"Jewish religion is based on the home, Christianity is based on the church." The Sunday morning programme on BBC Radio Leeds is how I wake up before church. Then it's either get up immediately if I am a playing some instrument or other in the service or have a coffee and a lie in for …
Category: church
Churches response to disabled people
The picture above shows how to do it right. A shallow ramp with rails that wheelchair users and others can use without assistance, the ramp is also decorative in a style which complements the building and the steps have handrails. Well done Fifth Avenue Presbeterian Church, this picture from 2013 is an example how to …
Jesus and the rich young man, part 5 — Matthew 20:8–16
The Kings Instructions Advent 2021 This is the second part of a parable and also a continuation of Jesus talking about money following a meeting with a rich young man. I'd like to think that this parable, before it was written in Greek, was a poem of Jesus. Grape harvestPicture by Larry Koester on Flickr …
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It’s re-connection time
How to re-connect with regular members who have not come to services over the last 18 months. This is a difficult question with no answer. Over the last 18 months churches have been using different means of going online, but now that we are starting more and more to worship in buildings we have a …
Why do I fall asleep over coffee?
This is a story of those spiky skill sets that autistic people have. I have already written about there being both more people with both dyslexia and hyperlexia with autism than is found in the general neuro-typical population. Here is another one. Today I drank a coffee again and fell asleep. I keep doing this …
Covid-19 and the Church of England
Before I say how I think it will go, and what the churches will do we have to look at what we are contending with. The data I am working with is from the British Government's website https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/ as of Thursday 15th July 2021 and John Hopkins University of Medicine from Wednesday 16th July which …
Doing theology is a vulnerable process
I shall start with a quote: Doing theology, daring to speak of God, is always a vulnerable process of self-revealing and becoming, trusting in God’s love and justice. (No wonder those with way too much power and big voices are prone to get a little defensive when new voices dare to speak their truth......!)Revd Dr Ayla …
The Gospel takes away our right to discriminate
“The Gospel takes away our right forever to discriminate between the deserving and undeserving poor.” - Dorothy Day. I love this quote. God's care for the poor is because they are poor nothing else. It cuts across governments whose attitude to immigrants is less than generous, especially those who have signed up to the 1948 …
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Let the whole world go wild with joy – Psalm 98
The 4th book of Psalms The third psalm in a row that says that God is coming to judge the earth in righteousness. Unlike the manic street preacher I would pass on Briggate when I worked in Leeds, these psalms do not say God's judgement is something to be afraid of. God is coming to …
Continue reading Let the whole world go wild with joy – Psalm 98
An all-inclusive community
Dallas Willard writes that: "The aim of God in history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons, with Himself included in that community as its prime sustainer and most glorious inhabitant." I have seen that quote and love it. But it is good to look at it in come sort of context. …
Making an ass of myself 