Friday, 10 September 2010, 05:41 am PDT
Featured Ministers
El Ten Eleven
As most readers of this blog know, by profession I am a jazz musician and this fact is worth keeping in mind as you read what you find in other posts on this site - I've may have ended up (by some... [read more]
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Imagine a clearing into which the light pours
First an admission of a huge debt. Over the past two years I have been profoundly impressed and influenced by the work of James C. Edwards. Indeed, during this vacation I re-read his The Plain Sens... [read more]
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Taking a break from blogging during August
It's August and I'm going to take a bit of a break from blogging during August so Susanna and I can do some generalised and relaxed hanging out at the 'Lazy B Ranch' here in sunny (we hope) Cam... [read more]
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One Step Backward Taken – the therapeutic value of fear
Last week I looked at how we might honestly use Jesus' memorable teaching, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life' (John 8:1... [read more]
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"Make of yourselves a light."
My Zafu A couple of weeks ago I gave an address which explored our particular church's covenant. In a way this is an expansion of the call to meet in 'the spirit of Jesus. 'There are a lot of '... [read more]
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A visit to Anglesey Abbey
This afternoon Susanna and I went over to the gardens of Anglesey Abbey. A lovely two hour amble after a very tiring week. The house from the park View into one of the formal gardens (statue of Fat... [read more]
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Conserving the light, but to what end? A new call to do some 'digging' . . .
In my various roles as a chaplain this week I have been talking with people both about their real fears of redundancy as well as with a number who have been informed that their jobs are now to go. ... [read more]
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A day off at Fen Drayton Lakes
It was my day off today and Susanna and I decided to take a spin over to Fen Drayton Lakes. I've cycled there a few times but never been there just to walk so, off we went. We got wet, very wet... [read more]
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Relaunch of the Country Standard
Country Standard - was a monthly radical magazine for rural workers established in 1935 and it has just been relaunched and you can take a look at it here. On page 7 you can read a very short piece... [read more]
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Faith does not consist in believing something wonderful . . .
A teaching of Jesus' that has been on my mind for a couple of weeks is from Luke (17:5-6) in which Jesus replies to his disciples' request to "Increase our faith! "by saying"... [read more]
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Where we Stand - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people and the Unitarian and Free Christian Churches
Last week I was sent a copy of the leaflet produced by the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches called "Where we Stand - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people an... [read more]
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Cambridge People's Charter Meeting - Friday 9th July 2010 @ 19.45 in the Unitarian Church, Emmanuel Road, Cambridge CB1 1JW
http://thepeoplescharter. org/ [read more]
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Watchmen and women - A Flower Communion Service
(This is a slightly revised version of an address I gave last year during the Flower Communion Service) As I tried to explore again last week those involved in liberal religion have had a long love... [read more]
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A lovely day at work . . .
It was a lovely sunny day this morning and as we (at the Woolf Institute) were saying goodbye to a colleague - Navras Jaat Aafreedi one of our visiting fellows (fourth from the right) who is from t... [read more]
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A horse and a dog were friends . . .
Ernst Bloch, the German Marxist philosopher tells a story about a horse and a dog who were friends in which "the dog saved the best bones for the horse, and the horse put the most fragrant b... [read more]
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Conducting each other into new worlds of thought - or Moss, our sweet cousin. A wedding homily for Jo and Aidan Craigwood
This Sunday's address was the brief homily I offered at Jo and Aidan's beautiful and moving wedding at the church on Saturday 19th June - a service that they carefully created over a year and a h... [read more]
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Becoming philosopher-alchemists . . . "In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high."
I want to preface my Sunday address with a few additional sentences. After having outlined some difficulty in the world and/or local community that we face, I would love to be able to say to member... [read more]
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Trinity Sunday - a few thoughts on a sixteen-hundred year old mistake over what we can achieve with religious language
Today is Trinity Sunday and what this means - or might mean - remains worth considering because, in terms of our cultural inheritance, it is intimately related to the reason why we are called a Uni... [read more]
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Bowling a curved ball at Pentecost - "Because of the strike, she was unable to repair the lock in time to be able to leave for her holiday."
The story of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-21) is important to mark because it has come to be understood within the Christian tradition as signifying, in some way, the beginning of our complicated community ... [read more]
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The Death of God: A Belated Personal Postscript
Last Sunday the service was taken by various members of the congregation so there'll be no address/post from me this week. Instead I simply post a link to an article written in 1976 by James W. Wo... [read more]
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Life is not in things; rather, things are in life
Please do recall that this address is offered particularly in the context of the previous three addresses which are exploring what we might do in the shadow of what has come to be called in western... [read more]
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To live in this world you must be able to do three things . . .
To live in this worldyou must be ableto do three things:to love what is mortal;to hold it against your bones knowingyour own life depends on it;and, when the time comes to let it go,to l... [read more]
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Religion is not a delusion but a quest for 'home'. Let's locate this here on earth, says Peter Thompson
I keep meaning to post a link to this Face to faith column from 2007 by Peter Thompson in which he introduces Ernst Bloch and now have finally got round to doing it. Here it is:Religion is not a de... [read more]
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Astonishment or surprise? - or riding the crest of the world's continued birth
Last week I addressed head on a feeling that I know is prevalent amongst many of us, namely, that a belief that there exists either a theistic God or a transcendental realm "out there... [read more]
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Those images of gods in the ancient land, them, it is true, I may not invoke . . .
As a hart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? (Psalm 42:1-2)As this verse from th... [read more]