July 2005 – For the fainthearted . . .

Smoke and mirrors?

Sermon preached at Saint Matthias’ Church on 31st July 2005

“He directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves” Matthew 14:19

The feeding of the Five Thousand is one of those stories that presents problems to people who seek to explain the life and ministry of Jesus in purely natural terms. It is an awkward story to explain away.

Healing miracles are claimed to be Jesus’ response to psychosomatic …

Games of Trust

“If you loved me, you would.”

“If you loved me, you wouldn’t ask”.

Such a conversation would seem to sum up the relationship between the IRA and the DUP, the main unionist party in Northern Ireland.

Today’s statement by the IRA that it was to “cease all activities” (no suggestion that it would disband) will not answer the fundamental question about trust.

The DUP believe that if the IRA is committed wholly and exclusively to peace, then it should have no problem in revealing its weapons dumps.

The IRA believe …

Searching for Marie-Claire

“You live in a fancy apartment
Off the Boulevard Saint-Michel
Where you keep your Rolling Stones records
And a friend of Sacha Distel, yes you do”

“Where do you go to my lovely?” has been my favourite song since I was a kid. Paris, for me, was the height of culture and sophistication and represented all that was unattainable for a kid in an obscure corner of rural England. Paris wasn’t just culture, it was excitement. Growing up on the Left politically, Paris was the centre of the world.…

Thou shalt not muck things up

The greatest temptation of all is to tamper with things! Things might be pretty good, but maybe they could be better. Adam is enjoying life and Eve thinks things are OK, but maybe there could be just a bit more. ‘What about that apple?’ she says; and they get thrown out of the garden.

Eve today would be sitting in her garden enjoying the summer sun but would think if Adam got round to building that conservatory, wouldn’t life be just that much better? So poor old Adam puts on …

And now for the local news

I have always enjoyed local newspapers (I read the Western Gazette, the local paper for the Langport area of Somerset on the internet). Local papers are the world at my level; they have stories about the sort of people I might know. In my years in Northern Ireland, our local paper was compulsive reading every week in the parishes where I worked – the Newtownards Chronicle, the Down Recorder and then the Larne Times. As a local cleric I even made the odd appearance, when there was …

In an orchard beneath the Comeraghs . . .

One of my favourite Irish songs is about the passing of time, (it’s very sad and maudlin as you would expect from an Irish song). It’s called ‘The Orchard’, it’s actually by a songwriter called Kevin Evans from Nova Scotia in Canada, but is set in Dungarvan in Co Waterford.

The song is a very quiet, reflective piece. A man remembers his experiences of this orchard. At nine years, old he recalls climbing over the orchard wall to steal apples At thirteen, his memory is of sitting behind the orchard …