A wooden crossOn a hillA man, a JewBetrayedHis pain lingers still The cross he draggedAs people staredHe is guiltyThey declared Outstretched armsNails cruellyDriven into palms A crown of thornsOn his headHe would sufferUntil he was dead. He died for usIn a worldOf unjustAnd mistrust He is our saviourA flame of lightForever and alwaysBurning bright Maureen…
Today, more than almost any other day for me, has always felt poignant and mixture of beginnings and endings. It is the start of the pain at the end of Holy Week, and almost the end of the preparation time of Lent. It is another Passover, a First Communion and a last Communion. It is…
The Wrong Messiah : The real story of Jesus of Nazareth by Nick PageHodder & Stoughton, 2012 313 pages £8.99 ISBN 978 0 340 996 287 A book with the subtitle ‘the real story’ would, almost certainly, raise the suspicion that the author has an axe to grind. That is not so in this case,…
Greeks, seeds and the world – John 12:19-26 Thirty years of life, 3 years of ministry, but the gospels have more detail on the last week of Jesus’s earthly ministry than all the rest. I’m inspired by the different gospel writers who each have their own emphasis and memories. They all begin with the entry to…
Many of the churches in our circuit have a tradition of taking up a special Easter Offering to go to the Methodist Women in Britain (MWIB) Easter Offering Appeal.
I have always been fascinated with the rollercoaster of emotions that is Holy Week. It starts on a high, and ends on a high, and has every other emotional state, on the days in between. From the excitement and cheers of Jesus arriving in Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday, we journey with him…
Easter Sunday Year B 4th April 2021. Lectionary Readings: Isaiah 25 v6-9; Psalm 118 v14-24; 1 Cor15 v1-11, 20; Mark 16 v1-8. What if? Mark was writing to a mix of people, some with a Jewish background and a knowledge of scripture, (our Old Testament), and others from a ‘Gentile’ background with no…
We now find ourselves in Holy Week and traditionally one of the stories we look at during this week is the anointing of Jesus at the home of Simon. (Mark 14 verses 3-11.) This was the final story that we reflected upon in this year’s online Circuit Lent Course. Thank you to all those from…
Death in the City by Francis A Schaeffer IVP, 1969 127 pages £11.00 ISBN 0 851 103 472 Dr Schaeffer was a leading, American, evangelical theologian and philosopher of the last century. He was most closely associated with L’Abri Fellowship based in Switzerland, using his knowledge and skills in apologetics and philosophy to bring many…
We have now passed the first anniversary of the beginning of the first Lockdown in England and when you look back over the last year, you might be shocked that we are where we are today. We have experienced so much during this time, queuing to get into supermarkets, having to get used to wearing…