A warm welcome back to Dr Tim Bulkeley who is posting this series based on his book, Not Only A Father, looking at gendered language for God. For more on Tim’s background, see the first post. In the previous post I started with an assumption: …[t]he One True God is beyond human understanding. God is […]
Sadly, I’m not at the Service of the Shadows at West Baptist tonight. Sitting in a dark church, lit by seven candles sitting on a rough wooden cross, every Maundy Thursday, people at West listen to the dark story of what Jesus experienced in his last hours, in seven parts. My contribution to the ever-growing tradition at […]
SBJ is just getting in the swing of actually playing with toys, rather than just carrying them around (one in each hand, one in the mouth). I find it fascinating to see what he finds fascinating. My auntie and uncle recently delivered a toy car and wheelbarrow that were mine when I was his age, […]
On this last day of the Christmas season we are remembering that there was a great deal of suffering surrounding Christ’s birth. Mary was socially isolated to the point of giving birth while basically homeless. Joseph was charged with the responsibility of protecting a baby with a price on his head. And hundreds of children […]
Ultimately we have just one moral duty; to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace and to reflect it towards others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will be also in our troubled world. Esther, or Etty, Hillesum, writer of these words, was born on […]
If you love surprises, chances are you live in a rich and safe part of the world. There is a famous (but possibly not ancient, nor Chinese) curse that says ‘May you live in interesting times!’ (This Advent we are spending time with Mark Pierson’s Advent in Art series, a set of paintings by James B Janknegt, curated by […]
In this week’s Advent in Art painting, Christ is born! We’re a little early, as I’ve said before, because in the Southern Hemisphere we don’t expect anyone to be around after Christmas Day itself. We have to get the whole story in before everyone goes camping. Kids really benefit from repetition and preparation. They love […]
Nine months is a long time to wait, but thousands of years is longer. Week two of this year’s Advent in Art cycle places the Christmas story in context of a much larger narrative of hope and a longing for justice. As we meet them in today’s painting, Mary and Elizabeth, like all mothers around the […]
This time a year ago I was celebrating my birthday by cuddling my baby – with my arms instead of my uterus – having just met him on the outside for the first time. SBJ was born thirty-four years-minus-four-hours after me, and conveniently arrived at 11.10pm, just squeaking in to get his own birthday. Not […]
If you want to celebrate Advent in just one simple and rich way, this might be it. Find a quiet moment – five minutes will be fine if that’s a realistic ambition – and spend some time with this painting. You could do this by yourself, of course, but exploring art as part of worship […]