Category: Theology
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An Encouragement for 2023? Don’t Despise the Small Things
It is rare that I get a specific word of encouragement for a year; in fact I think the last one was 2018, which considering the events of the years since then, seems like a distant era. At the end of 2022, however, I began to feel the stirrings of something, noticing a theme in…
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And Yet Lent Reflections: Waiting
We’ve all spent much of the past two years waiting, haven’t we? From the seemingly endless wait for restrictions to lift, isolation periods to end and the interminable wait to see if a second red line will appear on covid tests – in a world where waiting had become almost obsolete – we’ve been forced…
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Mothering Sunday: The Mothering of Moses
Exodus 2:1-10 It’s some story, isn’t it? And it’s one of those stories that gets told in children’s bibles almost minus the horror. The imagery I have is drawn straight from the Prince of Egypt film (as well as the theme song which has been in my head all week!), a wicker basket floating casually…
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Advent Reflections Week Three: Joy
“Joy is nurtured, not by pretending everything is fine, but by holding our hope together with our grief, the good news with our sorrow, and naming both as reality. We practice joy because we are clear-eyed about our realities.”Sarah Bessey Advent is a strange time which both waits for joy expectantly and seeks the joy…
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Advent Reflections Week Two: Peace
“Advent recognises the absence of peace, yet the exquisite certainty of its coming.” Kate Bowler I sometimes think that peace is one of those words we’ve got wrong. It is deeper and wider than the images of still waters or pure white doves, it is not meekness – it is shalom – wholeness in mind…
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Advent Reflections Week One: Hope
“The Advent season is a magnifier” Father Scott Over the past couple of years; I have lost a baby and brought a baby home as the fairy lights shone and the carols have been sung. Advent has magnified both my grief and my joy. The images of a cradle filled with the infant Jesus was…
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Facing The Past
I shared this message as a part of my church’s Coping Well in a Covid World – and I thought some might find it helpful. Facing Up To The Past – Keeping it Together “Oh yes, the past can hurt, but you can either run from it, or learn from it.” Rafiki In my view,…
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Faith, Strength and Weakness: Guest Blog by YouBelong
(Please note: I have used the term ‘He’ to describe God because this is a pronoun I am comfortable using but please replace it with whatever pronoun/s you feel more comfortable with when reading it that enables you understand God in all their fullness). When Rachael asked me to write something for the blog, she…
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Words for Worrying Times
In the uncertainty and fear, The panic and the path ahead unclear. Breathe in for seven, Breathe out for eleven. It’s okay to be unsure and frightened. And yet. Philippians 4.6 used to be my least favourite verse, it felt patronising, heaped shame upon pain. But then I learned that anxiety isn’t a sin, it’s…
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Ash Wednesday Reflections: Rend Your Heart
It’s one of those phrases that I’ve heard countless times – usually around this time of year – “rend your heart”. But what does that really mean to rend your heart? The word rend literally means to “tear something into pieces”, to “separate into parts with violence”. This is not gently pulling away from something…
Rachael Newham 