Viewing all items in Resource Category: Looking at God

Epiphany for today From the Vicar Overcoming Disappointment Where do we go from here? How many more waves? Struggling towards relinquishment (Part Three) ** Editor:  Canon Paul Hardingham finds the wise men’s gifts to be of help to us now. Epiphany for today This month we celebrate Epiphany, when we remember the Magi from the...

This month we celebrate Epiphany, when we remember the Magi from the East who followed a star to find the baby Jesus: ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?’ (Matthew 2:1). At the start of a New Year, amid the uncertainty of the pandemic, are we asking the same question?...

This month we celebrate Epiphany, when we remember the Magi from the East who followed a star to find the baby Jesus: ‘Where is He?’ (Matthew 2:1). At the start of a New Year, amid the uncertainty of the pandemic are we asking the same question? The gifts they offered show us how we can...

‘We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.’ (Martin Luther King, Jr). During this current pandemic, one of the dominant emotions is disappointment. It comes out of our expectations of life, even as people of faith. The life story that we adopt for ourselves is that life should be long and healthy; we...

Perhaps this was a question the Wise Men asked after seeing the infant Jesus. They had come from a distant land to Jerusalem. They had followed a star and expected to see a royal child. Now in Bethlehem, they saw things differently. No doubt, Mary and Joseph shared with these men their recent experiences and...

As the days are dark, and winter still stretches ahead, many of us find the prospect of more restrictions for months to come even harder than when we first went into lockdown. After nine months of coronavirus, we are emotionally drained. We are financially drained.  We are lonely, depressed, frightened, and facing deep uncertainty, from...

During lockdown the little Methodist chapel to which Pen and I belong has been refurbished. After the builders left, we started putting things straight, and were stunned to realise how much stuff we had. Old hymns books. A broken communion set. Paper and defunct pens, stickers and dried glue from Messy Church. Wonky plastic chairs. A...

The Story is still the same! From the Vicar Christmas can’t come too early Hope amid uncertainty Journeys or lockdown this Christmas? What Mary taught me Reflected Faith Series: Grace for all Christmas: Celebrating the Incarnation ** Editor: by Canon Paul Hardingham. The Story is still the same! ‘Christmas may look different, but the story...

‘Christmas may look different, but the story is still the same!’ That’s the message for Christmas in 2020. Coronavirus will make our celebrations this year look very different from usual. However, the message of the baby born in Bethlehem is still relevant! In one nativity play, the highlight was to illuminate Jesus, with a light...

‘Christmas may look different, but the story is still the same!’ Coronavirus will make our celebrations this year look very different from usual. However, the message of the baby born in Bethlehem is still relevant! In one nativity play, the highlight was to illuminate Jesus, with a light in the manger, when all the other...

Every year it happens. I hear Christians lamenting how ‘Christmas comes earlier every year.’ Since this September (or before!) supermarkets, shops and garden centres have been selling Christmas jumpers, socks and pyjamas and all kinds of other seasonal merchandise. Should we be annoyed or exasperated? Should we have gone around reminding people that it’s much...

‘Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call Him Immanuel.’ (Isaiah 7:14) This promise to King Ahaz in 8th century Judah is fulfilled in the coming of Jesus at the first Christmas: ‘God with Us’ (Matthew 1:23). Ahaz faced the military...