Last night I was back in a hotel for church for the first time since I moved south.  It made me surprisingly happy to be back in a place where the congregation had to set up and clear up week by week, where hotel dodgy coffee was as good as it got, and where a really tiny congregation meet together week by week (I know how much hotel room hire costs, and this was one very tiny congregation who somehow or other, in faith, pay for it).

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is an opportunity to cross our denominational and theological boundaries and celebrate what we have in common... last night we may only have been 15 people (that made me sad) but we represented Baptist, Roman Catholic, Anglican, Quaker, Independent Evangelical, and Pentecostal expressions of Christianity (that made me very happy).

The tiny little church (apparently they regularly get around seven people... yes, seven, including the pastor and spouse) were so welcoming, inclusive and friendly, and at the same time so utterly true to their own understanding of following Jesus, that it made me proud to part of this strange thing called the 'Big C' Church.  

PS, it makes me chuckle that this hotel is called the 'Belvilla City Centre Railway Town' when it's right on the edge of a comparatively small town, so there are at least two inaccuracies in the name.

Another good, if very full, and very thought-provoking day (and still a session to go!).  There have been less stories (though still some) and more reports on practice, process and academic analysis.  My brain is a bit fried!

Anyway, the above screenshot resonated, and seemed a great sermon title for an ordination, as did this one, which echoes advice given to me... 'don't consider going into ministry unless you are sure you can do none other...':

I am hugely grateful to the organisers for what has been a tremendous couple of days.  So much to mull over, and so much to be thankful for.

Many years ago, someone gifted me this tee-shirt at a time when my confidence and self-esteem were both low.  At a ministers' conference in Scotland, it was deemed offensive.  Today I am wearing it at on online symposium, where it is one of the touchstones for my paper.

Thank you W & G who gifted me this joyful and encouraging garment way back in 2011 (I get my money's worth out of my clothes!). 

I was looking for poems for today's session exploring sacraments/ordinances.  I stumbled across this one, which I like, and, I think, fits quite well with an 'everything is sacred' (hyper-Aquinas =  hypo-Zwingli, everything meets around the back) perspective.  Anyway, I like squirrels, and once, a very long time ago, was blessed by an angel in the form of a squirrel with an injured tail.

The Sacraments (attributed to Francis of Assisi)

https://bonniebarnard.com/book/the-sacraments-by-francis-of-assisi-poem/

I once spoke to my friend, an old squirrel, about the Sacraments —
he got so excited.

and ran into a hallow in his tree and came
back holding some acorns, an owl feather,
and a ribbon he found.

And I just smiled and said, “Yes dear,
you understand:

Everything imparts His grace.

photo - legitimate free download from here 

Ten years ago today, two skinny, terrified cats came into my life.