A mission shaped future…

Last year I came across a project that was being launched by the Church of England to give funding to churches that might be able to show how the Church could grow on estates.

The Big Jubilee Lunch and the importance of overlapping ministries

This gallery contains 15 photos.

One of the great events each year is our Feast in the Field that we normally hold at the end of Flaming June. Well this year we timed it with the Big Jubilee Lunch.

Church Growth and the state

There is a very much travelled narrative in the UK that the Church is in a nosedive decline to marginalisation and irrelevance. The case for this is the falling church numbers in the Church of England and other mainstream churches.

Meditation for Maundy Thursday

We’ve come to the last supper. John’s Gospel has a large section on the Last Supper and has a series of actions and discourses that gets behind the ministry of Jesus. Its shot through with symbolism and meaning.

Meditation for Wednesday of Holy Week

The lectionary reading for today is a scene from the Last Supper. Indeed more specifically its the scene where Judas leaves to betray Jesus.

Meditation for Monday of Holy Week

One of the things that you get from reading and re-reading the Gospels again and again is the sense and depth of the emotions. It’s also the universality of the themes.

Archbishop Rowan’s Sermon at Springfield Church

Managed to upload ++Rowan’s sermon that he gave to Springfield on Sunday onto Youtube. Well worth listening to. Set of pictures will be up later. I’m still gently coming down to earth….

Rowan Williams resigns….

Well I must admit to being absolutely gob-smacked this morning to hear that Rowan Williams had announced his resignation. There had been rumours for ages that he was going to resign this year – 10 years as Archbishop is a long time and an exhausting one.

What questions do you want me to ask the Archbishop of Canterbury??

Well, as I have already mentioned once or twice we have the Archbishop of Canterbury visiting Springfield Church for our twentieth anniversary celebration this Sunday. 

Is religion about to become extinct?

The BBC is reporting a new study that suggest that religion is dying and on its way to extinction. It’s a fascinating study and I’m very interested by it. It is no. 8 in my series Theological Questions To Which The Answer is No but it is more subtle than a straight rejection.