not so silent

We could take the front page of any newspaper and find these headlines somewhere Gun Crime problem , Foreign troops occupy our land, People desperate to know the future seek guidance from horoscopes and fortune tellers, Banks on the edge of collapse, payday money lenders in high interest rate rates row. Like a high calorie sandwich The reading from Isaiah has four fillings 1.        Full of superstition  v6 2.        Full of silver and gold v7 3.        Full of horses and chariots  v7 4.        Full of idols v8 This is a political, religious, financial and sociological appraisal of a people in trouble.  So I am with Desmond TuTu  when he say He once said, “Those who say that politics and religion should not mix do not read the same Bible as I do.” For at the heart of the issue for Isaiah is one of trust. The people no lon...

Wallander vs Hutch In 1975 I was 17 years old it was the year The Boss Delivered  Born to Run deep into my soul.  TV screen heros came and went with regularity. There were enough detectives on TV to cure all crime. But who was my hero? For instance I never wanted to be Ironside (can you blame me) only flirted with smelly Colombo,(not literally) Kojak was too old like a dodgy uncle but Starsky and Hutch well they were the people to be in the late 70s. This united pair burst onto the sunny California scean in a Ford Gran Torinos "Bright Red" (paint code 2B). In Aston where I lived there were no hills, no beachs no Bright Red Torinos, but I did have my Austin A40. They ran, jumped into the car without using the doors slid of the roof lounged on the bonnet (hood) and pulled guns and people out of the boot. In my distant days of youth, the days before varifocols and flatulence Starsky and Hutch  inspired Friday night drives in my A40 with The Boss on the cassette player....

Wood for the trees I was in a gathering where the question was asked  “name someone of spiritual strength”. The required buzz among the listeners started with their neighbours and then we were offerd the opportunity to shout out a verbal offering some names.  And so they came; Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Dalie Lama, Desmond Tu Tu and finally The Queen. There was then a short silence. I wanted to call this blog Pavlov’s dogs but I am aware this would seem offensive. It is not meant to be. But can we not see the wood for the trees?  Are we just conditioned to recite a list of people we have never meet to be our spiritual hero’s. Is it safe to have spiritual heroes we cannot question or hold to account or share our lives with those who are firmly located on another continent or watching us on TV? There is the cynical situation that whatever the question is in Sunday school the answer must be Jesus.  The list above must be the adult version of Sunday school. D...

During our cell group this week we engaged with the reading from Sunday, Galatians 3:25 end. The writer of this passage wants the reader or listener to engage with some challenging ideas pointing us to some divisions and differences that don't seem to a have a place in the church or the kingdom. Or if they have a place in our life for us to identify them and reflect upon them . Many of us crave for difference young people don't want to be like their old people, punks are not like Goths. Team and party colours separate from each other because we don't want to be like them other people.  But not all difference is bad. It is the difference and separation that does not allow the other person to take their full place in our community that should unsettle us enough to examine its cost. When we looked at some issues of difference and division we began to go to default position and say yes but, yes but they, yes but God would not, yes but that don't seem right. We k...

Wider debate about Welfare! One dictionary version of the word on the lips of our government,  welfare ,  a governmental agency that provides funds and aid to people in need, especially those unable to work. So welfare seems to be about distributing money to those in need (not unlike being a parent) and today that focus for the government is the under 25 year olds on housing benefit. Some we are told have become used to getting hand-outs that are taken for granted and not deserved. (Like me when I was a child) So here is what I am pondering what if we move those responsible for Tax Breaks into the same Department of Welfare hopefully in bringing th e two departments together we will discover some synergy (cost savings) redundancy (eventually seeking housing benefit). It seems to my narrow uneducated way of looking at life both departments share the same definitions of Welfare as some of the definitions and language are similar. The role of both departments is to identif...

10:10 on a Friday night and the door bell goes. I turn on the CCTV to see a man I don't recognize.  on opening the door he quietly informs me "get me an ambulance". A quiet and nervous conversation slips by. He can hear the voices, what voices, the voices in my head he tells me. Does he not know i am not on duty for the Mental Health Trust i work for! He is quiet but internally focused as he tells me of his past experience in mental health institutions. His internal voices are encouraging him to kill himself. My concerns for him and me rise, I call the ambulance as he is clearly poorly. The police come (thank you ) the ambulance comes. And my caller becomes agitated by the laughter of the professionals, paranoid, they wont take him seriously. He fears. He seems sure they will take him away and just drop him off somewhere. I try to reassure the calls the professionals have made and the wards they have m...

Barcelona On reflection this trip has not really been about the city. Like a good Woody Allen film the city is another character in the story but the city should never be more than the story. For me the story on this trip has been about the privilege of relationship. It seems my companion would have been happy to have gone to Rhyl but he unlike me has never been to Ryhl. I have not tortured him too much with trips to art galleries and we have only been to one church and we did not go inside. He was happy too I was not. The trip has been seasoned by conversation and questions. The week has been punctuated by food and ice cream and in that light you can see why Jesus spent so much time eating with people. The wonderful wide avenues here have reminded me how cramped a space we live in at home. Some of the roads are that wide crossing them could be a sponsored event. I am also baffled how we got on before rucksacks how did Moses get round the desert without a rucksack and a plastic bottle ...