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Journals

Funstuff

Let me just repeat that.

Many moons ago (well, it seems like it anyway) I agreed to do three pulpit supply dates in August. My thinking was that by the end of July my dissertation would be progressing well and things might be easing off a little. Aye right!

Now, one of those churches uses the lectionary and the [...]

How to be a clone

In a stroke of good luck (sorry, blessing), Michael Patton published a list of rules all new Christians must follow. It is a very useful follow-up on my post on Christian clones. (And, yes, it is tongue-in-cheek – I think).

Christian clones

In that amazing way that only seems to come through a sense of God at work by the Spirit, there was a consistent theme running through much of the activity and challenge on the recent trip to Geneva. (Although I suspect that the lecturers who organised the trip would like to claim that that was its intention all along). That theme can probably best be described by paraphrasing (my excuse for poorly translating) the main sermon point from the French service in the Cathedral St Pierre on the Sunday morning:

Unity does not mean uniformity; diversity does not mean division.

Continue reading Christian clones

Geneva reflections

From the 10th to the 14th of June, I had the pleasure of spending time in Geneva with other candidates and some staff from New College. The trip was part of a rolling series of visits which include Rome and Jerusalem. I skipped the Rome trip last year as I was in Brussels. The [...]

Glutton for punishment

You’d think that starting probation in September would be enough to be going on with and that writing a dissertation on the Church of Scotland’s relationship with Emerging Church would keep things ticking over in the meantime. However, a tentative enquiry about the Mission Shaped Ministry courses has now resulted in the Candidates’ Task [...]

8 months gone in a flash

There are times when life seems to pass by so quickly. That seems never more true than when you are on a placement. Uni term times whizz past, but they’re only ten weeks. Holidays whizz past, but they’re only a couple of weeks tops. Placements though are 8 months and when that last Sunday [...]

Prophetic ministry

I’ve been catching up on some reading recently (I’ve not long finished The Mystery of Christ by Robert Farrar Capon and Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell) and currently working my way through The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann. When I’m not banging on about Emerging Church, one of my soapboxes is the need for [...]

Politics and religion

I don’t generally blog on politics. It’s not a subject which particularly enthuses me – at least in the traditional sense. I have no particular love of party politics. The confrontational Westminster style is just irritating and the negative campaigning is simply depressing. But this blog entry isn’t about any of those things anyway. Rather, it’s about a train of thought that was triggered by watching a programme from a few days ago.

Continue reading Politics and religion

Not just a…

Glancing through my blog feeds this morning, this entry at [hold this space] caught my eye. It’s a timely reminder for those in the Church of Scotland that we should not define people by labels. Only we do. The ‘issue which shall not be named’ so often descends into just that. OK, I’ll name [...]

The good, the bad and the ugly

Another conference done and dusted. This time, “Church and Society”. It was the usual mixed bag although I have to say this one was, I think, biased towards the better end of the spectrum.

The Good

Some very challenging and encouraging presentations on HIV/AIDS, working with children and work-life balance.

The Bad

The “you [...]