Perhaps it is significant that our English word for ‘obedience’ is derived from two Latin words -ob and audire- which mean to ‘listen keenly’. Listening has three meanings: The first is to hear; the second is like the meaning of the French ‘connaitre’ – to understand; and the third is the command to pay attention. In […]
Blog
the face in the mirror
Posted on by James Woodward
we are the face in the mirror and we are the mirror itself. Here, now, right now, we taste the eternal. Yes, we are pain and yes, we are the medicine for pain. We are sweet cold water and the jar, from which it pours. Rumi
Leadership
Posted on by James Woodward
and Listening? Writing in the July 2001 edition of the magazine Quadrant, Eddie Gibbs, an Anglican priest, and for many years Professor of Church Growth at the USA’s Fuller Theological Seminary, sums things up like this: We now have a generation of leaders who do not know how to lead within a con text of […]
Pickled red cabbage
Posted on by James Woodward
By Mrs Beeton Preparation time: overnight Cooking time: 10 to 30 mins Makes 1 large jar Ingredients •red cabbage •salt •water •1.13 litre/2 pint vinegar – to each quart add 1 tbsp ginger, well bruised •25g/1oz whole black pepper •a little cayene, if liked Preparation method 1.Take off the outside decayed leaves of a nice […]
Francis of Assisi
Posted on by James Woodward
O God, you ever delight to reveal yourself to the childlike and lowly of heart: grant that, following the example of the blessed Francis, we may count the wisdom of this world as foolishness and know only Jesus Christ and him crucified, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy […]
Forgiveness
Posted on by James Woodward
My suggestion is this: that what forgiveness looks like is an ongoing process, again and again, of learning to behave as if death were not, which will mean coming gradually to stand up against those whose being depends on death, and running the risk of being persecuted by them, and maybe even killed by them. […]
On Leadership
Posted on by James Woodward
For me, part of the burden, the excitement and the challenge of trying to exercise leadership in the Church, is trying to feel the rhythm or the heartbeat of the body of Christ, so that leadership that matters or is effective in the Church, has to be listening (italics mine) … Listening is actually […]
Reservoirs ?
Posted on by James Woodward
If then you are wise, you will show yourself rather as a reservoir than as a canal. A canal spreads abroad water as it receives it, and a reservoir waits until it is filled before overflowing, and thus without loss to itself communications its superabundant water. In the Church at the present day we have […]
poverty and poetry
Posted on by James Woodward
Ariel was glad he had written his poems. They were of a remembered time Or of something seen that he liked. His self and the sun were one And his poems, although makings of his self, Were no less makings of the sun. It was not important that they survive. What mattered was […]
When will we learn to care for our older people?
Posted on by James Woodward
Patients can apply for NHS funding through the continuing care system Vulnerable elderly people are being unfairly forced to pay for health care, the new chairman of the House of Commons health committee says. Stephen Dorrell said patients with conditions such as dementia used to get free care in NHS geriatric hospitals. But the […]
imperfection
Posted on by James Woodward
Let us return to imperfection’s school. No longer wandering after Plato’s ghost, Seeking the garden where all fruit is flawless, We must at last renounce that ultimate blue And take a walk in other kinds of weather. From Adrienne Rich, Stepping backward
Vincent de Paul
Posted on by James Woodward
Merciful God, whose servant Vincent de Paul, by his ministry of preaching and pastoral care, brought your love to the sick and the poor: give to all your people a heart of compassion that by word and action they may serve you in serving others in their need; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, […]
Windsor
Posted on by James Woodward
How time moves on….. although I am into the second cycle of my ministry here in the College of St George – I find it difficult to remember what the routines and rituals were last year mainly because it was all so new! Often friends and visitors ask how I am doing and even offer […]
Financial crisis leaves over 200 million on less than 2 dollars a day
Posted on by James Woodward
As world leaders meet for the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit in New York, 20-22 September, a new report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) highlights that because of the financial crisis around 120 million more people may now be living on less than US$2 a day and 89 million more on less […]
Dementia cost ‘to top 1% of GDP’
Posted on by James Woodward
An economic, moral and spiritual challenge to us all: The costs associated with dementia will amount to more than 1% of the world’s gross domestic product this year at $604bn (£388bn), a report says. The World Alzheimer Report says this is more than the revenue of retail giant Wal-Mart or oil firm Exxon Mobil. The […]
Valuing Age
Posted on by James Woodward
Selling books is no easy work these days and authors need all the help we can get…… I am glad to give some space to this review by Helen Cameron of Ripon College Cuddesdon. WOODWARD, James. 2008. Valuing Ageing: Pastoral Ministry with Older People. London: SPCK. Pbk. 192pp. ISBN: 9780281057795. £12.99. Reviewed by: Helen Cameron, […]
John Henry Newman
Posted on by James Woodward
Cardinal Newman’s prayers God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission – I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in […]
Ninian
Posted on by James Woodward
Almighty and everlasting God, who called your servant Ninian to preach the gospel to the people of northern Britain: raise up in this and every land heralds and evangelists of your kingdom, that your Church may make known the immeasurable riches of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, […]
sunlight
Posted on by James Woodward
How can you stand it—looking at things? For example, the geranium out on the patio, the single pink blossom in the sun? Or stand the sunlight moving through it, illuminating, holding the flower open like a high clear note, an ecstatic widening which arrives, arrives. from Kate Northrop, The geranium
John Chrysostom
Posted on by James Woodward
John Chrysostom or ‘golden-mouthed’ has been called “the greatest preacher in the early church”. He was born in Syrian Antioch into a Christian family. His father Secundus, a civil servant, died when John was only a few years old. His widowed mother, Anthusa rejected any idea of a second marriage and devoted herself to raising […]