Coffee Theology

For the last few years I have become more and more interested in ways in which the festival of Halloween might be redeemed.  Today, while preparing for the 'Life & Faith discussion group' I came across some thoughts expressed in much more eloquent terms than my half-formed ideas: Christmas… was deliberately superimposed on pagan midwinter festivals, [so] why not do the same with Halloween? After all, many consider that the feasts of All Hallows’ and All Saints’ were placed at their particular position in the year to ‘take over’ the Gaelic, end of Harvest festival, ‘Samhain’. Many consider that consumerism has done a pretty good job at reclaiming Christmas and is now seeking to take over All Hallows’, completely forgetting about All Saints’. Despite all of its confused messages, Christmas is still a brilliant outreach opportunity for the Church, and one that many of us take advantage of. Why don’t we see Halloween as an opportunity as well? Tim Hastie-Smith, Nat...

I was VERY worried about last Sunday's sermon.  We've started a sermon series on people's awkward questions about faith, and unfortunately quite a few of the questions submitted were about hell.  Who goes there.  Whether it's fair that God sends people there.  You know, really easy questions like that.  I often get nervous before preaching these days, but yesterday I quite literally broke out into a cold sweat as my nervous system went into meltdown and I hoped that, as has proved to be the case time and again, I would be all right once I started speaking.  For some reason it's the anticipation that gets me; once I start, I go into the zone.   It didn't help that I had been talking with some minister friends a few days before I was due to preach and, when they heard the topic I would be tackling, they looked very concerned and started giving me advice.  Oh dear, I thought, this is clearly something no one ever preaches on voluntarily.  Too la...

For a variety of reasons, back in May I came to the conclusion that I needed to do something about my weight.  I had never been a member of a slimming club before, or really tried dieting, even though there had been times over the years when I'd been unhappy about my weight.  Watching what you ate all the time and weighing yourself just seemed a really joyless way to live.  Just as I'd decided that I needed to take action, a flyer for Slimming World came through our letterbox.  I discovered that the nearest meeting was a five-minute walk from our house, so getting to the weekly weigh-in could not have been easier.   The issue of weight, fat and body image is an extremely tricky one for women.  I'm told that men struggle with this too, but I don't know much about it so I won't presume to comment.  As a feminist, I believe that society uses rules about appearance to control women and put them down; as a woman, there are little voices inside my head ...

You know how you sometimes see the beginning of a film, but then get interrupted?  Maybe it's late, and you realise you really have to go to bed.  Or someone rings you and you have a long phone conversation, after which there doesn't seem much point trying to pick up the plot again.  Or someone else wants to watch something on the other channel.  Anyway, I had seen the first 40 minutes of I, Robot  twice, and no more.  The other day I finally got to see the film all the way to the end.  It's based on a novel by Isaac Asimov, although I'm assured that it mucks around with the story, so I'm planning to read the Asimov novel as soon as possible, being a major sci-fi fan.  Nevertheless, I found some elements of the plot really interesting. Asimov invented the three laws of robotics, hard-wired into each robot's brain, which are as follows (paraphrased in my own words): 1. No robot may harm, or by inaction cause harm to come to a human being. 2. A...

I am currently running a Saturday morning breakfast Alpha Course.  We chat over coffee, eat breakfast and then have a short interactive talk about an aspect of the Christian faith.  It's a lot of fun. Every church runs Alpha slightly differently; my church inserted a talk on 'suffering and wholeness' several years ago, a talk which isn't in the Alpha book, but clearly should be.  I decided to tackle the topic by looking at a range of different responses we might make to pain and tragedy.  The terrible events of the previous week focused my mind somewhat: the horrendous shootings in Orlando motivated by homophobic hate; the savage murder of Jo Cox by a man who seems to be a white supremacist with significant mental health problems.  What are the different ways Christians try to process these kinds of events, along with the many smaller, lower profile but equally devastating disappointments, losses and hurts we suffer ever day? ' If we pray, God will save...

Last weekend I and the other youth leaders took a group of teenagers on a youth weekend away. The topic was the tricky area of sex and relationships. On the Saturday night we watched one of my favourite films: Shallow Hal. OK, maybe I shouldn't admit to liking a film so much that features so many fat jokes, including Gwyneth Paltrow in a fat suit. What a horribly chauvinistic and puerile film, you would be forgiven for thinking. Despite all that, however, it's actually a really sweet film. Hal, played by the marvellous Jack Black, is (as you may have guessed from the title) extremely shallow when it comes to women. He exclusively pursues women who look like models: they have to be slim yet busty, with a pretty face, long legs and a pert bum. He argues that he simply has 'high standards'. His friends can't understand why such a sweet guy has such a massive flaw, judging women purely on their looks. Then one day he is stuck in a lift with the self-help guru...

I blogged about this marvellous Disney film last year, but I watched it again yesterday and I'm struck again by other things that are totally brilliant about it.   I'm working on a series of talks for the youth club based on films they like, and one of the films they chose was Frozen .  The obvious clip to use for a God slot is probably the redemptive ending, when in an 'act of love' Anna saves her sister's life, apparently at the cost of her own.  On second thoughts, however, I think I'm going to show the sequence with the hit song Let it Go.   I've been reflecting on why I like that song so much and why I like the concept behind it.  So here goes. Elsa has a secret - she can do magic.  Specifically, she can produce ice and snow from her hands. Elsa's magic is nether good nor bad, it just is.  However, one morning as a child she accidentally hurts her sister with the magic, and that causes her parents to protect Elsa and Anna by hiding Elsa's magic ...