As a parent I often worried about who our children were mixing with. As a child my parents worried about the company I kept. Friends and contacts can broaden our minds, lead us into crime or hold us back from being who we really are. Relationships can make us or break us. That may sound…
Jesus told his disciples that he had far more to tell them than they could cope with [John 16:12-15]. He went on to say that after him, the Spirit, also part of God and equally reliable, would keep on revealing new snippets of truth as appropriate and as individuals needed or were ready for them.…
We have arrived in the season of Pentecost. What began as a record in the Acts of the Apostles continues still as the acts of the People of God, empowered by his Spirit. Sometimes, I think, we forget that faith itself is ours because of the Holy Spirit’s work; it cannot be forced by an…
The recent Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla provoked debate over the use of a form of oath of allegiance to the King. People were divided about what they thought; some opinions were strong. In his digital sermon for the Ipswich Methodist Circuit the following day, the Reverend Ian Gardner asked the pertinent…
A well-known yeast extract spread, and useful cooking ingredient is notorious as a polariser of tastes and views. You love it or you loathe it; ambivalence is not generally associated with opinions about it. Today the Church remembers the Ascension of Jesus, forty days after the resurrection and with ten days to go before the…
In a development in the life of the early Church, Peter’s sermon at Caesarea led to people being filled with the Holy Spirit. Things were not happening in a controlled and predictable way, which must have been difficult for rule following (circumcised) believers. [Acts 10:44-48]. Baptism with water should have come before that with the…
It is generally accepted that the first Christian Martyr was Saint Stephen. [Acts 7:54-60]. Despite the barbarism of the mode of his death, Stephen was stoned, there is something wonderful about he unfolding events which blow the sides out of any neat packaging we may use to contain our faith. Stephen was in front of…
In the course of my working life, I can only remember a couple of occasions when honesty has let me down. In every other situation, both personally and professionally, the old adage, ‘honesty is the best policy’, has applied. That should not be surprising but it is, bearing in mind how many times I hear…
The world of the emoji is peripheral to the one I inhabit. It is easy to imply extreme reactions to otherwise mundane, everyday events. We become overreactors and if that happens, how do we respond when something truly unusual occurs? I know I can be on the blunt side; I prefer not to use opaque…
The question of the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been in the press recently. Questions have been raised over whether we know what we are doing, or if there is a real risk, like something from a science fiction novel, of the invention taking over the inventor. I have recently been in a situation…