Tuesday, 26 July 2011, 01:44 am PDT
Featured Ministers
A spin on the Pashley Guv'nor along the Lodes Way
Me with the Guv'nor at White Fen I took the day off today - much needed after the past few weeks - and took the Pashley Guv'nor out for its first ride along the lovely Lodes Way. Here's how... [read more]
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An achievable perfection
Agnes and Ronald in Avignon 2007 Yesterday I conducted the memorial service of two of my good friends, Agnes and Ronald Gabriel. In that service, along with a couple of other people, I made a few r... [read more]
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"We need not think alike to love alike" - or what the sun tells us
MP3 Please read Mary Oliver's poem below before listening to the mp 3. Reading: "The Sun" by Mary Oliver Have you ever seen anything in your life more wonderfulthan th... [read more]
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A place called England: tracing paths of the world’s becoming – a case study
My 1956 Viking Ian Steele at Coploe Hill Before giving the address I played the children and the congregation a song written by Maggie Holland called "A Place Called England". Apart f... [read more]
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Tracing paths of the world's becoming
MP3 A couple of weeks ago I explored an aspect of Jesus' well-known story in which he said that although foxes had holes, and birds of the air had nests; the Son of man - i. e. Jesus himself, had ... [read more]
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Wondering what to do with your evening?
Wondering what to do with your evening? Well, why not sit back with a glass of beer and watch this short film on cycling in the Netherlands in the 1950s. Really life couldn't get much better . . .... [read more]
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Unanswered questions are far less dangerous than unquestioned answers - A Unitarian reconsideration of the Trinity
MP3 At the start of my ministry in this church in 2000 I found myself putting up a poster in our noticeboard which read: 'Unanswered questions are far less dangerous than unquestioned answers. ' ... [read more]
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The unfulfilled dream - a link to a piece by David E. Bumbaugh
Readers of this blog may be interested in the following piece by David E. Bumbaugh as it addresses in the North American context some of the concerns I have with the way Unitarian communities ... [read more]
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Riprap - live performances
Riprap - Dave, Andy, Kev Recently I have posted some live recordings from a recent Riprap gig in Cambridge. Kevin has just uploaded another called 'Song' so below for all you jazz fans are all th... [read more]
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Is the earlier always the purer, the better? Strawberry Fields Forever and the Gospel in Brief
No MP3 this week folks. Sorry about that but the nature of the address, with it's many musical illustrations, made it impossible to record in a meaningful way. ****In 1931 Wittgenstein wrote ... [read more]
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An early summer spin on the Dursley-Pederson out along Fleam Dyke and back along the Roman Road
Yesterday I took the Dursley-Pederson out for a spin to Fulbourn Fen, along Fleam Dyke and then back into Cambridge along the Roman Road. There is a group called 'Friends of the Roman Road and Fle... [read more]
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"No-Church" and "No-position" - one way of being an open-hearted and -minded liberal Christian church
Harald Sohlberg (1869-1935)Flower Meadow in the North (1905)MP3 Some five years ago I came across the work of Paul Wienpahl, a very accessible philosopher who, for many years, taught at the Univers... [read more]
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Riprap - The Beck (live)
Here's a track entitled 'The Beck' from a recent live date with Riprap in Cambridge. Kevin Flanagan (soprano sax), Dave Gordon (piano), Russ Morgan (drums) and myself on bass. [read more]
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Mustard seeds and short-circuits
MP3 Given that we've been talking about it recently this week my head and heart has remained with the matter of what we, as a church are about. As we know one clear and present truth is that we ar... [read more]
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The quiet opening - "Things are not only what they are, they give more than they have.”
MP3 The Supple Deer The quiet opening between fence strands perhaps eighteen inches. Antlers to hind hooves,four feet off the ground, the deer poured through it. No tuft of the coars... [read more]
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Circles and Calligrams by Benoît Delbecq - some music to take your mind off all the recent theology
A friend of mine just sent me a link to this - thanks Kev - and it should serve as an antidote to my recent posts! Benoît Delbecq, new piano solo album : Circles and Calligrams from Igor Juget on ... [read more]
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"It is one thing to dance as though nothing has happened; it is another to acknowledge that something singularly awful has happened . . . and then decide to dance" - on impending denominat
You'll spot Chief Plenty Coups' picture above my head amongst someof my other teachers and models MP3 I want to begin by noting that this is an address from me very much as a minister withi... [read more]
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A further thought on why I keep mentioning God . . .
Last night I remembered these words penned by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. They seem relevant in the light of my last post:"God as a working hypothesis in morals, politics, or science, has been surm... [read more]
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Why, if you claim to be a Christian Atheist, do you keep mentioning God?
Dear Anon,Thanks for your question which you posted at the end of my last post - one which I'm surprised I don't get asked more often. I found it very helpful, at last, to be asked it so directly... [read more]
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No image, no passion - or do we really have to drive on, ride it out and sing in silence?
MP3 (before downloading this file do please read Stephen Dunn's poem "At the Smithville Methodist Church" - for starters it's simply a good poem but since it provides me with a key ... [read more]
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The acute discomfort of proclaiming the Resurrection - An Easter Sunday meditation
MP3 So here we are together once more on an Easter morn - a day that, for many people, remains utterly puzzling. To many others it is, of course, a day whose central theme is simply errant nonsense... [read more]
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Palm Sunday - betraying Jesus at the grand clearance sale of neoliberalism
Reading: Mark 11:1-11. (NB - there is no MP3 this week as I forgot to turn it on. Sorry about that. )Today, Palm Sunday, is when we remember Jesus' entry into the city of Jerusalem where he is wel... [read more]
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Mothering Sunday and Utopia
MP3 As most of you will be aware the local shops, almost without exception, have been announcing the imminent arrival of Mother’s Day but, as I hope most of you already know, today is in fact Mot... [read more]
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Come down, Jehovah - A Christian Atheist Meditation for Census Day
MP3 (this mp 3 does not contain Chris Wood's song 'Come down, Jehovah' which is integral to this address so, before you listen to it, it's worth scrolling down this page either to hear Chris' ... [read more]
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The Answer
MP3 As one of my favourite song-writers, Loudon Wainwright puts it:It's been a hard day on the planet How much is it all worth? It's getting harder to understand it Things are tough all over on e... [read more]