The ‘business’ of our world – the planet’s orbit, the weather and seasons, our births and deaths – does not reflect our special occasions such as Christmas (or any other religious observance). The business of our world happens. We can understand the world physically,…
Recently, the opening ceremony of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was held. For a country which practises laïcité which is often summarised as ‘freedom from religion’ where there is a strong separation of church and state where the state’s citizens should not be regarded…
Who is tired? Many people seem to be. You might have said an emphatic ‘I am!’. When the days are long and the weeks are busy, I can get tired. We can be in the stresses of work – maybe it is simply the…
Last week I attended Choral Evensong at Westminster Abbey and afterwards a tour of the Abbey and then a reception of the Anglican Lutheran Society. Upon arrival I was ushered into the Quire and seated in a top stall adjacent to the Commonwealth stalls…
When I went on the church leaders’ Tantur trip to Israel in 2015 with its lectures and sightseeing, I remember going to the Melkite Byzantine Catholic Church in Jerusalem to see the church and hear a presentation and the first thing said to us,…
I grew up with a sense that being a Lutheran meant that I subscribed and agreed to what the Lutheran Church taught was the Christian Faith. I like to think – and still do – that I’m not blind or naïve about these teachings…
I finally got around to the podcast I mentioned two weeks back entitled ‘Is it OK to turn your back on suffering?’. It wasn’t exactly what I expected but it was on topic enough 😉 and I was challenged to consider things I usually don’t think…
Ok, a quick question … what do the following churches have in common? Lutheran Church Missouri Synod; Evangelical Lutheran Church – Synod of France; Evangelical Lutheran Church in Belgium; Evangelical Lutheran Free Church in Denmark; Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany; Portuguese Evangelical Lutheran…
If you had to pick two people from your congregation that best look like angels, whom would you choose? Two young girls or two burly men? My guess is that we would choose the girls rather than men who look like bouncers! There is…
My time in Edinburgh was very nice. My paper on the Lutheran understanding of the Two Kingdoms was received variously – with interest, with disagreement, with ‘we must think more about this’, and always with politeness at the Anglican Lutheran Society biennial conference. I…
