Connexions (Richard Hall)

Once we perceive how holy communion unfolds against the “night of self-giving and betrayal,” it becomes impossible to cast doubt upon the fundamental acceptance of sinners in the Supper. It is incompatible with the Supper to have human beings sitting in judgment over each other and deciding which supposedly righteous person is admitted to [...]

Saviour from sin, I wait to prove That Jesus is thy healing name; To lose, when perfected in love, Whate’er I have, or can, or am: I stay me on thy faithful word, “The servant shall be as his Lord.” Answer that gracious end in me For which thy precious life was given, Redeem from all iniquity, Restore, and make me meet for heaven; Unless [...]

Sometimes I meet someone who, on discovering I am a minister, says, “I’m not religious.” I reply, “So what? Neither I am. Religious people killed Christ, and today they dance around the golden calf on Wall Street.” I just love the look on their face. Then maybe we have a [...]

Thanks to Michael Tobis

Virtual Methodist posts in praise of the Lollipop Man. I’m sure Lollipop Ladies are included.

“Actually, the Bible no longer remains just what it was…. It is very important that we keep this in mind and radically reflect on it. Many members of congregations no longer do so, … they hold to the conviction that the Scripture is totally God’s word, inerrant, and their criticism of it is sacrilegious. [...]

There are some pretty awful prayers out there. The Sinner’s Prayer is an awful prayer for all sorts of reasons that have been well rehearsed, not least by evangelicals, particularly the version where, as the climax to a manna-back guaranteed four-part plan of salvation, you say it on the Naughty Step (otherwise known as [...]

Why are we here? We are not here to “do a bunk” from the world. We are not here to “get in touch with our ‘inner selves’”. We are not here to “recharge our batteries”. And God help us if we are here to “make a deal” with God: “Lord, if you do this for me, then I’ll do that [...]

COME, sinners, to the gospel feast, Let every soul be Jesu’s guest; Ye need not one be left behind, For God hath bidden all mankind. Sent by my Lord, on you I call, The invitation is to ALL: Come, all the world; come, sinner, thou! All things in Christ are ready now. Come, all ye souls by sin opprest, Ye restless wanderers after rest, Ye [...]

Near the end of his time at Notre Dame, where he had become a member at Broadway United Methodist Church, Hauerwas, with his family, spent six months teaching in England. In South Bend Hauerwas always took his son Adam with him to worship. So, in London … “We thought we should go to a [...]

Thanks to Darryl Dash

…. I certainly count myself a Christian. Or, more accurately, I have friends who count me as a Christian. I have, moreover, tried to live a life I hope is unintelligible if the God we Christians worship does not exist. I believe what I write, or rather, by writing I learn to believe. [...]

I’m conscious that since he changed from doing a weekly to a daily round up of Methodist blogdom, I haven’t really given Allan Bevere much of a mention. But he’s doing a cracking job and offering a great service to those of us who try to keep up with what’s happening across Methodism.

The “idolatry of the actual” is the target of Our Shadowed Present: Modernism, Postmodernism and History (2003) by J.C.D. Clark, Hall Distinguished Professor of British History at the University of Kansas (who has also taught at Cambridge, Oxford, and the University of Chicago). Clark diagnoses and treats the chronic intellectual illness of “presentism”, the [...]

Bishop Alan gives us an introduction to the Hungarian language. Who’d have thought that reading blogs could be so educational? And who would have guessed that the Church of England has Hungarian-speaking bishops? Now if only I could work out the difference between barásnak and baráshoz, I’m sure I’d be a better, more rounded, [...]

Blogger Daryl Lang has caused quite a stir with his post “Hallowed Ground”. Daryl is a resident of New York and decided to examine just how sacred the ground of the proposed Muslim community centre can be considered. So he walked around taking photographs in its vicinity, and at other sites a similar distance from [...]

From the NY Times Green blog we learn that a study published in the journal Science shows that climate change has caused a noticeable reduction in global plant growth “Earth has done an ecological about-face,” a NASA statement said. “Global plant productivity that once flourished under warming temperatures and a lengthened growing season is now on [...]

Drinking water before meals helps dieting, according to a report on the BBC. Scientists from Virginia found that slimmers can lose an average of 5lb extra if they drink two glasses of water three times a day before meals. They tested the theory on 48 older adults, split into two groups, over 12 weeks. While drinking water [...]

More good stuff from Jay Vorhees, this time looking at the ‘ground zero mosque’ from the perspective of US history. …the concerns raised about Muslim expansionism in recent weeks shouldn’t surprise us, for they are the extension of the John Birch Society raised concerns about the election of a Roman Catholic president during the [...]

Jay Vorhees writes of his struggle with his weight. It’s hard not to admire a blogger who is prepared to be so vulnerable in his writing. Last week I got a call from Bob Smietana, the religion reporter at the Tennessean. It seems like Bob is always calling looking for some sort of response on the [...]