For those who are regular visitors to this website, firstly, thanks for sticking with me during the last three and a bit years! I have the opportunity of a lifetime to do a long sail with an old friend, around much of the coast of the UK, over this summer. Although I’ll be taking a notebook, to store theological reflections, sadly it won’t be possible for me to post anything further until probably sometime in late September.
Author: James Blott
Our broken world desperately needs Christian morals, values and ethics
Having started this blog three years ago, I’ve found it most interesting to hear what people have had to say to me privately. There’s no doubt that many folk are now looking for something beyond the confines of our deeply materialistic world, in which most have to spend their lives. They feel the emptiness, and know this can’t be what life is all about.
“Faith is about a relationship with God, not rituals and creeds”
So says Chris Sparkes, the translator of the newly published 'The Keys of the Kingdom' Holy Bible, who has spent 25 years giving us what he says is the first ever accurate translation of the Bible into English, from the original Hebrew and Greek. To say that this project is mind-boggling really doesn't do it justice.
The Meaning of Compassion: A Meditation for Good Friday
I’ve found that having something on which to focus our meditations for Good Friday can be helpful, and this blog is offered in that tradition. See if you can challenge yourself to find a short time of silence; read each section, consider what your views are about the people described in each and then read the prayer that follows.
Trust – the greatest casualty of the last two years
We're now two years to the day of the first CARS COV2 lockdown being imposed in the UK. What have we learned? What questions remain unanswered? What may never be the same again? I can't help feeling that trust has been the greatest casualty of the last two years.
Demanding obedience is corrupting
A number of years ago, I witnessed my first service of Ordination in our local Cathedral. There was a moment during the proceedings when I was riveted to the spot. I had just seen the Diocesan Bishop washing the feet of those who were about to be ordained. This act, which originates in Chapter 13 of St John’s gospel, tells how Jesus shows his own disciples that he expects them to demonstrate a form of ‘servant priesthood’. Is there anything wrong with that? Absolutely not, it lies, or should lie, at the very heart of Christian discipleship. It's what followed that shocked me.
Reflective Preacher 