In a Glass Darkly: The Bible, Reflection and Everyday Life Zoe Bennett, Christopher Rowland SCM Press £25 (978-0-334-05422-1) Moments of honesty and candour can be both refreshing and threatening in equal measure. I recently heard an intelligent and energetic parish priest make a passionate plea for Christians to be more honest about change and […]
Still Growing : The Creative Self in Older Age
Posted on by James Woodward
Still Growing The Creative Self in Older Adulthood Donald Capps The Lutterworth press 2015, PB 208pp, 9780718893910, £16.50. This is the most delightful of books in its thoroughness, scholarship and creativity. It has all the potential to transform the readers understanding of the nature of age. In our functional and reductionist world that over […]
What are older People for ? Reflecting on Care
Posted on by James Woodward
‘It’s no fun getting older – just you wait’ was the challenge posed by a woman who in her 80s was embracing some slowing up and her need for help. She had spent four decades teaching children and now felt vulnerable and marginalised. ‘I feel invisible, overlooked and misunderstood’ was how she expressed the challenge […]
Chaplaincy in the Workplace
Posted on by James Woodward
Fiona Stewart-Darling, Multifaith Chaplaincy in the Workplace: How Chaplains Can Support Organizations and their Employees (London: Jessica Kingsley, 2017); As we continue to debate the effects of secularism on the life of faith with, at least, statistical evidence to suggest steady decline, this book begins with the premise that faith and religion are still […]
Not for Profit – what kind of education will equip us for the future ?
Posted on by James Woodward
Looking backwards and wondering ‘what if’ is an exercise that requires care and some measure of wisdom. However, we need to engage in the ‘what if’ questions to nurture reflexivity and so challenge ourselves to be energised by the possibilities of change. So here is a question – if you could turn the clock back […]
Reminiscence Work with Older Adults
Posted on by James Woodward
The Multi-Sensory Reminiscence Activity Book 52 Weekly Group Session Plans for Working with Older Adults Sophie Jopling and Sarah Mousley Jessica Kingsley Publishers 2017 ISBN: 9781785922398 There are few of us in early middle age who do not know someone who is living with some of the opportunities and challenges of growing older. Sadly […]
Poetry and Dementia
Posted on by James Woodward
Poetry and Dementia: A Practical Guide John Killick Jessica Kingsley Publishers 2017 ISBN: 9781785921766 £16.99 I wonder what your relationship to poetry is? I have met some people that simply do not get this way of expression; others who simply haven’t got the time or the inclination to attend very closely to the […]
A crisis of Care ?
Posted on by James Woodward
Contrast two scenes. The first is a restaurant – where the food is carefully prepared and warmly served in an atmosphere which seeks to delight its customers. The second is a hospital. Parking the car is nearly impossible – the long impersonal corridors where people avoid eye contact. The noisy ward – the short temered […]
Holiday reading (1) Gordon Brown My life, Our Times Bodley Head 2017.
Posted on by James Woodward
Having successfully downsized my living and therefore ‘storage’ arrangements I think twice about buying a book! I was, however, immediately drawn to this political autobiography, not least because on the two occasions I met Gordon Brown I found him humane, reflective and generous. Retired politicians, we are told, are generally more attractive than […]
Bradbury on Practical theology and Pierre-Andre Liege : Book Review
Posted on by James Woodward
Practical theology and Pierre-Andre Liege : Radical Dominican and Vatican II Pioneer Nicholas Bradbury AshGate 2015 £65.00 ISBN 9781472418708 This is giant of a text from the priest with long experience of ministry, learning, leadership and reflective practice. The coherence and authority of this experience and skill as a reflective practitioner is demonstrated through […]
Conundrums in Practical Theology : Book Review
Posted on by James Woodward
Conundrums in Practical Theology. By Joyce Ann Mercer and Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, Boston: Brill, 2016. 320 pages. $76. (PBK). ISBN 978-90-04-32423-7. Reviewed by: James Woodward, Principal of Sarum College, Salisbury and Visiting Professor of Theology, the University Winchester UK All those engaged in learning and teaching will have a system for organising books […]
Advent Offers an Invitation to Wait and Hope
Posted on by James Woodward
We are midway through the season running up to Christmas, which is called Advent. One of its key themes is the importance for us to see the possibilities that waiting might bring or us. I overheard a child in Tesco this week say to her brother, “I can’t wait for Christmas”. In her eyes, […]
Please pray for me
Posted on by James Woodward
As a priest, I should not be surprised at how often sometimes perfect strangers ask me to pray for them. Sometimes it is related to a specific difficulty or crisis – more often than not people understandably take comfort from the reality of being prayed for. Intercession, prayer that is to ask God for […]
Waiting and Wondering
Posted on by James Woodward
I find myself along with others caught up in quite absurd activity as ‘ the Christmas rush’ bears down. I discover that in this maddness I have no evenings free before Christmas and wonder how much of this is of my own making! An early flurry of sleet and the promise of snow for some tomorrow […]
Visiting the Memory Café ; Embracing better Dementia Care
Posted on by James Woodward
Visiting the Memory Café and other Dementia Care Activities Evidence-based Interventions for Care Homes Edited by Caroline Baker and Jason Corrigan-Charlesworth. Jessica Kingsley Publishers 2017, ISBN: 9781785922527 £16.99 They can be few families who are not affected by an individual who is engaging with some degree of significant memory loss. For some the prospect of […]
Enlarging our Hearts at the Cinema with Paddington2 and Wonder
Posted on by James Woodward
The Salisbury Odeon is one of the oldest buildings in town with an impressive mediaeval hall which leads into four or perhaps five screens. Friends will know that it is a favourite haunt of mine – sometimes just a very helpful release from work – at other times important for us all to see beyond […]
Where do we look for treasure ?
Posted on by James Woodward
THE RABBI OF KRACOW There once was a pious rabbi, Eisik of Kracow, capital of Poland, who had a dream in which a voice told him to go to far-off Prague, where under the great bridge to the royal castle he would discover a hidden treasure. This same commanding dream was repeated twice. He […]
Sunday Pause for Thought Trinity 15 : God has No Favourites
Posted on by James Woodward
Sunday 24 September 2017 The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity Common Worship Lectionary Proper 20 Exodus 16.2–15 The Lord sends manna from heaven Psalm 105.1–6, 37–45* God’s faithfulness to Israel Philippians 1.21–30 Living is Christ and dying is gain: live worthy lives Matthew 20.1–16 Parable of the labourers in the vineyard Discipline is the […]
Sunday Pause for Thought – The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity
Posted on by James Woodward
The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity Common Worship Lectionary Proper 19 Exodus 14.19–31 Israel saved by Moses parting the waters Psalm 114 or Israel fled from Egypt to sanctuary in Judah Canticle: Exodus 15.1b–11, 20, 21 Moses’ song after the Exodus Romans 14.1–12 Do not judge, for we are all accountable to God […]
The Moral Heart of Public Service
Posted on by James Woodward
The Moral Heart of Public Service – Edited by Claire Foster Gilbert Jessica Kingsley Publishers (2017) ISBN 9781785922558 £18.99 Westminster Abbey takes its location to serve our national life with utmost seriousness. As well as attracting visitors from across the world the Abbey also seeks to engage with a range of major institutions and public […]