The vicar walked into the pulpit like "this week's Gospel reading is the longest one of the year, and I'd love to preach on it, but apparently some idiots think they're starting a holy war to bring about the second coming of Christ so I've really got to address that right now..."
Oh this is a very fun thread!
For anyone needing some respite from *everything* this series is a delightful listen.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Exciting news, congratulations!
‘We live in a zeitgeist of too much information, but little knowledge and even less wisdom.
A zeitgeist overflowing with opinions, biases and convictions, but starved of empathy.’ Elif Shafak
open.substack.com/pub/elifshaf...
It’s a GK Chesterton reading season.
On cold snowy days remembering that time at theological college we built an igloo.
I’m loving Katherine’s turns of phrase. Lovely writing to read.
Christmas fantasy reading inspired by @jdcrawf.bsky.social Take Four Books episode with Katherine Rundell. Starting with the first in Rundell’s ‘Impossible Creatures’ series and then a re-read of the wonderful ‘Wizard of Earthsea’
So grateful for catch ups with friends who have known you for over 35 years. Feeling very blessed today.
A beautiful, gentle read.
‘It was precisely those wandering sheep that he was after, sheep that had been overlooked…They certainly couldn’t be allowed to freeze or starve to death in those high places simply because no one bothered or dared to seek them out and bring them home.’
Great episode. I wanted to hear more about how ‘Late’ is Rushdie’s knight’s of the round table story - I will have to have a read! This also made me think I would love to hear you interview @malcolmguite.bsky.social when the first volume of his Arthurian Epic comes out next year.
A really interesting talk by @pmounstephen.bsky.social on Jane Austen’s Faith and the way in which it weaves through her novels in themes such as constancy, the development of Christian virtues: compassion, kindness & love, & the incarnational way she sits within & without the world of her novels.
Of course!
My annual message of appreciation to @jamiedavies.bsky.social as I riff off his teaching for my Revelation session with our preaching cohort.
Driving to work this morning as the sun rose, painting the sky pink and orange over the frozen fields and the mist lay heavy on the stream I caught a flash of iridescent blue which danced ahead of me. My first Kingfisher. Unexpected beauty in something so small and fragile - a perfect gift.
Congratulations Jamie!
I hope this reaches you.
Whatever you think the church's position on same-sex relationships should be, the decision-making of the House of Bishops shouldn't be informed by advice which tries to claim a consensus which doesn't exist, even among the theologians quoted supposedly in support of it.
I was very restrained at the bookshop this morning but excited to read both of these. One inspired by last week’s conversation between Katherine Randell and @jdcrawf.bsky.social and the other a delightful discovery ready for Advent.
You know a country by its values. By what a country values. And it turns out thatwhat a country values can change overtime. Sometimes, though, there's a sort of cognitive delay between the country you think you are in, and the country you've actually become. For example, you can keep selling yourself, to foreigners, as the country of William Shakespeare and Jane Austen, and luring busloads of tourists to Stratford-upon-Avon and Bath, and put a statue of George Orwell in front of the BBC, and imagine yourself a cultured and literate nation, which the rest of the world admires for its devotion to the written word - but if you then chronically underfund your cultural institutions, and treat your cultural workers with contempt, many people will suspect you of being full of it. And as the decades pass - and fewer and fewer Shakespeares and Austens and Orwells emerge from your little island - even more people will begin to suspect that in truth you do not value culture at all, and are in fact running a giant heritage museum in which the only cultural workers you respect are the dead ones.
With alt text.
Loved this episode exploring the importance of fantasy, storytelling an imagination. ‘The Prince Caspian’ choice reminded me of Jem Bloomfield’s book ‘Gold on the Horizon’ which follows the Take Four books USP by tracing Lewis’ literary influences in Caspian and Dawn Treader.
Looking forward to this episode. I loved listening to Katherine’s series ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wonder’.
Echoes of the past carried on the wind,
As waves shape granite
Birds wheel on thermals above
And the heart is at rest in the wildness.
#Cornwall #WestPenwith
Thank you for sharing. Not come across this series before. What a great way to discover gems you might otherwise miss.
Led a study day today with our final year ordinands today. In the midst of *waves hands at everything* spending time with these humble, open and faithful people brings so much hope and joy. #TiredButHappy
‘Climate, memory & the way the past haunts the present’
Count me in!
One of the best things about my job is that my students teach me far more than I ever teach them. A great start of term weekend exploring Bonhoeffer, St Benedict and the work of God in a pretty amazing group of people. Looking forward to the year ahead.
