Life & Ministry | Psephizo

Do Christians love one another?

March 16, 2015

‘And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.’

So we sang in the late 1970s, in a culturally appropriate rock ballad idiom, and very real it seemed at the time. I came to faith in an evangelical Anglican tradition which had been shaped by the charismatic renewal movement, and a key sign of this was an authenticity of relationships which had been absent from the starchy formality of much church life.

Pruning and fruitfulness

March 16, 2015March 12, 2015

With the beautiful spring weather, I have just completed my first hour back in the garden since abandoning it (more or less) over the winter. I devoted my time to pruning and offer some reflections here on the process. Pruning needs confidence. You only prune things that you think are going to continue to flower and …

Is ‘discipleship’ Anglican?

March 12, 2015March 9, 2015

A few weeks ago, Linda Woodhead suggested in the Church Times that discipleship was a ‘theologically peripheral concept’, and the following week Angela Tilby dismissed the ‘d-word’ as ‘sectarian vocabulary that…shows the influence of American-derived Evangelicalism on the Church’s current leadership.’ The short discussions in each place actually raise not one but three, inter-related, questions: …

Does faith come in stages?

March 16, 2015March 6, 2015

There are a number of reasons why we often feel we want to present the Christian faith to different groups of people in different ways, either expressing ideas by different means or addressing quite different issues. The most obvious context is that of working with children and young people. Young people live in a very …

Should MPs have second jobs?

March 3, 2015March 2, 2015

The question of MPs pay and responsibilities came to the fore again last week, with revelations that Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkind fell victim to a sting operation by newspaper who were pretending to offer payment for lobbying. This was all the more surprising given the reputation and experience of the two MPs concerned—and given …

Expressing God’s welcome

August 16, 2015February 27, 2015

Thom Shultz has explored the reasons why people both leave and stay away from the church in the West, and proposes Four Acts of Love that could make the church ‘irresistible.’ With a bit of cultural translation, I think he is on to something important. The first Act of Love is called ‘Radical Hospitality.’ Shultz …

Life as labyrinth

February 26, 2015February 25, 2015

Last week, returning from a half-term break in France, we had a tyre blow out on the autoroute and, since almost everything is closed on a Sunday in France, we had an unplanned extra day there. We stayed over in St Quentin, a town of ancient foundation which was the capital of the war-like Viromandui, …

How often should we fast?

February 25, 2015February 20, 2015

Since we are now in Lent, it might be a good time to review the spiritual habit of fasting. Jesus clearly expected his followers to fast after he had gone, so it is odd that this is not a widespread habit amongst all Christians. To answer this, we need to ask some background questions. How often …

Which party should I vote for?

March 9, 2015February 19, 2015

There has been a flurry of activity this week on the question of the forthcoming election and Christian faith. Tuesday saw the publication of the House of Bishops’ pastoral letter ‘Who is my neighbour?’ (WIMN) identifying key issues to consider for Anglicans as they vote, and today sees the publication of a survey by the …

Labour, business and democracy

February 20, 2015February 13, 2015

The question of Labour’s relationship with business, and business’ evaluation of Labour’s competence in financial management, has continued to rumble on all week. It started with the proclamation by Stefano Pessina, Chairman of Boots PLC, that if Labour were elected it would be a ‘catastrophe’ for the British economy. Interestingly, this did Boots’ reputation no …

Allocating giving for ministry (‘parish share’)

February 13, 2015February 11, 2015

In just about every deanery I have been involved with, the allocation of ‘parish share’, the contribution to the central financing of the diocese, has been a matter of contention. As with many decisions, disagreements are heightened when they are focussed on the practical decisions involved. This is often because underlying principles have not been …

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