Scholarship • Serving • Ministry – Ian Paul
I was asked by the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity (LICC) to write a short series of five reflections on the ‘Hard sayings of Jesus’ for their weekly email Word for the Week which is sent out on Monday mornings. It has proved to be an interesting experience which I am still reflecting on. When …
Ian Macnair wrote what I decided when teaching was the best book for teaching introductory NT Greek, which continues in print as Teach Yourself New Testament Greek. I had the chance to ask Ian about the book and his approach to learning. IP: Most people think that learning Greek is just for academics reading the New …
Savvas Costi writes: Anything which seeks to build bridges in a world that is already fractured and polarised is worth our attention. This is what is on offer when reading Thomas Tarrants’ gripping autobiography, Consumed By Hate, Redeemed By Love. It’s a page-turner difficult to put down! It could have been made into a blockbuster film …
I have posted this main part of article several times before. But there are currently some high-profile issues being talked about in the C of E, and they have been depicted solely as issues of race and racism—when I think a big part of the underlying problem was a failure to give honest feedback when …
John Bavington writes: “Our current system is perfectly designed to see the results we are currently achieving” (Alan Hirsch) My word for the year is “anti-clericalism” I was trained for Anglican ministry in the late 1990’s, George Carey’s ‘Decade of Evangelism’. Lots of people were talking about “Church Growth” and “Healthy Churches” and moving from …
The gospel read for Trinity 3 in Year A of Matt 10.40–42 is perhaps the strangest choice in the whole lectionary—at only three verses! And yet this short passage has some really significant features that offer enormous potential for reflection: a. They are very clearly structured as a unit, with an opening and matching conclusion, …
Why does our experience of Christian life often seem so contradictory, so paradoxical? Why do we so often seem to move from experiences of triumph and wonder to experiences of doubt and failure? (I have a sense that this is a universal question, and not just a function of my getting older and more grumpy…!) …
At last week’s Diocesan Synod in Chelmsford Diocese, a paper was discussed which proposed a radical reduction of stipendiary clergy posts from 275 to 215 within the next 18 months, a reduction of 22%. (Since these papers are in the public domain, you can read it for yourself here.) Despite some of these positions already …
At last! After the detours in Luke-Acts and John for the series of feasts around Ascension, Pentecost, and Trinity, the lectionary finally brings us back to the Gospel according to Matthew for the First Sunday after Trinity in Year A! Whew! The reading set, Matt 9.35–10.8, is slight odd, in that it bridges from one …
The imposition of social distancing and then ‘lockdown’, including the closing of church buildings as places of gathering for worship, has changed the shape of ministry for everyone. But what exactly does that mean for the local church? And in amongst the challenges, are there signs of hope? James Blandford-Baker is vicar of Histon and …
Robin Ham writes: I had the opportunity last week to hear a presentation from Osoba Otaigbe of Bible Society about their Lumino Research Project on attitudes to the Bible. I’d heard the research referenced previously in passing, but this was the first time I’d looked at it in detail. If you’ve not come across it, it’s …
