Coffee Theology

Mental health affects everyone, just as physical health affects everyone. We all have a mind and we all have a body. Our thoughts affect our physical sensations, and our body influences our mental state. When we're tired, hungry, have a headache, we are irritable. When we're scared our stomach churns and we break out in a cold sweat. We are, each of us, a whole person, body, mind and spirit - and these cannot easily be separated. We all have good days and bad days. We all 'feel depressed' sometimes - by which we probably mean sad, blue, downhearted. We all feel anxious at times - it's a natural reaction to stressors. We all have to find ways of dealing with our moods, whether it's by thinking things through, distracting ourselves, talking to a good friend or simply getting some sleep. Sometimes we struggle to manage our moods and our emotions get out of control. We feel sad all the time; we feel frightened of situations that aren't dangerous; we stop

Over the six episodes of Broken Father Michael meets several people going through terrible struggles. One of the saddest is the case of Roz, a lapsed Irish Catholic woman who comes to confession and tells Michael her secret. Roz is holding down a responsible job and living in a nice house with her three teenage children; she is an attractive woman and comes across as successful and capable. But Roz has stolen over £230,000 from her employer over the past eight years in order to fund her gambling addiction. She knows her days of keeping this quiet are numbered: soon her employer will find out and therefore she is planning to end her life. She won't be able to live with the shame, she explains. She can't stand the thought of all her neighbours and friends knowing what she's done and, as she puts it, "wetting themselves"  with glee. Michael tries hard to dissuade Roz from her terrible decision. He's done much worse things than she has, he confesses, and shar

A new drama series by Jimmy McGovern finished a couple of weeks ago on the BBC. Broken  tells the story of Roman Catholic priest Father Michael Kerrigan, a broken person ministering to other broken people in an unnamed northern city. It's still available on BBC iPlayer and I would encourage you to watch it - only be prepared for a few grim hours. I'll try to avoid spoilers here. Michael has a problem: whenever he celebrates Mass (which I think in the Roman Catholic Church is every day), he has flashbacks. At the moment of consecration - the point at which, Catholics believe, the bread and wine physically become for us the body and blood of Christ - he remembers every shameful thing he's ever done, and every shameful thing that has been done to him. We see his mother screaming at him that he's a dirty, filthy little boy; young women crying because he has treated them badly; mistakes he has made as a priest; people he has let down. His voice falters and he struggles

Last Saturday marked the official end of my probationary period as a Newly Accredited Baptist minister. After finishing my teacher training in my early 20s I spent a year as a Newly Qualified Teacher with certain assignments to complete (and slightly fewer teaching hours); in a similar way, after completing their theological studies and being ordained, Baptist ministers spend three years in which they complete assignments and attend conferences alongside their work in the church. Most of the ministers I have met see the 'NAMs' period as a massive pain in the backside, after which they will be free to do what they want. Certainly I won't miss the essays and book reviews, but I am glad that there is extra support for people who are new to a demanding job. Well, it's not really a job, more a way of life, but that's a whole other blog post. After shaking hands with various Baptist Union dignitaries I sat in the auditorium thinking about the earlier stages of this jour

[To preempt any future lawsuits, please note that the stories below are not true.  Yet.] ‘Refugees welcome in the USA,’ declares Donald Trump , announcing his plan to receive up to 12 million refugees from Syria to be given US green cards. Fortune 500 companies unite to end HIV/Aids .  Apple, McDonald’s, Walmart and Coca-Cola pledge 50% of their net profits over five years to supply HIV antiretroviral medication and health education programmes to 47 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, where 71% of those living with HIV/Aids globally can be found. Mahmoud and Netanyahu declare peace in the Holy Land . President of Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have issued a statement confirming a resounding success in the latest year-long peace talks between the Palestinian National Authority and the state of Israel.  The leaders of the Palestinian and Israeli people are confident that a lasting peace will be achieved.  

Mark 7.24-30 From there [Jesus] set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ But she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ Then he said to her, ‘For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.’ So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. I wonder what Donald Trump would make of Jesus’ words here? Let the children be fed first Or, in the New Living Translation: First I should feed the children—my own family, the Jews. "My foreign policy will always p

This is a good film which made me feel very uncomfortable indeed.  I often like to read a few reviews of a film after I've seen it, especially if it has impacted me in some way.  I find myself quite perplexed by the Telegraph reviewer who dubbed this film 'cosily enjoyable'.  It's a good film, but cosy is not a word I'd choose in describing it. I thought it would be both cosy and enjoyable.  I saw the trailer when The Lady in the Van came out in 2015, thought it looked a delightful comedy romp, and made a mental note to see it.  It's a dramatisation of the true story of a destitute old lady, Mrs Shepherd, who lived in a camper van in the driveway of playwright Alan Bennett's north London house for 15 years.  When it popped up on iPlayer over Christmas I was pleased. But this story is a bit too close to the bone for me.  We actually ended up watching it in two sessions as we found it so depressing.  Unfortunately we were eating dinner during one particular