical mass of worthwhile material that demands a little more time and thought than your typical fb post, but which I otherwise wouldn't comment on here at VM. Its probably slightly stunted due to me managing to ditch my blogroll last week... But there's enough here to keep you thinking for a while... This piece from the BBC is a worthy place to start this time out, as it takes me (and perhaps you) out of my normal sphere of interest into the complex world of Muslim-Christian conflict in Africa, in this case, Nigeria. Think of our own little local difficulties, with the added issue of tribalism, and multiply by a factor of 100 to get a sense of the problem. On the one hand there seems to be the old problem of a leadership deficit, with community leaders negotiating one day and then bowing to mob rule the next... whilst the conc...

Haven't done one of these "linkdumps" in a long while... Its a lot easier these days just to "share" relevant pages on facebook as I spot them, but I've read a few pieces over recent days that are worthy of greater reflection than much of what is on facebook... And I know that some of you, gentle readers, have not yet joined the timewasting world of social networking. First, as an additional ps to my own somewhat frivolous reflection on the Icelandic eruption as an "act of God" Kim Fabricius suggests that it might indeed be an act of judgement... just not as we usually understand it... Meanwhile, over at First Things, David Bentley Hart has done an extensive hatchet job on the laziness of thinking within the New Atheist Movement (an accusation which its proponents often level at Christians). He isn't dismissing atheism as such, indeed he describes atheism and scepticism as "noble, precious, and even necessary traditions," before goin...

Yeah! Someone has actually taken the time to do the work required to filter the potty-politics of Northern Ireland through an on-line programme to help us poor bewildered voters decide where to put our x. Didn't learn too much through it and where I put my x probably won't make any difference in this constituency but its worth a look, if only to confirm your prejudices... You are reading this because your browser doesn't support Iframes. Try this link instead. Cheers

Came across this interesting programme yesterday through Richard Hall's "Connexions" blog, which has posted some great little titbits recently. It allows you to do a "blind tasting" of the policies of the "6 main UK Parties". I spent my lunch hour looking at the whole gamut of policies, and my results can be found, here ... I seem to be 50/50 Green/LibDem, which is a little surprising to me. The Greens seem to be winning out overall, which may say more about the cross-section of people doing the survey than it does about the election, while in real life the LibDems are still buoyed up by their leader's performance last Thursday... We'll see if that holds up after the other 2 come gunning for him this week. The main areas where I had difficulty in choosing were under the Health Service and Welfare, which, as a traditional leftie you would think would be cut and dried for me... I went back and checked out what my alternative choice might have be...

As promised earlier... here's Sunday morning's review of the week on downtown Radio's "Dawn Reflections" suitably amended. 2 British firsts this week… The first ever televised debate between party leaders in the run up to a general election… and the first time that all of UK airspace was closed… I only caught a little of the party leaders debate… another sign of the increasing Americanisation of Britain and its politics, where government is becoming more presidential and about presentation than about real local constituency politics… The little I did hear concerned the economy and it left me a little depressed with each of the leaders repeating stock phrases again and again, in an attempt to bludgeon their ideas into the minds of the electorate… Cameron telling us that he would “cut waste and cut the job tax”… Brown telling us that the tories would “risk the recovery” with their policies… and Nick Clegg, who seemed to fare best overall, saying that the parties sho...

Whilst the rest of the UK will watch the first presidential, sorry, party leaders' debate tomorrow evening, I'll be doing something more useful... like banging my head off a brick wall... Because it doesn't matter who we vote for here in Northern Ireland... the government will still get in... and whether it is Labour, Tory or (lets indulge in fantasy here) LibDem we won't have a hand in it... Well, that would normally be the case... but this time round the Tories have tied themselves to the previously sinking ship that is the UUP... There were historic links between the Unionists and Conservatives so this is not entirely without precedent... but it has served to make my personal electoral choice much more complicated... You see I tend towards the left on the electoral map (you'd never guess) and although I feel enormously let down by the "New" Labour government, and (worryingly) have found myself agreeing (occasionally) with some of the things being said b...

Tis' the season for elections. Last week's council and European elections seem to have sealed Gordon Brown's fate. The parliamentary Labour Party are unlikely to try to topple him now, but most commentators agree that this is only because no-one else wants to lead Labour into the electoral rout that the general election is likely to be next year. An instant economic miracle seems to be the only thing that will save them. The European results here were equally demonstrative, with the republicans topping the poll for the first ever time, whilst the Unionist cut each other to ribbons... the only thing that Unionism has to be thankful for is that they managed to get two representatives elected despite this. There was a very real possibility of SDLP taking the third seat. There are many lessons to be learned here. I only hope that it will not result in the DUP running further to the right again, stirring up yet more anti-republican/nationalist/Roman Catholic feeling as a means o...