Sunday's sermon was on the 'life in all its fulness' saying of Jesus... it seeemd to go well, covering much familiar ground, such as 'fulness' is qualitative not quantitative, and I suppose my 'angle' was to paraphrase 'life in its fulness' as being 'fully alive'.  I used three quotations in the sermon - one from Viktor Frankl, one from Annie Johnson Flint and one from St Irenaeus.  Here they are....

Life in all its Fullness

“We cannot, after all, judge a biography by its length, by the number of pages in it; we must judge by the richness of the contents...Sometimes the 'unfinisheds' are among the most beautiful symphonies.”

Viktor Frankl

What God Hath Promised

God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.

God hath not promised we shall not know
Toil and temptation, trouble and woe;
He hath not told us we shall not bear
many a burden, many a care.

God hath not promised smooth roads and wide,
Swift, easy travel, needing no guide;
Never a mountain rocky and steep,
Never a river turbid and deep

But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love

Annie Johnson Flint

"The glory of God is a human being fully alive; and to be alive consists in beholding God."

St Irenaeus

Today the Church of England held a service to celebrate reaching twenty years of ordaining women... evidently around 700 women were present, the bishops all dressed as priests and the arch bish was the deacon... lots of symbolism going on there.

As a trainee Bappy minister, my first placement was with one of the women ordained in the first decade - after the first few pioneers but before it was widespread, now she's Archdeacon of York.

Later during my training I met a woman training to be a priest, who, last I knew was a leading light in her own diocese.

Among my blogging friends is Perpetua a retired priest and I have one or two real life vicar friends.

All of them are a real asset to the church, each bringing her unique gifts to fulfil her calling - I am privileged to know them

I am pleased for them that they are celebrating - and the Arch Bish's sermon can be read here

Every blessing to S, A, P, O, J and all women priests in the C of E

This is a beautiful and profound video that expresses something important.  Apologies if the colourful language early in the video offends... if you get past that it's well worth watching:

So, the Evangelical Alliance (EA)have decided to discontinue the membership of the Oasis Trust because of its stance on LGBT issues.  Whatever your views on LGBT issue, this has to be a very sad day when one evangelical can effectively expel another over an issue that, so far as I can see, is not a central defining tenet of evangelicalism.

You can read what the EA said here and what Oasis said here

I'm sure lots of views will be expressed over the coming days.  The responses I have seen expressed by Baptists are all the same - they are saddened, and long for people to learn to agree to disagree with grace and humility.  Very sad indeed.

UPDATE an excellent, gracious, gentle, wise and thoroughly Baptist repsonse from David Kerrigan here

The latest smallVOICE podcast is now available here... as always worth a listen