Mon Apr 6
It’s not often I write about faith, at least not on a personal level. Time to remedy that. This picture from one of my favourite cartoonists jumped out at me and said something along the lines of “Why not?”. So, here I am.
I’m not sure what this picture meant to Hugh when he drew it, but for me it mirrors how I feel about various things at the moment. Time moves on, situations change, but we all carry the same cross. It’s just attached to us by different nails.
You see, things are in a state of flux at the moment, faith-wise. I’ve been a member of a fairly mainstream Church of England church for almost 5 years. But I’ve been treading water, to be honest. It’s easy to do that – especially if you know the church “drill” well.
But things need to change. It’s getting increasingly obvious that I have a responsibility to use whatever talents I’ve been given to make the church, the community in it and the outside community better. That sounds all grand and pompous, but of course I know I’m just one small wheel in the machine. But it only takes one wheel to get stuck and it affects everything. I think there’s something in the Bible which says something like that.
So what we, by which I mean the music group, are trying to change is firstly ourselves. If we can get a bit more real, a bit more passionate and heartfelt, a bit more sensitive, then maybe we’ll start having a positive effect on the church. This is, to put it bluntly, really scary and uncomfortable. Maybe we’ll do it, maybe we won’t. But after years of paddling at the edge it’s time I dived in.
Mon Jul 28
A few days ago I was in a bookshop and saw my good friend Dave’s book on the shelf. It was filed inder ‘Humour’, which is more or less correct. However a closer look revealed what the owners of the shop really think about this book:
It’s prophecy.
Sun Jul 20
Because of the Anglican bigwig conference happening at the moment in Lambeth, I thought I’d post a picture of mine from a couple of years ago…
My good friend Dave Walker is there, drawing cartoons and generally being Daveish in his tent. If anyone can sort out the current ecclesiastical mess armed with just a pen it’s Dave. More power to your pen, Mr Walker.
Wed Aug 8
So says Wood. And I agree with him.
Mon Jun 18
It’s been all quiet on the blogging front recently, not least because last week I celebrated my thirtieth birthday. Most people, even those that know me quite well, can’t believe I’ve only just reached 30 as obviously I look a lot older than that. And having seven children between my wife and I tends to make me seem older.
By “celebrated” I mean I went to church. No just any church, but my good friend Dawn’s new church (she’s one of these new-fangled women vicars). They don’t seem to have a website at the moment for the church itself, but they also run a project called Urban Space (although this might tell you more about them). It all looks very exciting.
The other reason why I’ve been so busy is the amount of work I have at the moment. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all good enjoyable stuff, but I do feel like I need a holiday. So it’s fantastic that the wife bought us tickets for Greenbelt, which says about itself:
Greenbelt is an independent Christian charity working to express love, creativity and justice in the arts and contemporary culture in the light of the Christian gospel.
But if you want to call it a lefty, tree-hugging Christian arts and music festival that’s alright with me. I haven’t been able to go for the last few years, so it will be a nice return. Not only will it be chance to meet up with a lot of old friends, but it will be Reubens for taste of a festival (even if we are spending the nights in a hotel).
As ever I’ll be an optimist and say I’ll be back blogging regularly about geek stuff soon, but in all likelihood it will remain as sporadic as ever.
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