My street is quiet now.
Cars, buses, lorries,
noisy polluters of our very breath,
have fled in disarray.
As suggested by the title, the book takes a progressive approach to religion, seeing the critical biblical analysis of the past 200 years and the discoveries of science as friends rather than enemies in the ongoing quest for truth.
read more
Creation’s splendour calls forth praise
for Nature’s wealth, for vibrant life.
This planet home, a wondrous gift,
is threatened now by greed and strife.
Boundless love in all creation,
Source and pulse of human life,
Unseen hope of every nation,
Healer of disease and strife;
Word of God from Bible page,
Sacred wisdom for life’s way,
Framed within a distant age,
Breaking forth in power today.
Gladly we address our burdens
Through the mystery of prayer,
Lovingly support each other
In the privilege of care.
read more
Long years ago the promised Holy Spirit
With wind and flame, in resurrection might
Inspired true love, compassion rich within it,
And now as then rekindles vision’s light.
For love is long-suffering and abounds in kindness. It is not arrogant or boastful. Love does not behave rudely. Neither self-serving nor quick to take offence, love never thinks the worst.
read more
Love one another as I love you all;
In others’ needs hear my insistent call.
I bid you wear with me love’s seamless dress,
Welcome the outcast from the wilderness.
Covenant is firmly established in Christian theology, but among mainstream denominations Methodism gives it particular emphasis. Dating from the time of John Wesley and adapted from seventeenth century Puritan ideology, the annual covenant service is an established part of Methodist tradition. In some quarters it has been welcomed as part of Methodism’s distinctive contribution to the World Church. Grounded in both the Old and New Testaments, covenant theology is surely beyond reproach. Or is it?
read more
The popular press loves to highlight instances of abuse. It sells newspapers. And we may be encouraged to imagine that abuse is so widespread that it has become the norm. Hence a beguiling theory. If we can be led to believe that people in poverty are essentially the authors of their own misfortune and that the solution rests in their own hands, then we can cheerfully leave them to it and not worry unduly about their plight.
read more
Religion is no more –
Fragmenting humankind
With doctrine, creed
And narrowness of heart.
Praise the universal Spirit,
Present as we draw each breath,
Live and move and have our being,
Pass at length the gate of death.
To Blow or not to Blow? That is the question facing many who encounter malpractice in the workplace or elsewhere – whether to blow the whistle on misdemeanours and predictably open a can of worms in the process, or to mind their own business and leave it to someone else.
read more
Gladly we address our burdens
Through the mystery of prayer,
Lovingly support each other
In the privilege of care.
1. Loving God in all creation,
Source and pulse of human life,
Unseen hope of every nation,
Healer of disease and strife;
Life in abundance, Jesus says
I bring to set the world ablaze,
Exalt the weak and poor.
Eternal Love, your grace we praise
Which shapes and comforts all our days,
Evolves the world we know.
Hymn words from David Stevenson…”. Welcome doubt! Refine our thinking, Urge us further into light; Lead us to a greater dawning. From the shadows of our night…”
read more
We walk where reason may not tread
By faith’s audacious guiding,
Beyond the light by knowledge shed
We quest in grace confiding.
1. Eternal Love, your grace we praise Which shapes and comforts all our days, Evolves the world we know. Let worship, symbols come of age To help us read beneath the page And test the status quo! …
read more
