Someone recently pointed me to a blog post 5 Areas Where Progressive Christian Culture Completely Loses Me. Benjamin Corey there wrote about Far too many progressives ready to rebuke you for not being progressive enough Neglecting the truth that choosing to follow Jesus results in a changed life Mishandling scripture to avoid traditional interpretations of
Heads, feet, and hair seem to be essential to much religious practice. In the place of worship – Christian males: head uncovered, feet covered; Jewish males: head covered, feet covered; Muslim males: head covered, feet uncovered. Sikh: hair never cut. Buddhist monks and nuns: head fully shaved. Jewish (First Testament/Hebrew Bible) regulations about not cutting
Our entrance rite has long fittingly been called our cluttered vestibule. Christmas holidays is one chance to worship in quite different communities, and to pop into church buildings as one drives around, also looking at their Sunday service booklets or pew sheets. From this it is clear that in many, many communities nearly every last
This Saturday, 31 January [feast day of that other well-known saint 🙂 ], it is 100 years since the birth of Thomas Merton. He is one of the most-influential spiritual writers of recent times. He was born in Prades, France, of a Kiwi father and American mother. His dad went to the school where I
I recently read about a convent that lent out wedding dresses for brides. People donate their wedding dress and so there is a good supply of hundreds to choose from. A sister alters the dress to fit. People can leave a donation in gratitude. It seems yet another example of creative mission and ministry. There
An article by the reliable Ruth Gledhill on the Christian Today website claims: As the consecration of the first female bishop [in the Church of England] approaches, Christian Today has learned that at the consecration a few days later of traditionalist priest Father Philip North as Bishop of Burnley no bishop will lay hands on
Update: Bishop Kelvin Wright, Bishop of Dunedin (NZ), has responded to this post on his excellent website. After reading my post, do go and read his here. Motion 30 in NZ Anglicanism, that we can currently liturgically recognise committed same-gender couples, and that set up a working group towards formally blessing such couples, four months
Your kingdom come. John the Baptist can be a bit of an embarrassment for Christians because if we look honestly at the documents it’s pretty clear that initially Jesus was a follower of John the Baptist. In Matthew Chapter 3 it says: In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming,
