Always Hope

I love this video clip from the BBC. Science correspondent Jonathan Amos explains the Higgs Boson by sharing an illustration that obviously makes perfect sense to him. Everybody else is left even more confused than they were to begin with. I particularly enjoyed the bit where, gripped with enthusiasm, he grabs the ball with a string and hurls it across the room. If you look carefully you can see the newscaster's eyes glazing over as it whizzes by. Preachers should take note. There's a common assumption in preaching that if you construct something that can be mapped on to the point you're trying to make, then you have illustrated it. Sadly you may find that you have actually completely obscured your point. The classic example is Trinity Sunday, when a whole raft of inappropriate comparisons is floated by an army of preachers who imagine that because their example contains the word "three", then it must in some way illustrate the ...

To the three men and a dog who constitute this blog's loyal and devoted readership, I apologise for the even longer than usual gap since the last post. Generally I don't apologise, but the reasons may be of interest this time. Moving is disturbingly similar to dying. One becomes wholly absorbed in the process, and every sense turns inward, leaving very little to give to those around. What little I do have is necessarily used up by maintaining the routine of parish ministry, surprisingly demanding even with so little time to go. Yet it has been an extraordinary few weeks, which I hope to reflect on here over the next few months. If anyone finds my parallel with death distressing, don't forget that it is merely the prelude to resurrection - and Always Hope will rise from the ashes. However one thing is certain; having attempted to several times to establish a regular blogging routine, I now realise that strike blogging is more my style, and so it shall be from now on. Anywa...

I stumbled across this winsome video of Tom Wright playing his guitar in Nashville (really). It's worth watching just for the theology that he puts into the song. It also showcases the gifts of one the Church of England's former Diocesan Bishops. And I wonder if I'm the only one wishing that he could have done this in General Synod. In fact, not only does the new, not-Bishop of Durham NTW look a whole lot more relaxed (which is understandable), he just seems more engaging and human than I remember him. I wonder what this says about the expectations that bishops (and all clergy) are conforming to when they are in their public role? Is it possible (or even desirable) for a Christian leader to be truly themselves, until they lay down their office? This video comes from the Rabbit Room . Hop over there, because there's more where this came from. 

Jolly Pagans source Last week the antennae of some minor imp at the Daily Mail were twitched by the news that Cornwall's Religious Education syllabus is to include paganism for the first time.  Not a huge story for the Mail, but just enough of a hint of "political correctness gone mad" for the paper to generate a bit of indignation. This was soon picked up by the kind of Christian organisations that respond to the same stimuli as the Mail, the Christian Institute reporting it with suitably pursed lips. And the Church Times duly arrived at the story on Friday. Except, of course, being the Church Times, the last bastion of responsible journalism in this country, it obtained a series of quotes from people in Cornwall who actually know something about it, and turned it into something quite uncontroversial.  David Hampshire is absolutely right. Cornwall has both a huge pile of ancient pagan sites, and a whole load of people who like doing religious or quasi-re...

Always Hope is equally fascinated and appalled at the workings of the bureaucratic mind. The world according to petty officialdom is a wonderful place, where words have alternative meaning, reality is determined by flow charts drawn up in airless offices, and nothing happens unless a form is filled out 3 months in advance. Anyone who shares my fascination will thank BBC Cornwall for publishing this in full on their website: Residents living in the former North Cornwall, Caradon and Restormel district areas should get a complete set of three new reusable sacks and a black box to replace the coloured disposable plastic sacks they currently use. But former Carrick district householders, who already have a black box, a red sack and a yellow sack can expect a new orange reusable sack for recycling cardboard. Households in the former Kerrier district will also get an orange reusable sack, a blue reusable sack for paper, but no box as they already have a blue box. Whereas residents ...

This blog has a long standing interest in the antics of the National Secular Society, or National Sausage Society, as we now prefer to call it. (for reasons that are explained here ). I'm not the first to comment on this (David Keen did already ) but their latest attention seeking stunt is a classic of its kind. As the BBC website tells us, "atheist children are being excluded from the scouts, the NSS has warned in a letter to Chief Scout Bear Grylls." Readers may remember from their own distant childhoods, that the new scout makes a promise to "to my duty to God and to the Queen".  I remember saying it myself, and it meant what you might expect it to mean to the average 11 year-old, the "region of ill-defined piety", as Patrick O'Brian describes it in one of his books (though I don't think he was talking about scouts). I do not recall the march of atheism being a burning issue among my contemporaries in the 9th Ampthill & Woburn, but per...

In my paper last week (sorry, can't remember which one) there was an interview with the author Michael Frayn who says that he always avoids literary festivals, as a punter or as an author. His point was that he doesn't want to meet the people who write the books he likes, in case they turn out to be less than he hoped they might be. "Authors are so often disappointing in person" I think was the quote. It's an interesting thought. When we read a book, especially a novel, as well as entering into the created world of the book, we also create a world of our own in response. If we are impressed by the book, it's often the voice of the narrator that we warm to, and we can invest a lot of affection or respect in that imagined person. If the author, incarnated, turns out to be less than we hoped for, does this spoil the book for us? Many great authors, of course, have been less than saintly, but that is not necessarily a blow to the reader. What is more fearful is ...