Perhaps ‘good’ Church has a few essential things in common? 1. They share a deeply incarnational view of the world, the recognition that matter is the scaffolding of spirit, the two deeply entwined; each Church knows that the commonplace, when seen with the eye of the heart, is holy, and that the ordinary is […]
The Priest
Posted on by James Woodward
The priest picks his way Through the parish. Eyes watch him From windows, from the farms; Hearts wanting him to come near. The flesh rejects him. Women, pouring from the black kettle, Stir up the whirling tea-grounds Of their thoughts; offer him a dark Filling in their smiling sandwich. Priests have a long […]
Surrender of Self?
Posted on by James Woodward
In his book The Triumph of the Therapeutic, Philip Rieff captured a major cultural theme of the last five decades of the twentieth century. Therapy’s triumph in an age of radical individualism has enriched our lives in numerous ways. Almost every facet of our lives has been touched, and in many cases, reshaped by […]
The Reverend Jeremy Sampson
Posted on by James Woodward
(from The Church Times Obits) SAMPSON. – On 11 July, the Revd Jeremy John Egerton Sampson: Vicar of North Perak, Malaya (1951-52); Priest-in-Charge of Johore Bahru (1952-57); Vicar of St John the Divine, Ipoh (1957-62); Killingworth (1962-76); Consett (1976-90); Rural Dean of Lanchester (1980-85); aged 89. It was with a mixture of sadness and gratitude that I learnt about […]
Clergy work in St Georges House
Posted on by James Woodward
A Church in Bavaria Everything bends to re-enact the poem lived, lived, not written, the poem spoken by Christ, who never wrote a word, saboteur of received ideas who rebuilt Rome with the words he never wrote; whether sacred, whether human, himself […]
Cosmo Lang
Posted on by James Woodward
Cosmo Gordon Lang: Archbishop in War and Crisis Robert Beaken (I B Tauris, £25), This was a hasty buy helped by a book token that I had been trying to use for ages and (frankly) a rather interesting set of photographs! I was not disappointed…. It has gained a little publicity in relation to the role […]
Our need for theology?
Posted on by James Woodward
It is the role of the contemporary conflicts of theology to expose the idolatries to which we Christians are prone; and the exorcism of them is necessary for the renewal of faith and for the convincing communication of faith to the world. Idolatry for Christians wears many guises. It arises when the service of God […]
Seeing the Glorgy of God
Posted on by James Woodward
The truth of God’s transcendence still stands. God is near, but God is different. God is here, but man is dependent. God’s otherness is the otherness of Creator to creature, of Saviour to sinner; and it is for the creature still to worship the Creator and for the sinner still to ask for the Saviour’s […]
On Anglican Piety
Posted on by James Woodward
“Her intellectual temper,” W H Auden said, “is summed up in a remark by one of her bishops, ‘Orthodoxy is reticence” Auden believed that “at its best,” Anglican piety “shows spiritual good manners, a quality no less valuable in the religious life than in social life, though, of course, not the ultimate criterion in either, reverence […]
This Moment !
Posted on by James Woodward
Never let yourself think that because God has given you many things to do for Him — pressing routine jobs, a life full up with duties and demands of a very practical sort — that all these need separate you from communion with Him. God is always coming to you in the Sacrament of the […]
Sunday
Posted on by James Woodward
I’m not, I think, a signer up to campaigns! I think there is an activist streak to me – as I hope there is to many of my friends and colleagues – but perhaps early middle age has brought both a wider (and perhaps even wiser) perspective combined worryingly with a pinch of complacency.I really […]
See how these Christian love one another
Posted on by James Woodward
Church of Nigeria reacts to Archbishop of Canterbury’s Resignation The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd and Rt. Hon. Dr. Rowan Williams took over the leadership of the Anglican Communion in 2002 when it was a happy family. Unfortunately, he is leaving behind a Communion in tatters: highly polarized, bitterly factionalized, with issues of revisionist […]
Scripture
Posted on by James Woodward
The Study of scripture is at the heart of theology. Scripture truthfully tells the story of God’s action of creating, judging and saving the world. It is to be read and reread above all for the sake of God and God’s purposes; hear it as God the Creator, Judge and Saviour crying out to humanity; respond […]
Ash Wednesday
Posted on by James Woodward
“Lord teach us how to pray aright … for we perish if we cease to pray.” Lent calls us to repentance and repentance involves a change of heart. Help me to realise Lord that to change my life without changing my heart is like cutting weeds and leaving roots in the soil. Give me the […]
Cathedrals
Posted on by James Woodward
In a way that seems to be more and more crucial to the modern quest for the spiritual, cathedrals can offer a transforming experience. If religion appeals to duty, it seems spirituality must deliver a tangible personal intuition – ‘the tug of silver’.Cathedrals welcome the visitor, whether as worshipper, wanderer or the indifferent perplexed, and […]
The search for dignity
Posted on by James Woodward
I thought this well worth pondering from Katharine Jefferts Schori ( the Presiding Bishop of Episcopal Church in the United States of America. She is the first woman elected primate in the Anglican Communion) There’s an institution in New York City called the Doe Fund. Its motto is Ready, Willing and Able. Early in the […]
Leading the Church of England
Posted on by James Woodward
I thought this profile worth sharing – as we continue to pray for all our Church leaders….. The last time the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, spoke to the New Statesman, it was at the end of 2008, a year that our writer, James Macintyre, described as “one of the most difficult for Anglicanism since […]
Wither the Anglican Communion?
Posted on by James Woodward
I thought it worth drawing your attention to these helpful comments by the Bishop of Gloucester? I think there are some things here we need to explore sensitively together. In doing so I want to acknowledge the honesty and courage of my friend, James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool, who has publicly told his own […]
Money worries in the C of E
Posted on by James Woodward
Clergy in the Church of England are being asked to cut their cloth to suit the economic times and to prepare for mergers and staff cuts that could drastically reduce pastoral care and worship. A report on finances has found that a quarter of all 44 dioceses are running deficits and plundering reserves to pay […]
The Eucharist
Posted on by James Woodward
The sign-giving does not aim to take us back to the first century; the eucharist is not a time machine. Rather, it catches us into the stream of God’s continuing and liberating activity. It goes without saying that only the signs, rather than the symbols, can do this. The signs speak of a God who […]