TODAY in the community where I joined the Methodist Church last year, I led the morning service for the first time, as I am now training as a local preacher. A national Methodist Church resource called …
POPE EMERITUS Benedict XVI died on 31st December 2022, and was buried in the Vatican this week. His legacy is long, though he resigned in 2013, the first Pope to do so for 600 years. …
AT THE START of the new year, Methodists make a distinctive resolution. The Covenant Service, often celebrated on the first Sunday of the year, is at the heart of Methodists’ devotion, discipleship, and dedication to social justice. In the service the Church joyfully celebrates God’s offer of loving relationship.
THE COMMUNITY in which I joined the Methodist Church earlier this year hosts a short telephone service on Sunday afternoons – like a Christian conference call! Yesterday I was invited to offer a five-minute reflection on the Gospel reading of the day: The persistent widow and the unjust judge
TODAY, 7th October, is celebrated in many Eastern and Western churches as the feast day of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, (died c. 303, Syria), who are among the earliest authenticated and most celebrated Christian martyrs. Their story also …
TEN YEARS AGO today (as I turned 42) I began this blog. I wrote a brief retrospective after five years. Here’s an update on the next five: having ‘come out of the Catholic church‘ in 2011, …
IN THE LATEST episode of a podcast ‘for migrants by migrants’, two people with experience of seeking asylum share their stories, one who won leave to remain in the UK with support from an Open …
THIS MONTH has seen Pride events all over the country. It’s 50 years this year since the first Pride March in London in 1972. To mark this milestone, I was one of a number of …
AT A SPECIAL communion service to celebrate the 14th birthday of the first Open Table community in Liverpool on Sunday 19th June 2022, I shared this reflection on Pride Month and how the origin of …
AS CONTROVERSIAL US preacher Franklin Graham began his UK tour in Liverpool on Saturday 14th May, the Open Table Network worked in partnership with others in Merseyside to offer an alternative event which showcased the …
TODAY I became a member of the Methodist Church – it’s not something I imagined I would do, as little as ten months ago, never mind ten years ago when I began reflecting on my …
ON 6th May 2012, Warren and I arranged a church blessing after registering our civil partnership. While we were planning it, the UK Government changed the law so we could register our civil partnership in …
Nov 13
THIS IS the dream catcher that hangs over the bed where I sleep. Last night it seemed to be faulty. I woke in the early hours, tired after a long day, worried about work and another busy week. Some native American tribes believed dream catchers filter dreams. Fashioned to look like a spider’s web, they were …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2012/11/13/photo-a-day-nov13-sleep/
Nov 12
TONIGHT WE HAVE cleared the kitchen to make way for the decorator tomorrow. As I cleared the room I discovered these fine beverages. When we catered the reception for our civil partnership in May, we had wine left over, and received some alcohol as gifts too, so for a while we had an unprecedented and indecent amount …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2012/11/12/photo-a-day-nov12-drink/
Nov 11
SUNDAY NIGHTS have a new routine for me – we usually have a hearty soup and fresh bread, then I retreat to my desk and work on the next chapter of The Artist’s Way, ‘a course in discovering and recovering your creative self”. Author Julia Cameron suggests taking an hour or so to read the …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2012/11/11/photo-a-day-nov11-night/
Nov 10
TONIGHT I HAD the privilege of attending a ‘Celebration of Freedom’ for a young man I have supported who has won the right to remain in the UK following a successful appeal against a decision to deny him asylum and return him to a country where being gay can mean imprisonment and even death. His …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2012/11/10/photo-a-day-nov10-freedom/
Nov 09
‘IF YOU THINK you’re too small to make a difference, try spending the night with a mosquito.’ — African proverb. I’m cheating again as this is not my own photo, but it has been a busy week, and this is the most interesting response I could think of for the ‘Small’ theme. It also …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2012/11/09/photo-a-day-nov9-small/
Nov 08
EVERY MORNING for the last nine weeks I have sat at the dining table, lit a candle, played some reflective music and written three sides of A4, know as ‘Morning Pages’. Inspired by The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, a 12 week self-help programme for ‘creative recovery’, Morning Pages clear the mind at the start of the …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2012/11/08/photo-a-day-nov8-every-day/
Nov 07
AFTER AN 11 hour day in work I have come home to review the personal statement on a job application form that needs to be submitted tomorrow, and the text looks something like this. Summing up a career and why I want a new job is an interesting and challenging means of reflection. I love my work …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2012/11/07/photo-a-day-nov7-reflection/
Nov 06
SINCE TODAY WAS our ‘demiversary’ (six months since our civil partnership) I am cheating by sharing my favourite photo taken on that day instead of today. As my friend Sean catches the owl that flew the length of the church aisle carrying our rings, our family and friends looked on amazed, as we had kept …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2012/11/06/photo-a-day-nov6-my-favourite/
Nov 05
THIS IS an unusual sight for me at 5pm on a weekday – our front door! As co-ordinator of the UK’s longest running LGBT youth group, I work late at least two evenings a week. This week we are increasing to opening three times a week, for the first time in its 36 year history. …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2012/11/05/photo-a-day-nov5-home-at-5pm/
Nov 04
THERE SEEMS to be a synchronicity about some of the Photo A Day prompts – Friday was about ‘Colour’ just as we are choosing our carpet colours, today is about TV, just as we are getting rid of ours. The decorator arrives tomorrow so we are clearing the lounge/dining room today. I put details …
Permanent link to this article: https://abravefaith.com/2012/11/04/photo-a-day-nov4-tv-turn-off/
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