I am busy at the moment beginning to prepare to do some scoping for a new book on theological reflection – a movement away from some of my usual topics ! Here is a starter thought: ‘Christians are not reticent about expressing their opinions such matters, and one countless others. In doing so they are […]
seeking out?
Posted on by James Woodward
Spirituality is concerned with seeking out what is real in human life.
Change?
Posted on by James Woodward
She taught me this above all else; thing’s which don’t shift and grow are dead things.They are things which the witchery people want. Witchery works to scare people, to make them fear growth. But it has always been necessary, and more than ever now , it is. Otherwise we won’t make it. We won’t survive. […]
love is a place
Posted on by James Woodward
brightness love is a place & through this place of love move (with brightness of peace) all places From e.e.cummings, love is a place.
St Luke
Posted on by James Woodward
Who was St Luke? Luke wrote two books of the Bible: a Gospel and The Acts of the Apostles; together they make up just over one-quarter of the New Testament. Almost all that we know about Luke comes from the New Testament. He was a physician (Colossians 4:14), a companion of Paul on some of […]
Faith
Posted on by James Woodward
Faith I want to write about faith, about the way the moon rises over cold snow, night after night, faithful even as it fades from fullness, slowly becoming that last curving and impossible sliver of light before the final darkness. But I have no faith myself I refuse it even […]
James Lees-Milne: The Life, By Michael Bloch
Posted on by James Woodward
Thackeray defined snobbery as “to meanly admire mean things”. Another definition might be a judgment made by arbitrary standards, for example extrapolating moral worth from social position. From this vantage point, James Lees-Milne (1908-97) was certainly a snob. He genuinely did believe that his chum the Duchess of Devonshire was a better person by dint […]
In Praise of….
Posted on by James Woodward
The Anglican Priest! Clergy Consultation ot St Georges House Windsor To try and speak of God is, unavoidably, to work with words and images carved from the world’s wood, the territory of the familiar.’ Nicholas Lash may be right. But speak of God we must and to speak of him consistently, coherently and convincingly is […]
The Promised Land?
Posted on by James Woodward
The Promised Land So much of our work and our ideas are bent toward arrival in the promised land. We might be on a pilgrimage of identity in work, but it is almost always the prospect of arrival that keeps us going rather than the journey itself. We aim for a certain genius in […]
Edward the Confessor
Posted on by James Woodward
Edward the Confessor Edward the Confessor was a man of great prayer – rather like a crowned monk. He was hailed throughout his life as a gentle, loyal and devoted king. A confessor is a saint who suffers for his faith but is one step short of martyrdom. Edward suffered for his faith by resisting […]
Elizabeth Fry
Posted on by James Woodward
Elizabeth Fry (nee Gurney) was born in 1780 into a well-to-do Quaker family in Norwich. As a child she did not enjoy the Quaker meetings and made her delicate health an excuse for missing them. Later Elizabeth became one of the Plain Friends whose religious observance was very strict: they dressed plainly and refused […]
Thomas Traherne
Posted on by James Woodward
Thomas Traherne 1636-1674 Thomas Traherne was born the son of a Hereford shoemaker, in about 1636. Thomas had a good education and entered Brasenose College at Oxford University from 1652, achieving an M.A. in arts and divinity in 1661. In the meantime, he was admitted in 1657 to the rectory of Credenhill, near Hereford and […]
Slow?
Posted on by James Woodward
Moments of speed and urgency but dependent on a felt perception of the larger pattern. The ability to close on something and then let it go. The key seems to be to a find a restful yet attentive presence in the midst of our work, to open up spaciousness even in the centre of responsibility. […]
Green
Posted on by James Woodward
green Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less, Withdraws into its happiness: The mind, that ocean where each kind Does straight its own resemblance find; Yet it creates, transcending these, Far other worlds, and other seas; Annihilating all that’s made To a green thought in a green shade. Andrew Marvell
The Military Knights of Windsor
Posted on by James Woodward
The Military Knights of Windsor claim to be the oldest military establishment in the Army List. Formed by King Edward III shortly after the Battle of Creçy, the foundation consisted of Knights who, having taken their private armies to France to fight for the King, had been taken prisoner by the French who demanded heavy […]
William Tyndale
Posted on by James Woodward
“If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the Scripture than thou doest.” – Tyndale, in response to a clergyman opposing his translation of the Scriptures into the vernacular William Tyndale was born around 1495 in England. He was ordained to the […]
Corn
Posted on by James Woodward
One of the elements of living in a new place is finding the right place to do your shopping! Thankfully I have found a wonderful vegetable supplier who delivers a box of fruit and veg. I never know what is in the box – and was surprised to find corn last week! It reminded me […]
Invitation and not Intimidation
Posted on by James Woodward
Ignatius begins as any good psychologist (or wise father or mother or pastoral minister) does, with invitation. Adults know that the opposite-intimidation-never really works. It threatens and frightens, but after the alarm is over nothing much changes except that we (or those we intimidate) live in a perpetual state of anxiety, dreading the next attack. […]
Fountain
Posted on by James Woodward
fountain Up from the bronze, I saw Water without a flaw Rush to its rest in air, Reach to its rest, and fall. From Louise Brogan, Roman fountain
Aliens?
Posted on by James Woodward
A spirituality that takes seriously the kind and extent of alienation – are we not all aliens today? … that has prevailed with increasing power during the past three hundred years must needs pay greater attention than has been out custom to what von Hügel called ‘the life prior to prayer, to those actual onditions […]