Last Sunday we started a mini-series looking at the Easter story. Easter is a time that prompts us to think about all sorts of things. We think about what we might give up for lent… what we can learn about ourselves through the sacrifice. We reflect on the resurrection and think about how it might cause us to turn over a new leaf.
When John writes about it he asks us to think it might mean even more. Actually he says; the life and death of Jesus is the defining moment in human history, the event that makes sense of…
Lent, the Christian thing where you stop doing stuff you like doing for a while! Feels like the last thing we need right now eh? We’ve hardly got anything to do, to stop doing!
You know it’s here because you’ve just eaten a bunch of pancakes and the Easter Eggs you’ve been ignoring on the supermarket shelves since Christmas have become a necessary purchase item.
It begins on Ash Wednesday (this year 17th February) where traditionally Christians are smeared with Ashes (often the burnt remains from last year’s Palm Sunday decoration) and start forty days of soul searching sacrifice, to…
First up, thanks for all your prayers, love and support these past few months whilst I’ve not been so well. Proverbs says ‘a friend loves at all times and a brother is born for a time of adversity’ (Proverbs 17:17). Without wanting to sound too soft, it has felt like the wise words and kind actions offered me came from folk sent and shaped by God for the job. Ta much to all concerned!
Our next series is called Heaven is a Place on Earth which is a belter of a song by Belinda Carlisle and though a great tune…
My new shampoo has the tag line ‘hope + repair’. I only noticed after I got it. I bought it because it had a cool sounding botanical name and the company had reduced their plastic packaging. I certainly didn’t buy it for ‘hope’! In shampoo?!
Tis the season for ‘hope’ everywhere it seems.
‘Hope you have a nice Christmas’; ‘Hope Santa brings you what you want’; ‘Hope we get to meet up’; ‘Hope this vaccine has no side effects and gets things back to normal’; ‘Hope you have a nice day!’. It’s a never ending list of hopes but is…
In the late 90s (yes, I’m showing my age!), Guinness brought out one of the most acclaimed British ads ever made. The black and white ad begins with a close up of a weathered man’s face; he looks poised.
“He waits… that’s what he does… and I’ll tell you what; tick followed tock followed tick followed tock followed tick.”
The bassline comes in with a beat which builds as we cut to see what the man is waiting for. The perfect wave. He rushes to the ocean with his surf board and friends; the white horses of the waves…
So it looks like COVID is hanging around… we’re not going back to normal for the foreseeable, if ever. Things are different, the new normal will be the normal for a while and church for many will be a TV or phone thing, at least for a time yet. Two things seem extra apparent under this cloud.
Firstly, we’re going to miss it… you may not be feeling this yet, I know. Sundays are pretty cosy at the mo and I’m with you on this, I’m enjoying the couch too, but there is something really essential about us coming together…
Father God I shout out to you. I cry out with my own fears. I cry out for a confused world. Hear this!
My heart breaks at the death toll. I don’t understand it. I want it to stop. Grant peace to those who mourn and wisdom to those who lead. Equip me to do my part along the way with a selfless heart. Show me grace in Jesus for this, I won’t manage it.
I stop to acknowledge you are in control. Even though it looks messy and sometimes feels pointless. You are in control.
However big the crisis…
Wednesday was a seaside day. Saltburn-by-the-Sea; a town paused in time, with the appearance of an old Victorian postcard and all the nostalgia of an old sweet shop. We hired a beach hut and it came complete with deckchairs from the olden days and a two-bit kettle for making tea. It was overcast and (occasionally) drizzly — it was so British; if I had a hanky on my head I would have turned into a cliche.
After a nice beach day and the obligatory fish and chips, we headed out of the town past the huge C of E church…
It seemed impossible only a few weeks ago that anything could shift Covid-19 from the front pages of the news. But almost overnight the tragically unjust killing of George Floyd and the outpouring of emotion that followed has flipped the headlines. As is the way in 2020, of the millions of words penned, it will be a few soundbites, hashtags and well-chosen images that shape our thoughts, feelings and memories of it. The cry “I can’t breathe”; the fallen statues; the flashing camera lights and crying widows; the funerals and the epitaphs. …
You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, that’s what they say. I heard this week that even if we return to the church building we won’t be singing in it! Congregational singing in the days of COVID-19 is about as smart and welcome as a coughing fit in a doctor’s surgery. So say the experts anyway.
I didn’t realise how much I loved, even needed, singing until someone stopped me doing it and told me they weren’t sure when I’d be able to do it again! It’s difficult to imagine church without the music. We had a service…
Christchurch Xscape
A surprising place to find a church.
