May 2012 Blog Posts (18)

On 16th May, Archbishop Kevin McDonald, accompanied by Bishop Paul Hendrickes, Jon Dal Din (Director of Westminster Interfaith) and Alfred Agius (the former director of Westminster Interfaith) and me visited the Jain derasar near Potter's Bar - an inspiring and interesting morning for all involved. More details, as well as a link to photos of this occasion and the beautiful building can be found on…

One of the best bits in the film Lost in Translation is when Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson end up doing karaoke in a Tokyo bar. Bill Murray belts out Elvis Costello’s What’s so funny ’bout peace, love and understanding? I love the film and I love that scene.

But it’s…

Conversations with journalists often involves challenging the suggestion that the Church of England spends all its time in conflict over sex and women. If 5% of what we talk about forms 95% of media coverage about us and this shapes 100% of popular perception about the church’s preoccupation, no…

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This morning I preached at the Civic Service in Bradford Cathedral to mark the end on the Lord Mayor’s year in office. This enabled the Lord Mayor, Naveeda Ikram – the first Muslim woman Lord Mayor in the country – to reflect publicly on her year. It was a long service…

I wanted to take…

The deepening financial/sovereign debt crisis in a number of Euro-zone countries now poses a real threat to economic recovery and social stability across the entire EU region and beyond. This issue will be the key subject of discussion at the meeting of G8 leaders in Camp David…

If you are interested in joining people from a number of different religions in supporting asylum seekers, there are two opportunities for you to do so very soon - on 30th May and on 3rd of June, in Peckham and East Finchley respectively. I am sure that your help would be appreciated, and that there are many interesting and inspiring conversations to be had. For more information, go to…

For several years now it has come to my attention that some dear brothers (and maybe sisters too) in Jesus are preaching via literature, internet etc. that we can separate the Salvation of our body, soul and spirit to the extent that even though we cannot lose the salvation of our spirits we can lose the salvation of our souls even after we are born again, born from above, our New Birth in Christ Jesus.

I have had endless conversations concerning this…

1. Having led a company that assumed for itself the authority to hound other people and call for heads to roll, Rebekah Brooksnow expresses indignation that lawyers dare to…

I am writing an essay on whether it is helpful for Christians wishing to understand Islam to compare Jesus with Muhammad. Your thoughts please!

Every Church of England parish has churchwardens. They are the bishop’s officers in the parish (which sounds worse than it is). They are elected each year at the Annual Parochial Church Meetings and then have to be ‘admitted’ at a Visitation by the Archdeacon and the Registrar. However, the…

In God’s economy no one is disposable.  Its just a shame we can’t quite say the same about how our own economy – and churches - work.

In these straightened times, the worth of individuals, families and indeed whole communities seems to increasingly be calculated only in terms of their ‘productivity’ and contribution to economic growth.

Several London…

Struggling through a streaming cold and muzzy head to write a lecture for this coming Wednesday (on Being Confident in an Uncertain World), I was easily distracted by the glories of Twitter. I caught a link which, in the context of all the political upheavals going on around us, stood…

Too much going on and not much time for posting here. Even though by the middle of this month my blog will have had one million hits in two and a half years – how weird is that? Anyway,…

Please see link below for video and the quotation below.  

This is the dance form that was once described to me as the "purest form of Indian dance without the idolatry."

 I believe that today, Jewish Yemenite Choreographers/ dancers such as Moshiko Halevy and Shmulik Gov Ari carry on this dance worship to the God of Abraham , Isaac and Jacob and the Gentiles.

  YOUTUBE Uploaded by Albalan0779... on 1…

If you are interested in Judaism, and in food, this is your dream event, exploring the (tasty!) connections between faith and food: http://gefiltefest.org/gefiltefest-2012.

Why doesn't the BBC do a series on young and old working in the community from all faiths and none? So many people do not know that most of the voluntary work in this country is done by people of faith notably the Catholics and C of E and Muslims. I heard last night that Angels of Mersey has had poor viewing figures - what a shame as it was excellent!