It’s a magic number…

what does it all mean? Today is Trinity Sunday. So soon after Pentacost I ‘m a little unwilling to leave off the festival of Whitsun-tide. The Holy Spirit is my favourite part of Trinitarian theology. It’s like having a favourite Beatle. The Holy Spirit is definitely the Walrus. When I was first studying theology the …

Blues for Michael

It is a feature of our society that we are goal oriented: we value results and judge a thing by its outcome.The philosopher and psychiatrist Dr. Iain McGilchrist has been researching and writing over many years on the ‘two hemispheres’ theory of neurology which seeks to understand the human brain in relation to the curious …

A participatory (insurrectionary) Spirituality

Unitarian Free Christian theologian David Doel wrote (in ‘The Man they Called the Christ’ UCA books) that: ‘...resurrection invites us to consider that personal transformation, awakening, is an authentic and ever present possibility…’Doel quotes ancient gnostic scripture which teaches that resurrection is ‘the revealing of what truly exists … and a transition into newness’. Now, …

Blessing the lion

Opening words: Gospel of Thomas: Saying 7Jesus said, "Blessed is the lion that the human being will devour so that the lion becomes human. And cursed is the human being that the lion devours; and the lion will become human." 1st Reading - by Jane Hirshfield At timesthe heartstands backand looks at the body,looks at …

My soul magnifies… the greatest story, never told

Address : Its alright I’m not going to talk for long we are here to sing songs of peace and joy. I love the traditions of Christmas more and more the older I get, struggling with the carols service, going hopelessly overdrawn without having bought food or presents in the week before, tiptoeing drunk out …

Send in the Clown

The Biblical scholar Christine Hayes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo-YL-lv3RY&list=PLh9mgdi4rNeyuvTEbD-Ei0JdMUujXfyWi remarks that the origin story of the God of Israel is in marked contrast to the origin stories of the other religious traditions contemporary with it in the ancient near east: In the other origin stories Gods are often shown to be fighting or quarrelling, stars are created by …

The war on righteousness – an address on 9/11

I dreamed I fell from the highest building,but that highest building was me. For my work took me to the ninetieth floorby the glittering, glittering sea. Donald GardnerFrom The Glittering Sea, Hearing Eye, 2006 This early September the media has been full of the anniversary of 9/11.I don’t want to see the images of that …

Beyond here, beyond the perimeter…

Interlude played by Michael Baum 'Somewhere over the rainbow' from The Wizard of Oz by Harold Arlen & Yip Harburg This Lent has felt like the longest because of the long lens 'Paniversary' has lent to it, If lent feels like its been happening for a year its because we’ve begun to understand the concept …

Equinox, paradox, paradise and the numinous

I m interested in a theology of emergence and so I’m grateful for a space that has opened up during Lent and which has developed - some sort of meaning seems to have emerged, despite various challenges and issues we’ve experienced along the way. In my first talk in Lent I spoke about the roots …

Calling Jesus ‘Good’

Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me. Last week I recalled the paradoxical image of the yin yan in which the seed of one is located …