St Therese of Lisieux

I write this sat in the Chapter House of York Minster at half midnight, have spent an hour watching and praying a few meters from the relics of St Therese. Aware that I’m somewhat beyond my own comfort zone, the whole thing is a learning experience. But if this event is about reconcilliation, then one thing is for certain: it cannot ‘work’ without give and take from both sides.

Poll: Religion and Politics in Blogging

I’ve been playing around with the new polls tool on WordPress.com for  a while, and have finally landed on a few questions I’d like to ask you folks. First and foremost, I’m aware my blog makes almost no attempt to split politics and religion, and frequently fails to acknowledge the moments I swerve from one to another. See below for poll…

Are Dog Collars on Vicars outdated?

This is the question that seems to be gripping my workplace at the moment. Its been argued, as I understand it, that its an outdated fashion and that it makes relating to others more difficult and less obvious. But is there more to Dog Collar wearing than meets the eye of today’s fashion critic?

Liberals, Evangelicals and Deep Church

A year ago I read Amy and Frog Orr-Ewing’s book, “Deep”. I realised recently I never wrote anything on my blog about it, even though it provoked some useful thoughts. Their assessment of the state of the Church in Britain today is often very useful, inspired amongst other things, by work in deprived areas and mission trips to repressive Islamic regimes, including Afghanistan.

The Songs We Sing

Another heavily religious post, so apologies to the atheists. This tends to happen at this point in the year, as I grapple with a bunch of issues that have come up during Soul Survivor and Greenbelt. One of the major differences between the two events is quite often the approach to music in the context of faith that comes between the two events, and the misunderstandings attached.

The Hand Gel Prayer

The last few weeks have seen an explosion in the number of people regularly using alcohol hand gel, so much so that Boots were reporting a national shortage of everything but the most basic 250ml bottles when I needed one before the cycle ride. No where has more comment been passed on the craze than in churches, where bottles are now routinely passed round before the peace, and during communion. So what if we developed some kind of liturgy around them?

Finding Momentum, Finding Vision

So Momentum is in full swing here in Somerset. My major feeling is that this is the first year when Momentum has really escaped from its image as “Soul Survivor grown up”, and begun to find a vision of its own. And its seen some truly groundbreaking talk addressing the concern that so many 20-somethings are quitting the church in such numbers, with our age group half as likely to attend as the general population and that 50% of those of us who do attend are within London; the regions being a place of total absence for an entire age-band.

The French try to rewrite Islam, again

One wouldn’t expect the mayor of a small town in France to be the best at telling people what the Quran has to say on any issue, but apparently that’s exactly what happened in a bizarre twist to yet another tale of French religious interference. We’ve had the headscarf in schools row, its now time for the Islamic swimming costume row.

Barriers to reducing HIV amongst Africa’s Gays

Amongst the many articles I have saved up and still need to write a blog post about (currently 36), was a news story on the HIV rate amongst Gay men in Africa. Its a difficult topic when one is dealing with entire states still in denial over the existence of Gay people. As a Christian, I realise this is an interesting topic to be dealing with, as many working to solve the situation would name religion as a major barrier to their work.

Perfecting Humanity: Nihilism or Celebration?

Reflecting on a recent discussion with a friend about the impending ban on hi-tech swim wear in competitions, I was musing about the different attitudes to what sports is actually all about. Essentially, I found that on an individual level, it came down to one question: is sport a celebration of human capacity, or an attempt to overcome one’s humanity?