Silence is living, dynamic, and liberating.
The practice of silence nourishes vigilance, self-knowledge, letting go, and the compassionate embrace of all whom we would otherwise be quick to condemn. Gradually we realize that whatever it is in us that sees the mind games we pla
Paul Gauguin
Posted on by James Woodward
Motivated by a visit to the Tate on Friday with my friends the Dwyers here a some reflections on the artist Gauguin - the first blog is some biography - we shall move onto his work later in the week.
Paul Gauguin was born in Paris, France to journalist Clovis Gauguin and Alina M
How should we address God?
Posted on by James Woodward
Barth understood that the work of the theologian is word work, or, as John Howard Yoder would have it, that the task of theology is "working with words in the light of faith." The difficulty of the task is manifest by the misleading grammar of Yoder's observation, that is, one
reflection
Posted on by James Woodward
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We are the time. We are the famous
metaphor from Heraclitus the Obscure.
We are the water, not the hard diamond,
the one that is lost, not the one that stands still.
We are the river and we are that Greek
that looks himself into the river. His reflection
changes into the water
Difference
Posted on by James Woodward
Difference, then, it seems, can lead us in one of two directions - towards an increased competitiveness that can lead to mistrust and division, or to the open recognition of difference, and the possibility of understanding and even co-operation.
 True co-operation, however, r
Armistice Day
Posted on by James Woodward
Armistice Day (also known as Remembrance Day) is on November 11 and commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front, which took effect at eleven o'clock in the morningâ€
writing
Posted on by James Woodward
Â
Â
often it is the only
thing
between you and
impossibility.
no drink,
no woman's love,
no wealth
can
match it.
nothing can save
you
except
writing.
it keeps the walls
from
failing.
the hordes from
closing in.
it blasts the
darkness.
writing is the
ultimate
psychiatrist,
the k
Leadership and Listening?
Posted on by James Woodward
Â
............ it is significant that our English word for 'obedience' is derived from two Latin words -ob and audire- which mean to 'listen keenly'. As Bill Kirkpatrick observes in his book The Creativity of Listening, listening has three meanings:
The first is to hear; the
Chris Mullin Decline and Fall Diaries 2005-2010
Posted on by James Woodward
Chris Mullin, the amiable backbencher and sometime junior minister, does not appear in the index of Tony Blair's memoir, A Journey. He is not in the index of The Third Man, Peter Mandelson's insider's tale, nor that of Alastair Campbell's The Blair Years. To the talent at the to
I Look Into My Glass
Posted on by James Woodward
  Â
I look into my glass,
And view my wasted skin,
And say, ‘Would God it came to pass
My heart had shrunk as thin!’
For then I, undistrest
By hearts grown cold to me,
Could lonely wait my endless rest
With equanimity.
But Time, to make me grieve,
Part steals, le
All Souls
Posted on by James Woodward
Eternal God, our maker and redeemer,
grant us, with all the faithful departed,
the sure benefits of your Son's saving passion
      and glorious resurrection
that, in the last day,
when you gather up all things in Christ,
we may with them enjoy the fullness of your promise
All Saints
Posted on by James Woodward
Kadinsky All Saints
Almighty God,
who hast knit together thine elect
in one communion and fellowship
in the mystical body of Your Son, Christ our Lord:
Give us grace so to follow Your blessed saints
in all virtuous and godly living,
that we may come
to those ineffable joys
that
Word Cloud
Posted on by James Woodward
Thanks to Stephen Gardiner here is a play with some of the words in my blog.....
In memory of W.B. Yeats
Posted on by James Woodward
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Earth, receive an honoured guest:
William Yeats is laid to rest.
Let the Irish vessel lie
Emptied of its poetry.
...
Follow, poet, follow right
To the bottom of the night,
With your unconstraining voice
Still persuade us to rejoice;
With the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard
Conversations about God (continued!)
Posted on by James Woodward
If the Bible is anything to go by, such experimental approaches to the reality and the realizing of faith will not guarantee any one of us necessarily comforting and reassuring experiences. We may be taken out of the half-light of a pseudo-faith or semi-faith into the darkness
Befriend the Older stranger in yourself?
Posted on by James Woodward
In a science museum, there is one exhibit in particular which attracted long lines of children: "Face Ageing". A child sits down in front of an automatic camera and has their portrait taken. They wait and their digitized bust appears on a TV. monitor. Then, tapping a button lik
anger
Posted on by James Woodward
Anger and tenderness: my selves.
And now I can believe they breathe in me
as angels, not polarities.
Anger and tenderness: the spider's genius
to spin and weave in the same action
from her own body, anywhere --
even from a broken web.
From Adrienne Rich, Integrity
God : Some Conversations (part 4)
Posted on by James Woodward
He is known also as the Holy and Righteous and TransÂcendent One who is trustworthy. This is a thing which has been borne in upon the followers of God, those who have been called to know that they are his people through all the ups and downs of their lives, through all the mud
God: Some Conversations (part 3)
Posted on by James Woodward
Belief in God today is what it always has been. A commitÂment to a way of living based on response to a way of giving - to the way in which God gives himself to us in Jesus Christ, through our fellow believers, through that of God in every man and in the possibilities of the u