Phill Sacre

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Trying to see the world from a Christian perspective

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This Blog

I only write occasionally here now, as you will see. However, there is an archive of over 2,000 posts which I’ve made over the last 20+ years, which are all still accessible.

Latest Posts

  • Update: Was Stephen Fry speaking ‘hypothetically’?

    A quick post-script to my previous post about Stephen Fry’s diatribe about God and evil. A few people have come back and said to me, “Ah, yes, but Fry was speaking hypothetically – assuming that the question was true for the sake of argument. He doesn’t actually believe in evil.” It’s interesting, because I think…

  • Evil and the problem of Stephen Fry

    … or do I mean, Stephen Fry and the problem of evil? Either way, one of the links which has been doing the rounds on Twitter today is that of Stephen Fry talking to Gay Byrne about God, and more specifically, about what he would say to God if Fry died and found out he was wrong…

  • Water into wine: what’s going on?!

    Water into wine: what’s going on?!

    Yesterday at church the theme was ‘Jesus turns water into wine’, from John 2:1-11. It’s a well-known story – if you’ve ever been to a wedding in an Anglican church, for example, you will have heard it mentioned in the introduction – but the story is nonetheless quite puzzling. To be honest with you, I’ve never really…

  • The Church’s Mission: What’s the point?

    I was recently asked to contribute a piece to the “Mission Matters” magazine in our church, a magazine looking at mission in the local area as well as the wider world. This is what I came up with. One of the privileges and joys of training at Oak Hill was training alongside those who were…

  • Top Gear Patagonia Special: The dark side of social media?

    I’ve just finished watching the Top Gear Patagonia Special (and, not that it really matters with Top Gear, but if you’re still planning to watch it this will discuss the episode content and should come with a spoiler warning). The end of the second part is pretty intense – a nationalist gang in Argentina essentially…

  • Happy Christmas

    I’d just like to wish all my blog readers a very Happy Christmas. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was…

  • Atheism, Values and Sociopaths

    I’ve read a couple of interesting articles over the last week or so, and both of them deal with atheism and values (as in the sense of morality). The first article was entitled “Famous atheists… reveal where they get their values from“. I found this absolutely fascinating: too often, atheists criticise religion without offering an…

  • Sexuality and Friendship: Good news after all?

    I recently added a morning conference entitled Human Sexuality: Discerning a Biblical Vision, hosted by the Chelmsford Diocesan Evangelical Association. It was a good morning with three different speakers talking about various issues – theological, pastoral, and practical. One speaker was Lis Goddard, talking about the pastoral issues involved. Of the three sessions, I probably…

  • Thoughts on the Church from 2 Timothy

    In our evening services at church, we’ve been preaching through 2 Timothy. It’s an absolutely wonderful book and I do commend it to you – especially if, like me, you are involved in Christian ministry in some way. As we’ve been going through it, I’ve been reminded time and again how Paul predicts pretty much…

  • All quiet on the blogging front

    Just wanted to apologise here for how quiet it’s been here recently. Starting my new role as the curate here, moving house, and having a daughter who’s just turned one continues to take up the vast majority of my time! I do have thoughts about things I can blog about, but most of the time I…