thoughtsandsketches

Atheism and Quarks

2007-01-12T15:08:00.000Z

Hello all, thought I'd get in there with the first blog of the year. Thanks again J.Man for top food last night. Here's the blog I mentioned; not really that relevant to Darwinism or poor dress sense but I guess it was a fairly wide discussion! Have a great w/e and hopefully see you all on Tues.

Cheers
B

A link to another blog

Happy New Year

2007-01-02T08:29:00.000Z

2007-01-02T08:25:00.000Z

2007-01-02T08:22:00.000Z

Its Christmas - lets Turkey!

2006-12-31T16:10:00.000Z

ooh christmas time, mistletoe and parsnips, ho,ho,oh!

2006-12-31T16:04:00.000Z

2006-12-31T16:00:00.000Z

Ho Ho Ho

2006-12-31T15:39:00.000Z

Yummy cutsey beef

2006-12-09T11:22:00.000Z

Hi everyone!

Here is the website for the beef we have been feeding you on occassion from my sister's farm!

There is an offer of 15% off up until the 31st of December 2006 so if you want some get in quick. I am going home on the 16th Dec so can bring some back then OR after Christmas. This will save you postage of meat (£10) from Somerset 'cause I will bring it to you for free, and with smiles!!! It really is tasty! Look on the website for price list and details of the different types of meat available and then place your order with me. The bill will come with the meat and you can pay online, cheque or give the cash to me. Nice and easy!

Check yummy Cutsey beef

Anna xx

Attack of the Sprouts

2006-11-23T09:18:00.000Z

Why is it that we all seem to hate sprouts?

Castanha du Brasil!

2006-11-12T20:00:00.000Z

Hello from Brazil! We have been here a week and it has been a really amazing time. It feels like so much has happened in such a short time. Brazil is a beautiful place and I am just about coping with the heat!
God is being so good to us and we are doing a mixture of intense praying for people in hard places and then just hanging out and having a lot of fun. We have prayed with and for the church here, met some amazingly faithful women of God who in really hard circumstances persevere with Him. We have visited and prayed with some families in the favela and this morning taught at the Sunday school on the Holy Spirit.
We have laughed so much which is really nice and Alison who we are staying with is wicked. The people here are amazing and are so keen to get to know us and be with us. So much of our trip has been about building relationships, although it is hard to see what God is doing sometimes because it is so relaxed. I know he is doing something.

Henry Nouwen

2006-11-10T08:55:00.000Z

I'v been getting these sent to me recently. There are occasionally some interesting thoughts and things to ponder. Nouwen's Spirituality

The Brick Testament

2006-11-07T16:53:00.001Z

Struggling to read the Bible in a fresh way? try this: The Brick Testament

Remember Remember....

2006-11-06T21:19:00.000Z

Remember remember... its cold in November, Gunpowder, lager and socks....!

Oh 'Ek..

2006-10-30T09:05:00.000Z

It’s less than a week until we make the trip over the ocean to Brazil. It wasn’t until I picked up my currency from the post office on Saturday that it dawned on me that I am actually going. I can’t believe it has come round so fast and it’s been a crazy (and exhausting!) couple of weeks with God doing plenty of work in me. Although I feel totally unprepared and ill-equipped to be going on this trip, I am really up for an adventure and can’t wait to get my hands dirty and do some scary stuff, take some risks and chase God. I am excited about meeting inspiring people and I think this trip is just as much about what we will bring home and it is about what we will do when we are there. I feel like I am at the starting point of something new in my life and maybe Brazil will be the springboard that I need.
It helps that it is 35degrees over there as well.
Please pray for us, so safety, for practical arrangements and that each of us will be listening to God and have enough courage to do what he asks!
Bring it On.

Recife aqui nós vimos

2006-10-11T15:19:00.000+01:00

Its only 3 weeks and 5 days until myself and the other two Brazilian adventurers fly out to Recife, NW Brazil, to visit the Wheel of Fire community to some of the amazing work that four mental and Holy women are doing in one of the largest Favelas in Brazil. The count down is now on. I was suddenly faced with the reality that I am actually going last night and now face the next 3 weeks and 5 days in a mixture of excitement and absolute fear and feel I want to reflect on it for a bit. So I hope you will indulge me….

To be really honest, I am not 100% sure why I am going, and feel I have nothing to take to the people there. I am scared about the things that I will see, about being ruthlessly humbled and having my heart broken. But I am excited about meeting amazing, generous, passionate and inspiring people.

Isn’t it amazing that some of the most seemingly desperate situations, such as the poverty faced by some of the people living in the Favela, encourages some of the most beautiful and humbling acts of kindness and Grace? I hope i can bring some of that home.

Please pray for us as we prepare for this little adventure. I'm sure i will keep you all posted in the next couple of weeks with more thoughts and reflections on it all. Bring it on!!

BLOODY MARVELLOUS

2006-10-04T18:38:00.000+01:00

Guys you've got to check this out!!!! I love it.

This week four Spanish youth stole the SEAT OF POWER

As a protest against world hunger these guys actually broke into the Spanish Houses of Parliment to steal the prime ministers chair.

Nice

New Pollution makes a stink

2006-09-11T11:45:00.000+01:00

Hey guys don't know if you've seen this already?
Jonny's pulled one out of the bag with his SIM SWEATSHOP game commissioned for the NOW festival. Have a play. It's both entertaining and educational!

I've been playing it a bit- but I'm rubbish. I haven't made any money and I keep getting sent home for being so tired I'm unable to work. Just like my real job.

There was even a little mention in this Saturdays Guardian don't you know...

There's an OFFICIAL SIM-SWEATSHOP LAUNCH! WEDNESDAY 13th SEPTEMBER 2006 8:00pm. There will be free drinks at Muse (formally Synergy), 9 Broad Street, Nottingham (Opposite Broadway Cinema). Me and Sammie are heading down there if anyone wants to join us.

So 10/10 for Sim-Sweatshop. An accessible and creative way of exploring such a difficult subject which challenges us all. A few minutes in the virtual world of a sweatshop worker and it makes it even harder to just go for the easy option when you're in the store. Nice one Jonny.

See you on wednesday.

Ronnie

We're back (and have been for a little while....)

2006-08-26T11:45:00.000+01:00

we are back, apologies for taking over a week to get on it and provide you (ronnie) with a picture of a lion.....

we walked with the lions, it was amazing. I was slightly nervous, probably comes across in the picture.
The whole trip was brilliant - relaxing, inspiring, all the good things! Once we have processed it all i am sure there will be more to say.....

But first, found an interesting and insightful article on the old guardian website (where else?!). It's by Karen Armstrong (whom i think is very cool). Check it: Our truth is just a bit-player in the tragic, conflicted whole

Some good stuff on the nature and elusiveness on truth......and religion's role in that.....

The comments are at times comedy wind-up but it is all though provoking, and reading wind-up comments is good to challenge one as how best to respond, and to see some of the opinions that are about....(or just funny, annoying or both)

We're off!!!!

2006-07-23T14:45:00.000+01:00

Jim and Anna are leaving for Zimbabwe tomorrow. We are VERY excited. Wehope to keep you updated via emails and on the blog. We will try, but i know not our success......

Please pray for us - that we have fun, keep safe, and are inspired. We met a guy this morning, a guy originally from Zimbabwe, who was involved in setting up an orphanage before he had to leave the country, and we are hoping to go and visit it and meet his two sons who are still there.

Hope you all have lovely months

ps to any who didn't know, i got a job this week! Working for the Building and Social Housing Foundation as a research assistant focusing on housing issues in international development. They seem like a well cool organisation, and i start in september. I am well excited!!

read this; it's well good..........

2006-07-10T21:03:00.000+01:00

On the Emergent blog was this article on the hermeneutic of community

Now, I couldn't necessarily define 'hermeneutic', but its talking about relational truth, and the role therefore of community.

I thought it well interesting, again it challenges us to think about what community really is, means, can be, what we want it to be, what it ought (?) to be, and lots of other questions to which i know not the answers.......

answers on a post card, or on a comment page, please!

wagamama

2006-07-09T15:25:00.000+01:00

Further to our discussion the other night here is a link to explain more about the Anansi spider! sorry cant make it into a link. how do you do that with a mac?

http://www.chs.org/westindies/kids.htm

May the fluff be with you

2006-07-04T18:50:00.000+01:00

I got asked today what my top 10 movie moments were and I wasn't really sure. After thinking about it for a while (it was one of those days! - thinking about movies helps to pass the time as you clear away leaves and dead pigions to get to a 'walk in fridge' compressor - what a glamarous life I lead.), I thought that my answers were quite telling......

1) YODA KICKS Count Duko's ASS (in one of the new Star Wars films). A moment which flipped everything upside down - So you can be a wise old man and kick some ass! A million million miles from the usual bearded prophet on the top of a mountain top kind of vibe.

2) YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!!!!!!! - Galdalf sacrifices his life for 'the fellowship' . This is the scene that flashes through my mind as I face off to groups of angry, drunken townies when the try to get into the pub. Also it sparks off my imagination thinking about what was going off between the cross and the resurection, especially with all the spitting of fire and all that.

3) "EVEN THE SMALLEST PERSON CAN MAKE THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE" Or something like that! You know the bit in Lord Of The Rings where Kate Blanchett gets all scary and magical and prophetic and tells Frodo that he's gonna kick ass even though he's all "but I'm just a little poorly weak hobit who isn't big and stuff and I have hairy feet". I like that because I feel like that, in fact I spend most of my time (especially at work) thinking that "They're gonna figure it out soon" and realise that I'm rubbish and that I'm just blagging it.

4) TAKE THE RED PILL - TAKE THE BLUE PILL. This scene in The Matrix really got me for a while. It just enforced in me that actually it's my choice!!!!!! It's up to me. I can choose to just tootle along or 'break out' and live life to the full. Something I'm still trying to live out.

5) ORDER 66 - I don't know why this scene gets to me so much? It's the bit in Star Wars III where the main Bad Dude initiates 'Order 66' and all the Storm Troopers turn on the Jedi, wiping them out in one foul swoop. I think it's something about humanity and the way that on mass we seem to just destroy stuff as a default. It saddend me that all the jedi were wipped out - they were these beautiful guys who sacrificed themself for the greater good and had light-sabers and hoods. Why???

I'm going to stop there because I want to know what yours would be?

I'm a bit embaressed by my answers - I seem like a Sci-fi/fantasy geek(OK I maybe am). It's so much easier to answer the "What are your top 10 movies?" question (Lost in Translation, Amelie, Best in Show, Festern, Alien, Star Wars, Nepolion Dynamite, Bullit, The French Connection, Resevoir Dogs(Just for the opening scene))

OK GO........

turbo-consumerism blog!

2006-06-30T14:29:00.000+01:00

having posted yesterday, i randomly got an email from the author, saying he's writing a book about it.

"I am writing a book about the implications of a consumer society on
politics. There is a site for the book where I would like to hear from people
about what they think about the growth of consumerism from both a
personal and political perspective. "

The blog is here .

could be an interesting one to watch......

turbo-consumerism

2006-06-29T14:23:00.000+01:00

turns out being a mere consumer is past it.

Now, we're talking about 'turbo-consumerism'. Check this article.

It's from the guardian, and suggesting a link between that which we consume and have, and out status/class/success. What do you think? It is a bit weird to sometimes think of what it'd cost to replace the stuff i leave the house with some days.

Also the word 'turbo-consumerism' is fun. Lets think of more.......

uber-capitalist
tres-bien
ultra-philosophy
mega-brill

I like Tony......

2006-06-28T09:55:00.000+01:00

Hi Team

For those of you that were into the monastery last year or watched the follow up programme, i found this account by Tony - one of the guys who stayed there. I just thought he was really honest and describes where I'm sure a lot of people find themselves - trying to make sense of an expererience of God and walk the path with integrity. Check it out....http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/monastery/tony_story.shtml#top

The Cult of the Blessed Holy Mac

2006-06-26T17:15:00.000+01:00

I feel sorry for the users of the humble PC because they get crap all the time from people like me who have been taken in with the shiny, beautifully designed, embarrassingly easy to use, stupidly reliable and fun macs.
(My first computer was an old school iMac - Indigo - nice)

If you have a PC you have probably had to put up with the likes of the patronising adverts linked to Timmy's Blog (If not then don't look at this).

And now you've got to put up with this and for that I'm sorry.

But on the other hand if you love your mac now (Jman, Jim, Sammie, Jonny, Orion), you're about to love it a whole lot more. Apple have just patented this bad boy touch-screen technology and its not too many steps away from the minority report.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm touch screen macs........................................

(I've had a go at proper LINKS and all that - don't know if it will work but I don't want Tim to shout at me again)

Cristo dentro il abisso

2006-06-24T21:23:00.000+01:00

I was watching a travel program about Italy last week and they finished the programe with the presenter diving off the coast of Sicily to this statue known by the locals as 'Christ of the Abyss'

we need a Gore-fest

2006-06-22T12:00:00.000+01:00

Al Gore sounds like an interesting chap. Check his interview on today programme on radio 4.

its interesting he talks about climate change but also his ideas on how change occurs. That through his work, the public/electorate will become passionate about it, and they will then demand the government to make changes. So, he's neither campaigning for legislative change, nor using Bush style 'leave it to the market' to sort it out type rhetoric. Instead it is a bottom up, emerging norm that will cause a top down (ie government) response. I think that makes sense. Anyhow, seems interesting in terms of wanting to change the world, and campaign for justice etc.....

What do you reckon? ps its not a long bit of audio, and if the link doesn't work for you its on the bbc radio 4 today website.

What's your Theological Worldview?

2006-06-20T08:38:00.000+01:00

As I haven't posted for a while I thought I would give you all a gift:

http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=43870

Because its always good to make sure we can label ourselves....

Church and food......

2006-06-06T10:31:00.000+01:00

I found this on Jonny's analogue boy blog. It is a wicked talk by Scott McKnight about the gospel, and what it is, and looks a lot at community , and how our lives are all about being in relationship. You may chuckle at how relevant some of it is. The actual talk is about 30 mins then a bit of Q & A after. It would be great to hear what you think......

Another thing, did anyone catch the Urban Chef on BBC 2 at 1830? It's on every night this week, about a young chef opening a restaurant and he has a self imposed rule that he must be able to source all produce and get to it on the tube! He hopes to give more of a sense of where food has come from. Interesting!

Cloud appreciation

2006-06-01T16:25:00.000+01:00

I've discovered the best website in the entire universe- fact!

cheers
benp

King of the Hill does church

2006-05-24T10:02:00.000+01:00

Check this out, it's wicked: King of the Hill does church. Thanks muchly to jonny for pointing it out. check his analogue boy blog.

to smile or not to smile.....

2006-05-18T10:44:00.000+01:00

On the way to the fun filled library this morning i was struck by a couple of things (not literally).

We, people, especially in this culture of ours, don't like to say hello, or be very cheery, chatty to anyone we don't know. I came to this conclusion as i was waiting at the bus stop and a middle aged lady just smiled and said 'good morning'. I had no idea who she was and i was shocked at how confused and disorientated it made me feel. Who was she, what was her agenda, what did she think she was doing? My conclusion was that she was being friendly in a community kind of way, and that i was a grumpy goit who likes to keep himself to himself.

This state of affairs was confirmed when someone dropped a load of stuff on the floor, and i looked the other way as my bus was coming.

We (well me anyway) are certainly individuals in this day and age. It felt like a shame. In my head i love community, sharing lives, journeying together. But i am all to quick to impose boundaries around that. Community but on my terms. Whilst i see the need for boundaries etc it struck me as a shame that society seems to put up boundaries first, and make commuinity second.

Christian Aid week

2006-05-16T09:50:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

This Christian Aid report is well worth a look- it links in well with some of our discussions.

Ta!
Ben P

2006-05-08T23:55:00.000+01:00

eh up me ducks......

check the emergent blog, it's a piece on statements of faith. Any thoughts....

Small group enjoying the more temperate climes

2006-05-07T13:37:00.000+01:00

Dr Mark Hamilton

2006-05-07T13:31:00.000+01:00

da vinci code - innit?

2006-05-04T17:47:00.000+01:00

Just to summarise what we were discussing last week. In an attempt to anticipate John's forthcoming talk on the Dan Brown book, I unearthed the following from t'internet: http://www.crisismagazine.com/september2003/feature1.htm

I was particularly struck by the closing paragraph in light of the discussion about absolute truth on the blog the other week:

'In the end, Dan Brown has penned a poorly written, atrociously researched mess. So, why bother with such a close reading of a worthless novel? The answer is simple: The Da Vinci Code takes esoterica mainstream. It may well do for Gnosticism what The Mists of Avalon did for paganism—gain it popular acceptance. After all, how many lay readers will see the blazing inaccuracies put forward as buried truths?

What’s more, in making phony claims of scholarship, Brown’s book infects readers with a virulent hostility toward Catholicism. Dozens of occult history books, conveniently cross-linked by Amazon.com, are following in its wake. And booksellers’ shelves now bulge with falsehoods few would be buying without The Da Vinci Code connection. While Brown’s assault on the Catholic Church may be a backhanded compliment, it’s one we would have happily done without.'

Seems to me that our society is more enthralled about conspiracy and hidden/secret truth , than it is about real truth (including historic and scientific).

For your added enjoyment, here's the last supper painting:

A list

2006-05-03T13:42:00.000+01:00

Some things that make me grateful

Tea
Knowing that I will never understand God’s love, but learning how to accept it.
Ronnie’s Laugh(s)
Eating and being with small group
Yoga
Being free to ask questions
Broccoli
Cuddles
Not wearing any socks
Being in Creation
The smell of WD40

Shrews and City demonstrate the benefits of sharing

2006-04-26T09:11:00.000+01:00

Hart expected to stay with Shrews

Shrewsbury Town boss Gary Peters says he would not be surprised to see goalkeeper Joe Hart remaining at Gay Meadow next season.
The 19-year-old stopper has recently been watched by Manchester City goalkeeping coach Tim Flowers.

"I would not be surprised if we start next season with Joe," he told the Shropshire Star.

"Something may happen in the summer but if it did I would expect him to come back to us in a loan-back situation."

I am so Happy....

2006-04-25T08:57:00.000+01:00

I finally managed to get Pandora working on my computer at work today.
Finally my day can be filled with musical wonderfulness.
Everyone should play on this - discover new musical delights.
Enjoy.

2006-04-24T15:52:00.000+01:00

Good day! Here's some interesting words concerning truth from Jason Clark's (or "jase" as ben might say?!) Emergent blog. Interesting

Pacifism, Suicide Bombers and Killing Hitler

2006-04-14T15:13:00.000+01:00

Just read a cool artice about Dietrich Bonhoeffer.....

Many people might have no doubts about being prepared to kill Hitler. But what if you were a prominent theologian? A noted pacifist? What then? That was exactly the dilemma that faced Dietrich Bonhoeffer, born 100 years ago, and one that led to his own death...........

Here's the link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4906502.stm

Some Corinne Bailey Rae Fans

2006-04-14T13:25:00.000+01:00

Corinne Bailey Rae

2006-04-14T13:19:00.000+01:00

Liz's world

2006-04-13T15:29:00.000+01:00

Hi Team

Most of you will know that I'm big into Disabled people's rights, justice etc etc. Thought you might be interested in entering Liz's world and reading this article on language and disabled people. I am going to attempt one of those clever link things so wish me luck.....

Interview with Julie Nicholson

2006-04-12T11:12:00.000+01:00

The ex-rev who has been in the media a lot recently about her struggles to forgive after the death of her daughter in the July 7th bombings was interviewed on Radio 4 today. There is also a discussion about the male-centric image(s) of God.
Have a listen, see what you think.

IF

2006-04-11T12:18:00.000+01:00

Don't "if" your life away..if i was..., if i had..., if i had the opportunity..., you're you! God doesn't work on ifs...we're each on our own journey, God wants an army of people committed to going where He wants to take us as individuals... BE A FIRST RATE VERSION OF YOU, NOT A SECOND RATE VERSION OF SOMEONE ELSE....

Slightly out of leftfield....

2006-04-10T17:24:00.000+01:00

Right then,

I know that this is a little off the topic, but how do you put those clever hot link type things in one's posts? Where you click on a blue word and go to an article.....

Please fix it for me to be able to do them

love from jim

(age 27 and a quarter)

Worrying Times

2006-04-10T15:17:00.000+01:00

When will it end?

'It may be Holy Week, but I still can't forgive...'

2006-04-09T16:37:00.000+01:00

Hi i was reading this in the independent today. was wondering what people thought about it?

'It may be Holy Week, but I still can't forgive...'
The priest who lost her daughter in the July bombings speaks about her shaken faith

By Robin Stummer
Published: 09 April 2006

The woman priest whose daughter was killed in the London suicide bombings last July has revealed that the week leading up to Easter - the time for reconciliation and forgiveness in the Christian calendar - will leave her struggling harder than ever to maintain her faith.

"It's beyond my human capacity to deal with," says Julie Nicholson. "What is there in Scripture that says a mother should forgive?"

Mrs Nicholson stood down as priest of St Aidan with St George in Bristol last month. The murder of her daughter Jenny, a talented 24-year-old musician, had left her unable to preach forgiveness.

Yesterday she revealed for the first time the full extent of the doubt at the heart of her belief in God, and the near impossible demand of her faith that she should forgive Jenny's killers.

Speaking to the Roman Catholic weeklyThe Tablet, Mrs Nicholson, 52, says that the approach of Easter has only highlighted her personal crisis of faith.

"Easter," she says, "is supposed to be the final proof that love is stronger than death. But how much comfort is that for parents who have to stand, like me, at the foot of the Cross?"

Since stepping down as a priest, Mrs Nicholson - who, despite her misgivings over forgiveness, remains a committed Christian - has been working with children in Bristol, directing a community youth group performance of C S Lewis's The Magician's Nephew.

"I don't backtrack on what I said, because I don't forgive and I don't feel that's wrong. It's not for me to forgive," she explains. "If Jenny were here she could, but as her mother I don't think it's my privilege.

"I could give forgiveness for the pain caused to me, but for that pain alone. But that's all. I'm not at that point and don't know if I ever will be. I have laid forgiveness to one side and it's for God at the moment. It's beyond my human capacity to deal with. And I don't feel that's outrageous, unbelievable or even un-Christian."

Speaking about her feelings immediately after the Circle Line suicide attack by Mohammed Sidique Khan that killed Jenny, Mrs Nicholson - who has two other children, Tom, 16, and Lizzie, 22 - is frank about her instincts as a mother. During the identification of Jenny's body, she says she "wanted to hold my child to me. And it was absolutely vital that I should, at the earliest opportunity, go and anoint her body. The symbol of the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit reflected the intimacy of mother and child, of a loving human touch."

Soon after this, she says, "I stopped responding to the priestly side of my nature and became pure mother. At times I didn't want to be a priest, I wanted to grieve as a mother without any of the baggage of a priest. What is there in Scripture that says a mother should forgive?"

There are signs that Mrs Nicholson's faith, though resolute, has undergone a subtle but profound change since the events of last July, with a closer focus on the significance of Mary - as a mother. "If the image of Mary through the Passion is pure mother," she says, "the letting go, the waiting, the caring [for] the body when restored, the anointing... There is no huge expectation to do more. I find comfort in that."

Mrs Nicholson believes that Jenny's murder should provoke reflection on what forgiveness is. "We need to go public on this, to consider the weight of the language... what do we really mean by faith and forgiveness? I think the world should be challenged to consider this, as I have been."

Asked if she could imagine a time when - in common with other parents she had met recently whose children who had died in traumatic circumstances - she could speak with true conviction about forgiveness, Mrs Nicholson remained extremely sceptical.

"If Archbishop Rowan Williams and the head of the Muslim Council of Britain came to me and said: 'Stand up and say, "I forgive Mohammed Sidique Khan for taking my daughter's life", then all terrorist activity in the world will stop,' I would do it. But in my heart I know I wouldn't have forgiven."

'Every Parent's Nightmare', a documentary in which Julie Nicholson meets other parents who have lost children, is broadcast tomorrow on BBC 1, 11.15pm

Chocolate for Teachers

2006-04-08T13:59:00.000+01:00

"Ooh! Chocolate, I love Chocolate!" "Thanks for the egg" "cheers mate, everyone’s been talking about it"
"This is the nicest thing anyone has done round here for ages" "Does this mean I have to go to church"
"This is very generous – I’m worried you have been helping yourself to the church collection" "Why?"
"Its great to get a treat - its made my day, not just any old egg - a religious one…., for me…. at Easter"
"I do feel very blessed" "You can give them out to teachers but surely that lot downstairs (the bosses) don’t get blessed as well - they don’t deserve it" "Well one thing is for sure you have put a smile on everyone’s face today" "That’s really thoughtful thanks to you and your friends at Trent for your kind generosity"

nature of faith and belief type gubbins.....

2006-04-07T15:02:00.000+01:00

Good day fellow travellers,

Whilst flicking through the pages of G2 today i found this rather excellent little ditty. I am a bit pants at all this so i have cut and pasted it Hope that's ok. It's an article about belief and how pre enlightenment it didn't necessarily entail attempts at proof. tres bien. here it is:

Divine inspiration on ice
Peter Stanford
Friday April 7, 2006
Guardian

A few years back, a BBC producer approached me with his idea of a Jesus-lookalike reporter (being about 33 and having long hair seemed to be the main qualifications) retracing the divine footsteps around the holy land. He wanted said reporter to try out the various miracles for authenticity. Walking on water, he reassured me, would be no problem. There was a hydraulic platform that had been installed for visitors in the middle of the Sea of Galilee so they could be photographed amid the waves playing at being the son of God.
The project never came to anything and, if I'm honest, my worries were less about drowning than having to appear in my trunks on camera. But that fascination with finding a logical explanation for the apparently miraculous events recounted in the gospels remains. A team of US and Israeli scientists has just reported in the Journal of Paleolimnology - the study of prehistoric lakes - that in biblical times the Sea of Galilee, thanks to its salty springs and an unusually severe cold snap, could have frozen over. So when Jesus appeared to be walking on water, he was actually floating on a thin layer of ice.

It is a conclusion that makes him sound more con-man than Christ figure, but it is just the latest in a long line of efforts by scientists to bring 21st-century wisdom to bear on the Authorised Version. There was, for instance, the team that put forward the theory that Jesus had an epileptic fit on the cross, fainted and only woke up three days later by which stage his apostles refused to be convinced that he hadn't in fact risen from the dead. Another group of experts suggested that he went into a shock-induced coma on Calvary when the first nail was driven in.

Then there was the wonderful one from some fertility experts suggesting that a rare genetic condition in his mother might have made for a self-fertilising egg and therefore validated the virgin birth. And do you remember the scholars who floated the notion that when Jesus fed the 5,000 with two loaves and fishes, it was really a case of everyone having brought their own picnic but being too polite to mention it once he'd started serving up?

If you've enough imagination, you can always find a rational reason for anything. And with Jesus's story there is the added frisson of debunking in the process what has been a central belief of western civilisation for 2,000 years.

This game, however, is a relatively recent invention. Until the enlightenment, the distinction between faith and belief was rather better understood. So medieval Christians had faith but it never crossed their mind to expect documentary proof. They had, I suppose, what we would now dismiss as blind faith. So all the narratives told in the gospels, the stories of saints whose heads were chopped off and then miraculously reattached, even the notions of heaven and hell, were understood not in the literal sense but as pathways to approach a truth that was in itself ineffable - beyond our imagination.

With the advent of the age of science, however, faith is now utterly conflated with belief - the idea that unless you can put something under a microscope and show that it exists, it has no legitimacy at all. And so every single detail of the religious canon has been poked, prodded and found wanting. This, the scientists proclaim, shows that it is all a lot of nonsense. But, leaving aside the claims of Mel Gibson and a relatively small number of nutty Bible belt fundamentalists, this is to judge and damn mainstream Christianity on trumped up charges, for it never claimed it was all literally true.

Richard Holloway quote

2006-03-31T16:29:00.000+01:00

thought i'd drop off a quick Richard Holloway quote for a friday afternoon:

"For those of us who are living in the absence of God, waiting is not anticipatory; waiting is its own meaning, it is a permanent state of unknowing."

Dr Rowan speaks on Climate Change

2006-03-29T12:01:00.000+01:00

Oh the Joys of Radio 4! Yesterday morning The Arch Bishop was interviewed regarding Climate change and how it is a moral question. Among other things he commented that it is the world's poor that will suffer the most and the links between man and nature.
Listen to it here. You'll need to scroll down to 8.10am, then click on the link and you can listen to it.
Sam

2006-03-26T22:11:00.000+01:00

Hello All

Saw this on my mates blog and is worth a look. Its to do with easter, lent etc. Click http://www.stelizabeth.org/lent/lent_06_3w.html to take a look

Out

Chris

Our new house!

2006-03-23T18:10:00.000Z

Hello!

I thought it was about time I posted something. I have attempted a comment and now I'm trying a post! Thought you might like to see a piccie of our new house (hopefully)....
Isn't this fun....

This is Liz by the way if it isn't obvious!

COME ON!!

2006-03-22T21:34:00.001Z

Hi All

This would be my first post as I now have my laptop back! Yes thats something to cheer about on its own but what I have to say totally over shadows that!

As your probally aware last week I ran a mission week in Hadden Park School (one of the schools I work in, in Bilborough) with two teams D2 (Dance and drama team) and Nomad (Sports Team). This week was a beauts of a week with both teams doing RE lessons the girls doing some dance and drama lessons and the lads a few PE.
On the Wednesday myself and Nomad run a footie comp. in the cage (picture) with around 30-40 young people coming along. This was fantastic as that was 30-40 young people from the area having something to do and being around Christians that were all sharing our faiths.
On the Friday we finished the week with the D2 girls doing a gig of all the dance tracks they do. I then followed them, not dancing but with my testimony linking with the podigal son story. I was a little down about numbers and people I wanted to turn up not doing so, but when the D2 team came out from praying with some of the girls that came to the gig they were beaming saying that 2 of the girls gave their lives to Christ!
What can I say God really worked last week. So many seeds were planted and I can't wait for God to use me to plant more and water the planted!

Chris

I've only gone and done it.

2006-03-22T15:09:00.000Z

I'm here!

Better late than never, I say.

But now I can't think of anything exciting to say...

except- bad luck to the blue half of manchester. Could be a bad week for invisible jim if the boys of the gay gay meadow hand out a lesson to Mac town on saturday.

Ta
the mighty shrew

Read all about it....

2006-03-21T09:58:00.000Z

hey guys......

Just a quickie i am afraid as i am deep in essay deadline land, but have you checked the interviews etc with Archbishop Rowan. Interesting. They are on the Guardian website - probably elsewhere too, but thats where i saw them!! What do you think?

Tear Fund Campain

2006-03-16T13:54:00.000Z

Hey guys
I'm not able to come to the lecture tonight cos I've got a band practice - gutted!!!
Make sure you feed back to me.
Here's a link you might like on a similar thread...

http://www.tearfund.org/Campaigning/Climate+change+and+disasters/

If you don't have time to have a look their point is" God calls us to defend the rights of the poor and needy and that climate change is as much of a justice issue as it is anything else", they practically challenge us to;

*Turn off the lights when you leave a room and use energy saving light bulbs – they use 80 per cent less electricity and last 12 times longer than ordinary bulbs

*Turn electrical equipment off at the mains rather than leaving it on standby – standby can use between 30 and 70 per cent of the energy it uses when on

*Turn down your central heating thermostat: lowering the temperature by just a degree can cut ten per cent off energy bills
Switch to a green energy provider like Good Energy - see
www.good-energy.co.uk – and if you quote GE38 Good Energy will donate £20 to Tearfund

*Think before you drive – can you walk, cycle or get a train or bus instead? Road transport is responsible for 22 per cent of greenhouse emissions in the UK

*Recycle – landfills are the second largest source of methane emission in the UK. Most local councils provide facilities for you to recycle your paper, cardboard, bottles, cans, and plastic

Ronnie

Images Of The Man

2006-03-14T18:06:00.000Z

Hey guys - Thought I'd stick a little montage up of the 'Images of Christ' we were looking at a few weeks ago. These were the ones I remember us talking about the most.... Ones I love and ones I hate...

I think they're all cool for both reasons (Sorry if I've missed your favorite out). I don't think that it is possible to create a single image of any of the chatacters of God - but the artist can help us focus on bits of His character we want to focus on or stuggle with. I could go on for hours about this kind of stuff............

Ronnie

environmental ponderings......

2006-03-07T09:35:00.000Z

yo, so, here goes - first time

Got the following on a mailing list, do you think we should go????

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CLIMATE
EMERGENCY!

Is nuclear power the solution?
Find out at a public meeting to be addressed by:

Michael Meacher
writer, MP and former Minister for the Environment.

Peter Bunyard
One of the founders of “The Ecologist” magazine, writer and campaigner on environmental issues.

THURSDAY. MARCH 16th
7 pm, at Chaucer Building Lecture Theatre 1, Nottingham Trent University, Goldsmith Street, Nottingham.

There is now no doubt among scientists that global warming is happening, that it’s caused by human activities like burning fossil fuel and that its consequences could be catastrophic. The evidence is everywhere:

Sea levels are rising, flooding coastal areas.
Climate extremes like drought and flood are more common.
Hurricanes and severe storms are more frequent.
The ice in the Antarctic, Arctic and Greenland is disappearing.
Delicate ecological networks on which all life depends are being disrupted- irreversibly.

As we struggle to slow down global warming by reducing carbon emissions, we also face an energy crisis:

Using coal emits too much CO2 which causes global warming.
Oil consumption increases, but new reserves are becoming difficult to find.
Nearly at the end of European natural gas pipeline, UK access to dwindling natural gas supplies will become very insecure.
Renewable energy is not being deployed quickly enough.
Bio fuels mostly use too much energy for the energy obtained and compete with food crops for land.

Many environmentalists are now reluctantly turning to nuclear power for the answer, but is it? Will our children’s energy future be a choice between the consequences of a nuclear reactor accident in which tens of thousands might die, or an environmental disaster in which millions might?

Meeting organized by Nottingham Climate Change Coalition, incorporating
Nottingham Friends of the Earth, Nottingham CND, NTU People and Planet.
Telephone: 0115 9788059, e-m: Brian.davey@cooptel.net.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

(haven't worked out how to insert a flyer hence the slighty sketchy nature of above)

Would be good to get talking environment/climate wise, is it the biggest issue we, as people face?

For example, development seeks to improve lives, and one of the way is by raising income, and therefore purchasing power, but, as recently documented, if people can and do buy more, especially luxury comfort lifestyle stuff that we do, then the earth can't sustain that....

Orion on his blog namechecks a book - Capitalism and religion (by Dr Goodchild), and he talks about this in that.

What do people think??? How does it fit in with justice? Is the issue of consumerism a bigger deal than maybe we think? Are questions around the environment that focus on alternative sources of power missing the point, and that the focus needs to be just as much on actually using less?

Holiday Snap from la clusaz

2006-02-27T20:01:00.000Z

Im just at the top on the snowy bit, can you see me? j.man

Bono's Prayer Breakfast Speech

2006-02-25T17:23:00.000Z

thoughtsandsketches

Hi i thought you might like to read the Bono speech we read at small group last week Some interesting thoughts. j.man

02.02.06

BONO'S REMARKS TO THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST

***CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY***

BONO
REMARKS AT THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST

Thank you.

Mr. President, First Lady, King Abdullah, Other heads of State, Members of Congress, distinguished guests…

Please join me in praying that I don’t say something we’ll all regret.

That was for the FCC.

If you’re wondering what I’m doing here, at a prayer breakfast, well, so am I. I’m certainly not here as a man of the cloth, unless that cloth is leather. It’s certainly not because I’m a rock star. Which leaves one possible explanation: I’m here because I’ve got a messianic complex.

Yes, it’s true. And for anyone who knows me, it’s hardly a revelation.

Well, I’m the first to admit that there’s something unnatural… something unseemly… about rock stars mounting the pulpit and preaching at presidents, and then disappearing to their villas in the South of France. Talk about a fish out of water. It was weird enough when Jesse Helms showed up at a U2 concert… but this is really weird, isn’t it?

You know, one of the things I love about this country is its separation of church and state. Although I have to say: in inviting me here, both church and state have been separated from something else completely: their mind. .

Mr. President, are you sure about this?

It’s very humbling and I will try to keep my homily brief. But be warned—I’m Irish.

I’d like to talk about the laws of man, here in this city where those laws are written. And I’d like to talk about higher laws. It would be great to assume that the one serves the other; that the laws of man serve these higher laws… but of course, they don’t always. And I presume that, in a sense, is why you’re here.

I presume the reason for this gathering is that all of us here—Muslims, Jews, Christians—all are searching our souls for how to better serve our family, our community, our nation, our God.

I know I am. Searching, I mean. And that, I suppose, is what led me here, too.

Yes, it’s odd, having a rock star here—but maybe it’s odder for me than for you. You see, I avoided religious people most of my life. Maybe it had something to do with having a father who was Protestant and a mother who was Catholic in a country where the line between the two was, quite literally, a battle line. Where the line between church and state was… well, a little blurry, and hard to see.

I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays… and my father used to wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God.

For me, at least, it got in the way. Seeing what religious people, in the name of God, did to my native land… and in this country, seeing God’s second-hand car salesmen on the cable TV channels, offering indulgences for cash… in fact, all over the world, seeing the self-righteousness roll down like a mighty stream from certain corners of the religious establishment…

I must confess, I changed the channel. I wanted my MTV.

Even though I was a believer.

Perhaps because I was a believer.

I was cynical… not about God, but about God’s politics. (There you are, Jim.)

Then, in 1997, a couple of eccentric, septuagenarian British Christians went and ruined my shtick—my reproachfulness. They did it by describing the Millennium, the year 2000, as a Jubilee year, as an opportunity to cancel the chronic debts of the world’s poorest people. They had the audacity to renew the Lord’s call—and were joined by Pope John Paul II, who, from an Irish half-Catholic’s point of view, may have had a more direct line to the Almighty.

‘Jubilee’—why ‘Jubilee’?

What was this year of Jubilee, this year of our Lords favor?

I’d always read the Scriptures, even the obscure stuff. There it was in Leviticus (25:35)…

‘If your brother becomes poor,’ the Scriptures say, ‘and cannot maintain himself… you shall maintain him… You shall not lend him your money at interest, not give him your food for profit.’

It is such an important idea, Jubilee, that Jesus begins his ministry with this. Jesus is a young man, he’s met with the rabbis, impressed everyone, people are talking. The elders say, he’s a clever guy, this Jesus, but he hasn’t done much… yet. He hasn’t spoken in public before…

When he does, is first words are from Isaiah: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,’ he says, ‘because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.’ And Jesus proclaims the year of the Lord’s favour, the year of Jubilee. (Luke 4:18)

What he was really talking about was an era of grace—and we’re still in it.

So fast-forward 2,000 years. That same thought, grace, was made incarnate—in a movement of all kinds of people. It wasn’t a bless-me club… it wasn’t a holy huddle. These religious guys were willing to get out in the streets, get their boots dirty, wave the placards, follow their convictions with actions… making it really hard for people like me to keep their distance. It was amazing. I almost started to like these church people.

But then my cynicism got another helping hand.

It was what Colin Powell, a five-star general, called the greatest W.M.D. of them all: a tiny little virus called A.I.D.S. And the religious community, in large part, missed it. The one’s that didn’t miss it could only see it as divine retribution for bad behaviour. Even on children… Even fastest growing group of HIV infections were married, faithful women.

Aha, there they go again! I thought to myself Judgmentalism is back!

But in truth, I was wrong again. The church was slow but the church got busy on this the leprosy of our age.

Love was on the move.

Mercy was on the move.

God was on the move.

Moving people of all kinds to work with others they had never met, never would have cared to meet… Conservative church groups hanging out with spokesmen for the gay community, all singing off the same hymn sheet on AIDS… Soccer moms and quarterbacks… hip-hop stars and country stars… This is what happens when God gets on the move: crazy stuff happens!

Popes were seen wearing sunglasses!

Jesse Helms was seen with a ghetto blaster!

Crazy stuff. Evidence of the spirit.

It was breathtaking. Literally. It stopped the world in its tracks.

When churches started demonstrating on debt, governments listened—and acted. When churches starting organising, petitioning, and even—that most unholy of acts today, God forbid, lobbying… on AIDS and global health, governments listened—and acted.

I’m here today in all humility to say: you changed minds; you changed policy; you changed the world.

Look, whatever thoughts you have about God, who He is or if He exists, most will agree that if there is a God, He has a special place for the poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives.

Check Judaism. Check Islam. Check pretty much anyone.

I mean, God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill… I hope so. He may well be with us as in all manner of controversial stuff… maybe, maybe not… But the one thing we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor.

God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives… God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. “If you remove the yolk from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places”

It’s not a coincidence that in the Scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It’s not an accident. That’s a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions. [You know, the only time Christ is judgmental is on the subject of the poor.] ‘As you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.’ (Matthew 25:40). As I say, good news to the poor.

Here’s some good news for the President. After 9-11 we were told America would have no time for the World’s poor. America would be taken up with its own problems of safety. And it’s true these are dangerous times, but America has not drawn the blinds and double-locked the doors.

In fact, you have double aid to Africa. You have tripled funding for global health. Mr. President, your emergency plan for AIDS relief and support for the Global Fund—you and Congress—have put 700,000 people onto life-saving anti-retroviral drugs and provided 8 million bed nets to protect children from malaria.

Outstanding human achievements. Counterintuitive. Historic. Be very, very proud.

But here’s the bad news. From charity to justice, the good news is yet to come. There’s is much more to do. There’s a gigantic chasm between the scale of the emergency and the scale of the response.

And finally, it’s not about charity after all, is it? It’s about justice.

Let me repeat that: It’s not about charity, it’s about justice.

And that’s too bad.

Because you’re good at charity. Americans, like the Irish, are good at it. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can’t afford it.

But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment.

6,500 Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about Justice and Equality.

Because there's no way we can look at what’s happening in Africa and, if we're honest, conclude that deep down, we really accept that Africans are equal to us. Anywhere else in the world, we wouldn’t accept it. Look at what happened in South East Asia with the Tsunami. 150, 000 lives lost to that misnomer of all misnomers, “mother nature”. In Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month. And it’s a completely avoidable catastrophe.

It’s annoying but justice and equality are mates. Aren’t they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain.

You know, think of those Jewish sheep-herders going to meet the Pharaoh, mud on their shoes, and the Pharaoh says, “Equal?” A preposterous idea: rich and poor are equal? And they say, “Yeah, ‘equal,’ that’s what it says here in this book. We’re all made in the image of God.”

And eventually the Pharaoh says, “OK, I can accept that. I can accept the Jews—but not the blacks.”

“Not the women. Not the gays. Not the Irish. No way, man.”

So on we go with our journey of equality.

On we go in the pursuit of justice.

We hear that call in the ONE Campaign, a growing movement of more than two million Americans… left and right together… united in the belief that where you live should no longer determine whether you live.

We hear that call even more powerfully today, as we mourn the loss of Coretta Scott King—mother of a movement for equality, one that changed the world but is only just getting started. These issues are as alive as they ever were; they just change shape and cross the seas.

Preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their products while we sing the virtues of the free market… that’s a justice issue. Holding children to ransom for the debts of their grandparents… That’s a justice issue. Withholding life-saving medicines out of deference to the Office of Patents… that’s a justice issue.

And while the law is what we say it is, God is not silent on the subject.

That’s why I say there’s the law of the land… and then there is a higher standard. There’s the law of the land, and we can hire experts to write them so they benefit us, so the laws say it’s OK to protect our agriculture but it’s not OK for African farmers to do the same, to earn a living?

As the laws of man are written, that’s what they say.

God will not accept that.

Mine won’t, at least. Will yours?

[pause]

I close this morning on … very… thin… ice.

This is a dangerous idea I’ve put on the table: my God vs. your God, their God vs. our God… vs. no God. It is very easy, in these times, to see religion as a force for division rather than unity.

And this is a town—Washington—that knows something of division.

But the reason I am here, and the reason I keep coming back to Washington, is because this is a town that is proving it can come together on behalf of what the Scriptures call the least of these.

This is not a Republican idea. It is not a Democratic idea. It is not even, with all due respect, an American idea. Nor it is unique to any one faith.

Do to others as you would have them do to you.’ (Luke 6:30) Jesus says that.

‘Righteousness is this: that one should… give away wealth out of love for Him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for the emancipation of the captives.’ The Koran says that. (2.177)

Thus sayeth the Lord: ‘Bring the homeless poor into the house, when you see the naked, cover him, then your light will break out like the dawn and your recovery will speedily spring fourth, then your Lord will be your rear guard.’ The jewish scripture says that. Isaiah 58 again.

That is a powerful incentive: ‘The Lord will watch your back.’ Sounds like a good deal to me, right now.

A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord’s blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it… I have a family, please look after them… I have this crazy idea…

And this wise man said: stop.

He said, stop asking God to bless what you’re doing.

Get involved in what God is doing—because it’s already blessed.

Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing.

And that is what He’s calling us to do.

I was amazed when I first got to this country and I learned how much some churchgoers tithe. Up to ten percent of the family budget. Well, how does that compare the federal budget, the budget for the entire American family? How much of that goes to the poorest people in the world? Less than one percent.

Mr. President, Congress, people of faith, people of America:

I want to suggest to you today that you see the flow of effective foreign assistance as tithing…. Which, to be truly meaningful, will mean an additional one percent of the federal budget tithed to the poor.

What is one percent?

One percent is not merely a number on a balance sheet.

One percent is the girl in Africa who gets to go to school, thanks to you. One percent is the AIDS patient who gets her medicine, thanks to you. One percent is the African entrepreneur who can start a small family business thanks to you. One percent is not redecorating presidential palaces or money flowing down a rat hole. This one percent is digging waterholes to provide clean water.

One percent is a new partnership with Africa, not paternalism towards Africa, where increased assistance flows toward improved governance and initiatives with proven track records and away from boondoggles and white elephants of every description.

America gives less than one percent now. Were asking for an extra one percent to change the world. to transform millions of lives—but not just that and I say this to the military men now – to transform the way that they see us.

One percent is national security, enlightened economic self interest, and a better safer world rolled into one. Sounds to me that in this town of deals and compromises, one percent is the best bargain around.

These goals—clean water for all; school for every child; medicine for the afflicted, an end to extreme and senseless poverty—these are not just any goals; they are the Millennium Development goals, which this country supports. And they are more than that. They are the Beatitudes for a Globalised World.

Now, I’m very lucky. I don’t have to sit on any budget committees. And I certainly don’t have to sit where you do, Mr. President. I don’t have to make the tough choices.

But I can tell you this:

To give one percent more is right. It’s smart. And it’s blessed.

There is a continent—Africa—being consumed by flames.

I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did—or did not to—to put the fire out in Africa.

History, like God, is watching what we do.

Thank you. Thank you, America, and God bless you all.

Oh the beauty burns my eyes.....

2006-02-22T20:51:00.000Z

2006-02-22T20:28:00.000Z