Poem: Saintliness
Poem: Saintliness
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem: Saintliness The loss will hurt, but memories linger on and when the pain begins to ease and tears are drying – even if only for a time – the legacy that love has left begins to demonstrate its value, as words and looks and shared experiences drift through the troubled mind …
Monologue/drama: My Troubled Son
Monologue/drama: My Troubled Son
by Marjorie Dobson
Monologue/drama: My Troubled Son If you’ve got a few minutes to spare, I’d like to tell you about my son. Oh, yes! I’ve got a son! He doesn’t live round here any more, of course! Hasn’t done for years. No, my daughters look after me – and my sons-in-law - and it’s lovely to have …
Poem: Confusion
Poem: Confusion
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem: Confusion Overwhelmed by things we cannot explain and questions for which we have no answers, we struggle to make sense of anything we thought we understood. Along the way, we lose sight of truths that once formed the bedrock of our faith. Continues... ©Marjorie Dobson
Poem: Taste and see
Poem: Taste and see
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem: Taste and see. Whatever your taste – whether it’s for a bacon sandwich, or a cream scone, or fish and chips, or rare roast beef, or a fine wine, or a strong dark coffee, or an extra-strong peppermint – the thought of the taste and the imagination of the sensation of eating,…
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Paul's Ministry to Thessalonica
Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians - Paul's Ministry to Thessalonica
by SPCK - N T Wright
Paul’s Ministry to Thessalonica Thessalonians 2.1-8 The ancient world, like the modern one, learned to be cynical about almost everything. If a letter arrives offering me a wonderful free gift, I know it’s a trap to lure me into paying for something I don’t really want. If someon…
Poem: Wealthy, or wise?
Poem: Wealthy, or wise?
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem: Wealthy, or wise? A wealthy man who wanted more than all the goods he had in store: a wealthy man whose healthy food could only make his life so good: a wealthy man, obeying laws, and yet his life-style gave him cause to seek an answer, most profound, on how eternal life is…
Poem: Lost
Poem: Lost
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem: Lost Lost – one God. Can’t find him anywhere. One direction or another, it doesn’t matter – no God. Is he hiding from me? Has he turned away and has his back to me? Am I lost, or is he? I don’t know. I want to find him. I want to talk to him. I know he will listen carefully…
Prayer: Perceptive God
Prayer: Perceptive God
by Marjorie Dobson
Prayer: Perceptive God Perceptive God, you know our thoughts and our behaviour. You know when we are sincere and when we are deceiving ourselves. We try to do what is right. We try to live blameless lives. We believe and have confidence in you. We worship and praise you. So we tr…
Poem: That shouldn’t happen to you!
Poem: That shouldn’t happen to you!
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem: That shouldn’t happen to you! When the person who is supposed to love you most is the one who seems to understand your faith in God the least, do you reject the God who has held you for so long, or ignore the one who says your God doesn’t seem to care? Continues... ©Marjori…
Poem: One continuous line of speech
Poem: One continuous line of speech
by Marjorie Dobson
Poem: One continuous line of speech One continuous line of speech. First the creative Spirit bringing order from chaos. Next the prophets, thundering, condemning, or calling people to repentance. After them, the Son, embodying the image of God, challenging, changing, daring and s…
Festivals Together - Introduction- festivals for everyone
Festivals Together - Introduction- festivals for everyone
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
Creating all-age worship: the key components Introduction Festival is a great word and a great experience, one deeply embedded in contemporary culture. It is estimated that there are at least five hundred music festivals alone each year in the UK, plus countless other types. Ther…
Worship Together - Promise for Everyone
Worship Together - Promise for Everyone
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
December – Promise for everyone Worship Together December brings us to the beginning of the church year, but for the vast majority of people it brings us to Christmas. The challenge is to use the lectionary to recapture a sense of Advent, of preparing for the coming of Christ as …
Festivals Together - How to use this book
Festivals Together - How to use this book
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
How to use this book Festivals Together There are fifteen festival outlines in this book, each of them offering something different. They range from the familiar occasions such as Mothering Sunday to the solemn days of Holy Week.1 The ideas that are offered are jumping-off points…
Worship Together - Invitation for everyone
Worship Together - Invitation for everyone
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
November – Invitation for everyone? Worship Together By November we become very aware of the changing focus of the church year. This season is sometimes called the kingdom season, as the lectionary focuses on the kingdom drawing close, on the vision of a heavenly banquet and of j…
Worship Together - Recommended Reading
Worship Together - Recommended Reading
by SPCK - Sandra Millar
Recommended Reading Worship Together Children’s spirituality Adams, Kate, Unseen Worlds, London: Jessica Kingsley, 2010. Beckwith, Ivy, Postmodern Children’s Ministry, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2004. Berryman, Jerome, Children and the Theologians: Clearing the Way for Grace…
Reflection on Psalm 124
Reflection on Psalm 124
by Marjorie Dobson
Reflection on Psalm 124 One small boy – nine years old, perhaps – stood proudly to say the psalm he’d learned by heart and proclaimed those words, ‘If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when our enemies attacked us, then we would have been swallowed alive …’ And all tho…
Reflection on Proverbs 31: 10-31