James's Weblog

Here, once again, is David Gooding, in his book True to the Faith (paid link).

Read this slowly, let it sink in, and take time to enjoy the amazing mercy and grace of God shown that first Pentecost:

Is schism the biggest, or even the only, heresy in today's church?

Recent events in the Scottish Episcopal Church (SEC) have led to big cracks opening up in the wider Anglican Communion. The Archbishop of Canterbury has, rightly, regarded unity as vital to pursue. A house divided against itself cannot stand. He wants the Anglican Communion to stay together, walk together, in spite of profound disagreement. However, latest events have left him having to work frantically to keep the Anglican Communion together.

… eventually.

I have no idea which way tomorrow's General Election will go. But our parish magazine, The Well, comes out this week or next, and I have a letter in there about the Election. Here it is:

Dear Friends

I was planning to write some more about the epoch-making events 500 years ago known as “The Reformation”. That can wait: We’ve had a General Election, and possibly the outcome is known by the time you read this.

Why Pentecost? Why did the Spirit come on the church on that day in particular?

It's a good question. Jesus ascended on a Thursday; the Spirit did not come for another 10 days. Why the wait? Jesus only said that they'd have to wait for "a few days", but 10 is longer than it might have been.

Perhaps it was just expedient. There would be multi-national crowds in Jerusalem over the Pentecost festival, making it a perfect time for them to hear the wonders of God in their own tongues.

Maybe.

Spam is a problem that never goes away. Email spam. Comment spam.

This site has long used Mollom to protect the comment section and the contact form. They're closing down on 2nd April 2018, so lots of webmasters will be looking for alternatives.

I'd like to introduce you to Project Honey Pot.

To give credit where credit is due, some readers may spot echoes of the late Mike Ovey's CD1.1 lecture course in the pen portrait of romanticism below. They'd spot that with good reason. The section is included as a summary, and for the benefit of those not fortunate enough to have taken that course, before turning to the illustrative material which is my own contribution.

Romanticism

Romanticism is a wide-ranging movement from (mainly) the first half of the nineteenth century. It influenced literature, art, architecture, philosophy, theology, politics and more.

In Microsoft Word, there's all the difference in the world between a new paragraph and a new line. To insert a new paragraph, press the Enter key. If you have "show all characters" turned on, you'll see each paragraph break with its "backwards P" icon. Each paragraph in Word has its own properties. It can have extra space above or below, it could be indented from the left / right margins, with the option of different indentation for the first line. To insert a new line, press Shift + Enter.

On Easter Sunday, I preached on Romans 8:18-30.

There wasn't time in that service to set those glorious verses in their full context in the book of Romans.

A few weeks back, I found myself in a group where we were discussing whether weapons are intrinsically evil.

When you have something you do not want to forget, do you write it on your hand? Some people write things on the palms of their hands; others write things on the back; others don't do this at all.