Simon Says ...

The first of the Bible in an Hour talks is up as a podcast at virtualtheology.ne t The first one is the Whole of the Bible in an hour - well, an hour and 3 minutes. See what you make of it!

So much for the "Barbecue Summer" - flooding in the Vicarage and the Parish Office today. So this morning I took my socks and shoes off, rolled up my trouser legs and was bailing out the top floor of the Parish Office. I was just like going for a plodge* in the North Sea - cold and the rain was falling on my head as I did it. Fortunately for your sake there are no photos! * A plodge is a Geordie term that refers to a paddle that really means it!

One of the features of life at St Mary Redcliffe is the fact that we receive a good number of visitors each year. The ministry of hospitality is an important part of our work. A new feature of this is Sacred Bristol . A group of churches (though, as the name suggests, we have left it open for other faith communities to join) with Destination Bristol to produce a leaflet and a trail showing some of the notable churches in the city. We're pleased with the result, and it has been a good experience to get together with others in the city centre and beyond to do this. If you're bored this summer, why not download the tour and have a walk around some of Bristol's churches?

The Bible in an Hour continues tonight with "The Book of Joshua". In it I will reveal how Joshua dishes out more land than he has to give, how the answer to some fundamentalist readings of the Bible is to read it better and, just because I'm feeling generous, a pacifist take on holy war. "The Whole of the Bible" should be up on virtualtheology.net soon, for those who missed it or want a second listen. Thanks to Marc for the fantastic artwork, to Paul for technical help and to Niall for webspace. See you later ...

Working on how to react to the Swine 'Flu pandemic has taken a great deal of my time this week, together with that of other members of the church staff. First came the reading. There was a large document from the government on Faith Communities and Pandemic Flu . Then there was the Church of England's advice (at the beginning of the week) from the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds on the administration of Holy Communion . Just as I thought that I might have a handle on it, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York issued a letter which changed the CofE advice. Then this morning, my own Diocese issued its Information for Clergy . Got all that? Good. After the reading came the writing. A letter will go to all congregations on Sunday, and a paper has gone to staff so that we can put things in place. Our head verger has been busy buying hand gel and bins and setting up stations in church. He and I have to finalise arrangements for Sunday's services later this afternoon. There is...

The BBC has refused permission for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), a group of leading relief agencies, to run their appeal for aid to Gaza. The reasons they give are pretty spurious. Mark Thompson, the Director-General of the BBC, explains all here . First the BBC are worried that they cannot be sure that the aid will get through. Well one would expect the DEC to have considered that pretty thoroughly, and the BBC are hardly experts in aid delivery and not really able to assess this. By the time of writing they've pretty much with drawn this. The second reason is more serious - that it would be "compromising to public confidence in its impartiality" . No mention of the compromise in public confidence shown by not showing the film. Indeed, the number of people voicing suspicion that the BBC is acting this way because it fears pressure from Israel surely raises worries about its impartiality. Basically, if they can show appeals for aid after conflict in the ...

Earlier this week I was in Windsor for a consultation on the Ministry of Cathedrals and Greater Churches. It's the first time I've ever had to get past armed guards to get into a church event! As well as the surroundings, which were fantastic (thanks to Graham for taking the photo), and the train journey, an opportunity to read and think, it was a worthwhile trip. We spent most of the time in groups reflecting on our own experiences and learning from one another. I think the idea that stood out for me was that Cathedrals and churches are custodians of tradition, but that they only fulfil this vocation by experimenting and taking risks. This can be seen in art, music, liturgy, prayer, debate and other ways in which these places can contribute to the wider church and to the wider world. As someone said (I think it was GK Chesterton), 'the only untraditional thing is never to change at all'!

I'm in Windsor this evening (more of that in a later post), and skived evensong to watch the inaugural address of President Obama. What a preacher! It was a moving moment and a crucial moment for our world. It was good to hear climate change mentioned. It was good to hear the affirmation that values and security should not be but in conflict. It was, frankly, too much to live up to. But the vision needs to be set out, and it should be ambitious and lofty. It needs to be there in order to inform the compromises and the failures that will challenge it. President Obama needs all the prayers he can get.

The Organ is on telly ! Andrew, our Director of Music, tells it as it is, and some fool wanders around in the church looking up at where an organ may once have been!

Today saw the first pieces of the organ start to be removed. It's quite a piece of work! It's also aroused quite a bit of local interest with the radio, television and newspaper all wanting a piece about it. There are about 4500 pipes in our organ. Each has to be removed, restored and replaced. It should take about 18 months, and costs a small fortune .

For a short time we have two organs in church (our pipe organ is being removed on Monday so it can be restored). So this evening an assembled choir sang Widor 's Mass for choir and two organs as part of a eucharist. What particularly struck me was the role of the great organ. The little organ accompanied the choir and the great organ played parts that threatened to drown out the human voice. It was a reminder to me of the majesty of God, who is beyond all human conception and containment. It was beautiful, and a real privilege to be involved.

Well, new phone as well so change was enforced. My phone now has the dulcet tones of Lennon and McCartney's 'Here comes the sun' - call it a new year's resolution or just optimism in the cold of winter. And someone may yet be assigned the Imperial March from Star Wars as their own personal tone!

So welcome to 2009 (only 10 days late!). Some pictures taken today (playing with a new toy): Bristol harbour is frozen: and Christmas trees are piling up! and I'm back to work tomorrow (no image supplied).

Finally, the build-up is over and the Olympic Games begin today. All the concerns and comments about the politics, whether everything would be ready, the pollution, and even the BBC graphics will take second place to the celebration of sport and human achievement. But through all the hype and the preparation, there has been a constant thread of concern about China ’s record on human rights. From Steven Spielberg withdrawing his involvement, through the protest that followed the Olympic Torch, to President Bush’s speech in Thailand the other day; human rights have been much mentioned. In all of this, I think the one protest that carries the most weight was the letter from more than 40 athletes asking the Chinese President to improve human rights. Their letter carries weight because they are going to China to compete in the Games. And because they remind us of the Olympic ideal of “promoting … human dignity”. This comes from the Olympic Charter, and it’s what the Olym...

I found myself looking at some statistics on American attitudes to religion, demonstrating that on the whole the US has an undogmatic approach to religion. You can find them on the marvellously named Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life . Indeed, so undogmatic are the Americans that it appears that 21% of atheists , and 55% of agnostics, believe in God. I've looked at this table several times and can't find any other way of reading it. Revival in the atheist community anyone?

Loyalty is the work of the week in the Labour Party. More specifically, does David Miliband have any? Loyalty is something that excites deep emotions within us. It creates bonds of friendship and commitment between members of a family, a profession, a group of comrades. Not for nothing did Dante consign traitors, the disloyal, to the deepest ring of hell. But like all virtues, loyalty has a shadow side. In Zimbabwe, it is loyalty to old war comrades that is helping to keep Robert Mugabe in power. And when we hear stories of the police or the church closing ranks to defend themselves from charges of abuse, we are rightly angry. What we have here is a conflict of loyalties. Am I loyal to my church, or to justice; to my comrades or to my country? Jesus said that no one can serve two masters. There will be times when we have to decide where our deepest loyalties lie and act accordingly. And there may be a cost to this – a breaking of important ties, being d...

A Reflection for Compline using Psalm 13 . David Runcorn tells the story of being in Church and hearing someone pray to God about a famine in India . It wasn’t the normal sort of intercessions that the congregation was used to: ‘God why on earth do you let this happen? Why don’t you do something about it? How can you let all of those people suffer in that way?’ Runcorn comments that the man praying was new to Christian faith and new to the church and so hadn’t learnt what constitutes good manners in praying. He goes on to hope that he never does. What is refreshing about this story is the honesty and the directness that the pray-er has in addressing God. ‘Do something about it, how can you let such a dreadful thing happen?’ The man praying doesn’t have a neat theology of how bad things can happen. He has a healthy and human response to the awfulness of the situation he is praying about. But imagine for a moment that prayers like this were said at...

We have found a fantastic series of Bible stories for very small children. They are called the First Word Heroes/Heroines, and published by Pupfish . They tell the stories of various heroes or heroines from the Bible in 12 words. Fantastic. My favourite is probably David, whose story goes like this: David Goliath Shout Stop Find Stones Aim Throw Splat Fall Winner Hooray! I'm still coming to terms with the skill of telling such a long story in just 12 words. It's a piece of genius. Also available are Noah, Daniel, Jonah, Miriam, Ruth, Esther and Martha. They're great and our 19 month year old loves them. So do I.

At the Eucharist, one of the most important things that we do is we come to meet with God. All worship is offered in the presence of God. We come into God’s presence to make our offerings of praise and thanksgiving and to ask God for help and blessing. Standing behind this is Jesus’ promise that ‘where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them’ (Matthew 18.20). In the Eucharist, we are especially mindful of the presence of Jesus among us. In fact, the Eucharist is structured around three particular places or moments when we meet with God. This is not to say that God is only present at these moments, only that the liturgy is shaped to give special prominence to these three places. 1. Meeting God in his Word The first place that we meet with God is in his Word, the Bible. We have three Bible readings at a Eucharist, one from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament and a Gospel reading. Here we hear the stories of God’s presence with ...