Virtual Methodist

The responsive call to worship that we used last Sunday morning and will be using again this week as we explore what it means to seek peace and pursue it, in the wake of the upcoming 70th Anniversary of the beginning of World War 2 and the recent 40th Anniversary of the beginning of our most recent batch of "Troubles" in our own back yard. Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed are those who take refuge in him. Fear the Lord, all you his people, for those who fear the Lord lack nothing. Even lions grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. From Psalm 34: 8-14 Shalom

Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half-dead.... a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' Luke 10:30, 33-35 (ANIV) Its a good job that the Samaritan didn't have to cope with privatised health provision or 2 silver coins wouldn't have been enough. According to the Sunday Times last weekend, German driver Resul Mor was flagged down by a man who asked him to take his desperately ill wife to hospital in Hamburg. On arrival hospital staff asked Herr Mor...

Back in the Ulster Hospital yesterday in my role as Chaplain there, and it made me think again about the "good old" NHS that has been recently so badly maligned by US right-wing reactionaries and renegade Tories. Now, as both an employee and a frequent user (both on my own behalf as a Type-2 diabetic, and the parent of a particularly accident-prone child) of the National Health Service, I am more than aware of its short-comings. But I am also personally thankful for and a constant observer of its strengths, and have been getting mightily ticked off by repeated ill-informed criticism from the other side of the Atlantic. At various times I have also had the opportunity to get a close up look at some of the health provision in different parts of the USA, and there is no doubt that at its best, the provision there IS the best in the world. But after all it IS the richest country in the world (at least for the moment) and yet, despite that, there are an inordinate number of people...

On further reflection, the findings of the aforementioned little tool re foreign policy would perturb me a little, as I wouldn't regard myself as being "non-interventionist" just not wanting to intervene purely on the basis of national self-interest. There are plenty of places that I wish we would intervene in some way, eg. Darfur, and when I talk about intervention I am talking about something more positive than military action and something more long-term than emergency aid. But if the whole talk about foreign intervention is just about securing sources of oil, or exporting an American variety of democracy, then count me out. I should also have flagged up this other little tool from MIT that I came across through Alan in Belfast . It supposedly produces an artistic impression of your areas of interest as interpreted by limited googling of your name on t'internet. Unfortunately it doesn't quite work for me as there is another more famous David Campton who is a p...

Found this little opinion plotting tool through the dreaded Facebook... And when I answered the requisite questions it threw up this analysis of my opinions: My Political Views I am a left social authoritarian Left: 5.2, Authoritarian: 3.83 Political Spectrum Quiz Me? Authoritarian? Never! In terms of foreign policy, this apparently places me here: My Foreign Policy Views Score: -4.57 Political Spectrum Quiz Which is well to the left of average (and more authoritarian) overall and more so for my age-group, although on the whole "culture wars" thing (gay marriage, abortion, drugs, evolution etc) I am Mr. Average... My Culture War Stance Score: -1.98 Political Spectrum Quiz This all rings relatively true to my self-image, and, if the wider results are true suggests that the "popular" press/media are much more right wing than the man/woman in the street that they claim to represent. Maybe people do only buy the Sun and the Daily Mail for the sport! But then maybe it is...

I was back on Downtown Radio this morning for the first time in ages, after their decision to completely axe the input from their erstwhile religious advisors was rescinded. This is (more or less) the somewhat idiosyncratic review of the week that was broadcast... Well… it’s been a good week for sports fans, with the World Athletics Championships, the resumption of the English Premier League and the culmination of the Ashes (for those of you poor benighted fools who consider cricket to be a sport). Watching Philips Idowu and Jessica Ennis win gold for Britain in the athletics was brilliant, but the efforts of all other athletes were put in the shade by lightning Bolt shattering both the 100 and 200m world records. Then of course there have been the controversies: the perennial drugs issue and the question as to whether Castor Semenya, the South African winner of the women’s 800m is really biologically a woman… Meanwhile in the Premiership some are wondering whether the massive injectio...

I've been promising for some time now to share some reflections on a visit I made in March to Holy Trinity Brompton, the home of the ubiquitous Alpha Course. The background to me going needs some brief explanation. I was exhausted. Mentally. Physically. Spiritually. I was as tired, crotchetty and cynical as I have ever been (and for those who don't know me... that is bad). So Sally and I took ourselves off for a short break to London, to meet friends, do a few museums, take in a show, and enjoy some good food. The hotel we booked was just across from the V&A and we spent most of our time there and the other 2 big Kensington museums. But that also meant that it was just across the road from HTB, so we thought (admittedly rather reluctantly) that we really should go over on the Sunday and check it out. See, whilst I have used Alpha in all of my ministerial appointments to date, I have an abiding suspicion of all that is trendy and popular, and whilst many of my friends and co...