Prayer for Haiti
Foundation sends around prayers via email from time to time. This is one from the UK Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks:
Sovereign of the universe,
We join our prayers to the prayers of others throughout the world, for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti which this week has brought destruction and disaster to many lives.
Almighty God, we pray you, send healing to the injured, comfort to the bereaved, and news to those who sit and wait. May you be with those who even now are engaged in the work of rescue. May You send Your strength to those who are striving to heal the injured, give shelter to the homeless, and bring food and water to those in need. May You bless the work of their hands, and may they merit to save lives.
Almighty God, we recognise how small we are, and how powerless in the face of nature when its full power is unleashed. Therefore, open our hearts in prayer and our hands in generosity, so that our words may bring comfort and our gifts bring aid. Be with us now and with all humanity as we strive to mend what has been injured and rebuild what has been destroyed. Ken Yehi Ratzon, ve-nomar Amen.
Posted on Friday, 15 January 2010 by Paul | Posted in spirituality | Comments Off
Quit strumming that guitar and cut the cheesy lyrics
It was fairly early into our marriage that my nearest and dearest gave me an honest assessment of my long-term prospects as a worship leader. I’d fallen into it somehow, either because I was the only guy in the university Christian Union who wore a leather jacket or because everyone else was even worse at the guitar than I (except Keith J, who was *good*). But by the time I’d reached my mid-twenties, I’d been playing the guitar and leading worship for a number of years. The problem was that I’d been listening to jazz-funk instead of Christian albums since I was in my teens and it had infected my strumming style with dangerous backbeats, so it was kind of hard to understand my playing. (That’s my version of the story, anyway.) Like most Christians of my age, I never questioned the lyrics, despite the fact that anyone with a passing acquaintance with Freudian psychology cannot sing “Jesus, take me as I am…” without feeling terribly guilty about the sexual associations it evokes.
How refreshing, then, to read Andy Walker Cleaveland’s blog post on Christian cheesy lyrics, with some concrete examples. This is getting familiar territory: Nick Page has tackled the subject in his book And now let’s move into a time of nonsense but his book suffers because he was (understandably) unable to get permission of any of the song authors to actually cite the examples of silly or meaningless lyrics which his book is about. At last, someone’s pointed out that though Mat Redman’s tunes are good (as examples of the kind of genre in which he composes), his lyrics seldom convey much by way of theological substance – in contrast (I would contend) to the much-maligned Graham Kendrick.
But things aren’t as bad as they could have been. My wife’s early ministry of discouragement (“it’s either the guitar, or me”) has probably saved the Christian world from something much worse.
Posted on Friday, 8 January 2010 by Paul | Posted in humour,music,spirituality,theology | Comments Off
The Bible in an Hour
After two year’s break, the virtualtheology/bluffer’s guide enterprise is grinding its rusty wheels into life again with a series of talks. This time they will be by Simon Taylor alone (I’m still trying to move house this summer, less said the better at the moment).
You can get the details (and eventually, the podcasts) at http://virtualtheology.net – we hope to podcast them soon after the talk has been given.
Posted on Wednesday, 1 July 2009 by Paul | Posted in podcasts,spirituality,theology | 2 comments
Christine Sine is blogging about gardens
Back in the 1990s, in the early days of the Third Sunday Service, we did a service on the theme of gardens. Obviously there are gardens in the Bible, but what’s perhaps of more interest is the relationship between the gardener and the creation. Gardening is an activity of working with, and against, nature. Gardens are articial spaces, in that they seek to control the natural forces of chaos in nature which would otherwise have their sway. At one level, there is nothing wrong with nature space at all. However, gardening offers human beings the chance to selective work with-and-against nature to create various desired effects. In some ways, it parallels the relationship which God has with creation: in Genesis 1 we see the Spirit of God brooding over the waters of chaos, and from gardening we get the insight that creation isn’t (unlike other parallel near-Eastern myths) a crushing of chaos, but a shaping of it. Creation happens when God becomes enmeshed in chaos for his own, creative, purposes. So it was good to see the Christine Sine has been theologising and spiritualising about gardens. You can catch this on the Emergent Village website and her own website.
Posted on Thursday, 4 June 2009 by Paul | Posted in altworship,ecology,spirituality,theology | 1 comment
Monk for a weekend
Monasteries in the UK are out on a serious bit of recruiting. And surely they’re absolutely right to do so. There are so many things in life drowning out God’s voice that those institutions dedicating their life together to listening for God have to tell others that they’re out there. It’s rather like you have to shout aloud to say “there is something other than this noise!”
The news story from the BBC website.
Regular readers of this blog will notice that once again Worth Abbey are in the vanguard of this. They are doing a great service to the Church’s work in this country.
Posted on Saturday, 7 February 2009 by Paul | Posted in spirituality | 1 comment
Bye bye Brodie
Brodie’s taking a break from the blogosphere. He’s been one of my regular reads since I started in the spring of 2005 – when I think he commented on one of my early posts. I’m sad, but respect the decision any blogger makes over whether they keep it up. And if you’re one of those on Typepad paying an annual fee, then I can see the disincentive if – like me – you go through periods of bloglessness. I’m fortunate in having some space on a server outthere somewhere to carry this one, whether I use it or not.
But thanks, Brodie, for sharing your experience and your wisdom with us these past years.
I’m noticing a distinct fall-off of activity on some of the key bloggers of the past few years. This may be a healthy sign of a more rounded range of life attention, or it may be the credit crunch, or the past year’s traumas for the Emerging Church, which seems to be going through some major ructions. Perhaps there’s less buzz, less point of focus, or maybe everyone’s turning to their Facebook and Twittering. The Blog, by comparison is a rather pensive, introverted activity. As an extravert, I love Facebook (but don’t have time for Twitter) – lots of fast, networked, minimalist contact with lots of friends. It was wonderful to have a birthday this week and have loads of kind greetings: it made me feel linked up in a way that you don’t get with a blog.
Yet blogs, at their best, are a good way of forcing you to think in public. There’s a dangerous exposure to this, but something about it is, I think, rather good for us. On the other hand, at its worse it can be shallow, ego-centric self-promotion.
All I can say is that Brodie’s blog tended to exhibit the best of blogging for me. I’ll miss it – and Brodie, if you’re reading this – thank you and can you email me your Facebook page please? 
Posted on Thursday, 22 January 2009 by Paul | Posted in emerging church,spirituality | 1 comment
Some wise words for a New Year
I guess this is the season for thoughtful posts marking the change of a year. A month or so back, I read this article by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth). For me, it’s about as wise as you can get.
Posted on Tuesday, 30 December 2008 by Paul | Posted in spirituality,theology | Comments Off
+Rowan on Advent
Thanks to Ruth Gledhill for this great piece of vintage Rowan …
Posted on Tuesday, 25 November 2008 by Paul | Posted in spirituality | Comments Off
Beer and Hymns at Greenbelt 2008
I love being in California – but tonight, I would rather be in the Organic Beer Tent at Greenbelt for the wonderful and uplifting event which is Hymns and Beer. I have blogged this event in previous years, which has become one of the most memorable events of the weekend. This year, it will be livestreamed here (my guess is it will happen between 7pm and 8pm Greenbelt-time, ie. 11am to noon, Pacific Time) – although since I will be driving my family down the Big Sur, I don’t think it would be politic to break off the drive to find a wireless connection! Still, men and women, I’ll be with you in spirit, and I hope you all sip some Absolution Ale and sing Cwm Rhondda (Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah) with gusto and spare a thought for me as you do.
Posted on Sunday, 24 August 2008 by Paul | Posted in spirituality | 3 comments
Praise the Lord and press the accelerator
I’ve been an active, adult Christian for about the same time as I have been an active supporter of green modes of human transport. For me, the two all but go inseparably together.
So when I saw this story about Christians praying for lower gasolene prices – and apparently getting an answer to their prayers – I had one of those ‘my religion is up for sale’ moments …
Posted on Monday, 18 August 2008 by Paul | Posted in ecology,rants,spirituality | Comments Off
