Yesterday I was in London and at 8am I was opposite Big Ben waiting for someone else to arrive. I bought some coffee to warm myself up and went outside watching as the white stone at the top of Westminster Abbey was turned pinky orange or orangey pink by the rising sun against the clear blue sky. [...]
Archive for December 13th, 2007
London
Posted in 1 on December 13, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Christmas is a time of giving gifts but it’s also a time of receiving them. Of course this reminds me and points to the amazing, ultimate gift of all. Through the selfless obedience of Jesus we are safe and saved for all eternity. It’s almost beyond comprehension that we cannot earn it, study for it, pay [...]
banter.
Posted in reminders on December 13, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
I was walking into the shop yesterday evening, when I passed a couple perhaps twenty years my senior. On their way out of the shop, he was pulling funny faces, she was laughing.
Something about the sight cheered me greatly.
Posted in reminders, tagged film, interfaith, pacifism, peace on December 13, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Sticking with the interfaith theme… I was moved recently by the film, ‘The Imam and The Pastor’, about 2 men who were literally killing each other’s families and friends in Nigeria, and came to a point where, following the calls of their faith, each decided they had to find a way to Peace. (I won’t [...]
Bores
Posted in 1 on December 13, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
After reading the post Gregarious Gentiles and those women with lots of life in the synagogue I thought of this quotation from Dorothy Sayers in her essay “The Greatest Drama Ever Staged”: Knowing those women who visited the synagogue none could ever accuse them of being bores:
“The people who hanged Christ never, to do them justice, [...]
Kingdom Talent
Posted in 1 on December 13, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Jan Richardson was a woman with a deep spirituality and writing talent whom I had contact with in the USA a few years ago. Her Senior Pastor reminded me in his newsletter recently of her work and a book she wrote for this advent season: Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas. Here is [...]
waiting for the ferryman
Posted in 1 on December 13, 2007 | 1 Comment »
This year, as Christmas approaches, a whole generation that parented and mentored me seems to be passing on. I have an aunt who is languishing in a care home, an uncle who has received the news that he has got cancer, a mother who now has dementia. A world I thought was there forever, standing [...]
Laughter & a lateral thinking Daughter!
Posted in 1 on December 13, 2007 | 1 Comment »
My daughter Rachel made me smile this morning when she asked, “Dad, do you think our next door neighbours are Jewish?”
“Why do you say that?” I enquired. In her own lateral thinking way, she replied, “well they don’t put up Christmas decorations and I never see them on Saturdays. Maybe they’re at synagogue most of [...]
Gregarious Gentiles
Posted in 1 on December 13, 2007 | 3 Comments »
I took my gaggle of gentiles in the minibus to the synagogue last night. Fifteen nervous women. One lady had made a point of not eating pork for her dinner, out of respect. We arrived. Ladies who were married or had a partner produced head-scarfs of all colours and patterns.Polka-dot was my personal favourite. It went with her [...]
