"to the praise of his glorious grace" (Eph 1:6)
I’ve long been intrigued by the episode in the gospels where Jesus is called by a synagogue leader called Jairus to heal his sick daughter. On the way he meets another woman – a woman who doesn’t even speak to him, but simply touches his cloak and is healed. The whole episode is fascinating –…
Justin Welby has been in the news recently for speaking out about politics. Notably, he called for higher taxes to tackle an ‘unjust economy’. He’s garnered quite a lot of criticism for speaking out in this way, and has written an article defending speaking out publicly. Others have written about this more eloquently and wisely…
For the first few hundred years of the church’s history the big debate within the church was the nature of Jesus Christ – who, exactly, was he in relation to God? This is where the doctrine of the Trinity came from – as theologians debated and discussed God’s revelation of himself in the Bible. Similar…
Every so often I record a short ‘thought’ for the Tendring Talking Times. My previous thought is available here. There is a huge amount of division in society at the moment. The biggest culprit is of course Brexit – friends have fallen out with each other over this one. I personally have lost friends over…
I had a little epiphany last night. I don’t usually have epiphanies – they’re pretty rare for me to be honest – but last night I genuinely saw something which I hadn’t before. It’s probably because I am slow and dense, but still – an epiphany is an epiphany. It happened in my home group….
I recently talked a little about Vicky Beeching’s book – Undivided – and why I think it is dangerous for the church. I stand by what I said there – but, at the same time, I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately and I think there are reasons to be grateful to Vicky Beeching….
I mentioned the other day that Prince Louis was going to be baptised on Monday. According to details released online, William and Catherine chose two hymns – O Jesus I have promised and Lord of all hopefulness. I was generally impressed with the selection of hymns and readings – they’re not the hymns and readings…
Bandwagon (n): jump on the bandwagon, climb on the bandwagon or get on the bandwagon to join or give support to a party or movement that seems to be assured of success Be careful not to practise your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in…
On Monday, Prince Louis will be christened at the Chapel Royal in St James’ Palace (the picture above is from Charlotte’s christening in Sandringham a couple of years ago). It promises to be a lovely day and occasion – but do you know what christening actually means? 1. Christening = Baptism These days ‘Christening’ has…
I’ve mentioned Vicky Beeching a couple of times on this blog, most recently discussing whether it’s right to say ‘Change or Die’ about the church. Yesterday she released her new book, ‘Undivided’, which is her story of how she’s ‘come out’ as gay and Christian, and learned to embrace her sexuality. As I’ve started with…