Simon Says ...

We are celebrating the return of our newly restored pipe organ on Sunday. Two prayers I have written for the event: Christ our King, angels and mortals sing thy praise and trumpet thy victory, we give thee thanks for thy gift of music, for its power to move our spirits and to raise our hearts, for its accompaniment to joy and to lament, and for its witness to thy creativity and life. May we who worship thee here in this place, join our praise with the whole company of heaven and renew our longing for the coming of thy kingdom. We ask this in thy name alone. Amen. O God, whose praise our lips have sung, hear now our prayers: may the melodies we have sung draw us to the message of your Word; may the harmonies we have fashioned deepen our common life in this community, may the rhythm of our praise guide our lives in your service; we ask this through him to whose glory the music of the spheres is played, even Jesus Christ, our Lord and King. Amen.

There is a lot being written at the moment about the proposed Anglican Covenant , not least because it is going to be discussed by the General Synod of the Church of England next week. Whilst not being totally against the idea of a Covenant - I am persuadable that something like it could be helpful - I am skeptical about this Covenant at the present moment. Some reasons: 1. It does not address the real questions. All of the fuss that the Covenant is supposed to help us deal with centers around issues of sexuality. Yet the Covenant does not address this at all. It is an ecclesiological tool to deal with a theological and ethical problem. That has to be some sort of category mistake. The theological and ethical questions will remain, regardless of the ecclesiology. They just won't be addressed. Rather than adding a new layer to the organisation of the Anglican Communion, shouldn't we all start doing some theology? This is not a quick fix, but a slow and painful process....

Christmas in an Hour Simon Taylor explores the parts of Christmas most carol services leave untouched! 7 th December The Stories of Christmas 14 th December The Word made flesh · Tuesday evenings, 8pm – 9.30pm · The Undercroft, St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol. · Entry is free, but a donation to cover costs would be welcomed. Visit virtualtheology.net to download any talk you miss and to find previous series of the Bible in an Hour.

Silence is one of the important elements of my life, especially my spiritual life (whatever that is). So here are some more or less random reflections on why I find silence valuable: Silence is listening carefully and patiently for the voice of God Silence is opening myself to the love, call and judgement of God Silence is the best way of expressing the otherness (the holiness) of God Silence is rooting myself here and now Silence is attention to the present Silence is the prayer of God within me Silence is a pause from the frenetic business of life Silence is being vulnerable Silence is difficult Silence is carving out space for God Silence is waiting to see what will happen Silence sometimes leads me into sleep Silence needs practice Silence is something I need Silence is a discipline Silence means quieting all my agendas, my hopes, fears, wants and stuff Silence is an acknowledgment that I might have some things badly wrong Silence is uncurling Silence is giving up defensiveness Si...

The funeral instructions of one of my parishioners include the request for prayers for those who suffer from Parkinson's Disease and those who care for them. This is the prayer that I have written for his funeral. God of mercy, we hold before you all who suffer from Parkinson’s disease. Give them courage in the face of pain and helplessness, hope in the midst of darkness and despair, and trust in your loving care. Bless the work of the Parkinson’s Disease Society and all who care for those with this disease; may their patience and kindness be guided by your healing touch. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, who, for our sake became weak and helpless, that he might bring your healing and salvation to all people. Amen.

This evening we hosted a Taize service at church. About 50 people came, and it was a really refreshing change to be in the older half of the congregation! We were also fortunate to have Brother Paolo from the Taize Community with us. He gave a little encouragement on prayer and praying to begin with. Much of it chimed with my experience. Prayer, he said, is not something we can get better at. It is more like eating lunch. We can all do it. We need to do it regularly. A very helpful image for me. The service itself was beautifully put together (and I can say that because I had nothing to do with it). Thanks to Heather and all involved. It was a rare treat to sit on a prayer stool and enjoy meditative singing, silence and scripture. My lunch was late today, but it was worth the wait!

Three of this years series of the Bible in an Hour are now available for downloading from virtualtheology.net . There's Job ; John ; and Jonah . Just James (pun intended) to go. Thanks to Paul for technical assistance (and the Noel Coward quotation)!

Pinned up on the noticeboard above my desk is this picture of Edvard Munch's 'The Sun' (nicked from the Boy's Cbeebies Art Magazine, I'm afraid to say). It was painted in 1912 as a mural at Oslo University. Munch's life is almost a catalogue of pain. He lost his mother and his sister when he was a child. He was something of a depressive, suffering a breakdown. He lived through two world wars and in the 1930s was condemned as 'degenerate' by the Nazi regime. His final years were spent under Nazi occupation (the Nazi's even orchestrated his funeral), fearing for the fate of his art. And yet, in the midst of paintings that reveal this pain (most famously, 'The Scream )', Munch could paint a thing of such naked beauty as 'The Sun'. There is an instant appeal to me of this painting. It speaks profoundly of pain and of redemption. The sun and its reflection together begin to look like a light bulb. So there's something here ab...

It was a great pleasure to spend tea-time of my day off yesterday at a service of blessing for a new school building. There were awards - Head Teachers gold certificates for the staff closely involved and for the contractors. I am the proud bearer of a Values in Practice pencil, given to Governors who had been involved in the project for putting our values into practice. Bristol City Council are to be congratulated for being the first (and probably now the only) authority to get all their secondary schools through the Building Schools for the Future programme. I have to say that whatever political capital is being made about BSF, my experience of it has been very positive. We have a fantastic new building, on budget and on time, despite some real difficulties with the site. Skanska , the contractor are to be also to be thanked for making the building process as easy as possible. This is, of course, not the end. The school move into the new building over half-term, and then the ...

I've had a lot of conversations and encounters this week that have left me reflecting on space. There was a conversation about Lectio Divina , reflecting on how being strict with the method of doing this enabled participation. There was a question with a confirmation group about the rules for consumption of the elements after communion allowed Anglicans to remain united despite differences in theology. There was a meeting of the Standing Committee of the local Children's Centre, which provided a means by which all the different sub-committees could report and all the work be co-ordinated. None of this is rocket science, but in each situation there is a space created by means of which other activity or reflection is made possible. The space is created by means of something (rules, a meeting, or whatever) that provides boundaries and thus creates the space. The question therefore arises about these boundaries. They are clearly determinative of the nature of the space create...

There's a fantastic piece on the Ekklesia blog by John Heathershaw called " God is in the (political) detail ". Mostly about high level political decision making, Heathershaw argues that good intentions in making big decisions are not enough. The focus is mainly on the war in Iraq, and the claims of the likes of Tony Blair and George Bush that they had high motivations and good intentions. In the context of a complex world, is good faith enough? For Tony Blair, operating in a 'big picture world', it seems it is. However, Heathershaw thinks not: A politician, official, social activist, doctor or school governor who does not pay attention to the details in our complex world is in dereliction of duty, however much good faith she applies. Just war thinking has always agreed with this, not least in its demand that any proposed war ought to be 'winnable'. It's not so much Iraq that interests me in terms of detail, however, as the proposed benefit cuts ...