Latest Blog Posts
Posted 1 day 6 hours ago
The UK’s Methodist Conference is set to allow same-sex marriages in its churches and chapels. To this end, it set up a ‘Marriage and Relationships Task Group’. 247 out of 295 Conference representatives voted to support the task group’s report, God in Love Unites Us. Tellingly, the document begins with a quote, not from the Bible, but a Nat King Cole song:
“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn
Is just to love and be loved in return”
Posted 6 days 6 hours ago
Church History is such an important area of study, inferior only to the Bible itself. So many great Christians went before; we may heed their examples and learn from their mistakes. Anyone who would like to know more about this but wonders where to start should consider reading 2000 Years of Christ’s Power, a four-volume history of the church:
Volume 1 – The Age of the Early Church Fathers
Volume 2 – Middle Ages
Volume 3 – Renaissance and Reformation
Volume 4 – The Age of Religious Conflict
Posted 6 days 22 hours ago
Out on my bike recently I was wondering whether to take a route where I knew there were likely to be blackberries, to see if they were ready for picking yet. However, I hadn’t gone far when I bumped into a friend (not literally, you will be glad to hear) who was also out for a ride. A potential blackberry investigation turned into a visit to a café for coffee, cake, and a catch-up!
Posted 1 week 6 hours ago
The classified sections of newspapers sometimes have spaces for prayer. Curiously, people pay to have their prayers published. Perhaps assuming that God is an avid reader of that publication, they imagine that such publicity will make their requests more appealing. Here’s one which made it to a newspaper’s online section:
Posted 1 week 1 day ago
I recently watched The Favourite (2018, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos). It’s a nicely made film shot in a quirky style. It’s also rather rude, and it certainly deserves its 15 rating. It portrays Queen Anne as something of a lesbian, engaging in sexual behaviour with her friend Sarah and servant Abigail. Earlier in the year, however, I read Gila Curtis’ The Life and Times of Queen Anne, edited by Antonia Fraser. In this good quality biography from the 1970s, there was no hint that Anne enjoyed same-sex activity.
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