Scholarship • Serving • Ministry – Ian Paul
This Sunday’s lectionary reading is from Luke 5, the story of the miraculous catch of fish, as we jump forward into Jesus’ ministry before returning to the temptations in the desert at the start of Lent. It is a captivating story in its own right, but it also raises questions about the connections with the …
Richard Moy writes: In 2007 the local BBC TV station did a feature on Nicola and me as the youngest clergy couple in the Church of England. Fortunately the footage has since been lost! But what was still quite rare in 2007 is now the new norm – at least for women in training. Apparently 60% of …
At the last Archbishops’ Council, I was rather startled to come across a slide in a presentation on some background issues about funding and mission. The slide offered an analysis of the proportion of the population attending Church of England churches against another factor (whose label I have, for the moment, removed), and there was …
Following from the discussion about God and gender earlier this week, and whether it has an implication for mission, a friend drew my attention to this post which I wrote five years ago and have not returned to. I think I might write it differently now—but it retains its relevance. I am feeling very nervous …
I last wrote about speaking on the radio (and television) four years ago, so thought it worth revisiting the subject. This arose in part as a reflection on contributing to a piece about Justin Welby’s comments on higher tax rates on Radio 4’s Sunday, in which I debated with Andy Walton whether Christian leaders should …
At the beginning of August, Jude Smith (who is team rector of Moor Allerton and Shadwell in North Leeds) wrote an intriguing and slightly pessimistic article on the challenges facing the idea of the gathered church meeting on a Sunday morning, and I have been pondering it over the last few weeks. The context was …
What do people in your congregation feel like just as the service reaches the time for the sermon? Do they have a sense of anticipation and expectation? Is it something that they are looking forward to? This is quite a personal question for preachers, and so something of a challenge, since there is much truth …
I am teaching at New Wine this week, offering sessions each afternoon (from 2.30 to 3.30) in the ‘teaching/theology’ stream on the question of why Jesus came. The subject emerged from an article I wrote in December last year reflecting on the difference between two statements made by Christian leaders commenting on ‘why Jesus came’. …
One of the slightly odd things about the Christian church is that there is no agreed pattern to what we should do when we meet together. In the Western (and probably the global) church, there seem to me to be three different strands of emphasis: We meet to experience an affective encounter with God (charismatic/Pentecostal) …
Following the success of our first Festival of Theology in January, I will be hosting a second Festival of Theology on Wednesday 17th October 2018, once again at Christ Church, Chilwell. Come and listen to great speakers address some vital questions for Christian living, mission and discipleship in TED-style talks, with the opportunity to ask …
Is it just me, or does the football World Cup seem a world away? We have returned to our usual combination of agonising (and antagonism) about Brexit, and endless comments about the weather, at the moment mostly of the ‘Whew what a scorcher!’ variety. How quickly the waters of stoical disappointment have closed over the …
