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Great Christian Thinkers - 69 St. Catherine of Siena
Great Christian Thinkers - 69 St. Catherine of Siena
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Catherine of Siena We now reflect on a woman who played an eminent role in the history of the Church: St. Catherine of Siena. The century in which she lived - the fourteenth - was a troubled period in the life of the Church and throughout the social context of Italy and Europ…
Great Christian Thinkers - 28 St. Benedict of Nursia
Great Christian Thinkers - 28 St. Benedict of Nursia
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Benedict of Nursia Benedict, the founder of Western monasticism, is also the patron of my pontificate. I begin with words that St. Gregory the Great wrote about St. Benedict: “The man of God who shone on this earth among so many miracles was just as brilliant in the eloquent …
Great Christian Thinkers - 35 John Climacus
Great Christian Thinkers - 35 John Climacus
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
John Climacus In presenting the great writers of the Church of the East and West in the Middle Age, I include the figure of John, known as Climacus. His name is a Latin transliteration of the Greek term klimakos, which means “of the ladder” (klimax). This is the title of his most…
Great Christian Thinkers - 64 St. Albert the Great
Great Christian Thinkers - 64 St. Albert the Great
by SPCK - Pope Benedict XVI
St. Albert the Great One of the great masters of medieval theology is St. Albert the Great. The title “Great” (Magnus), with which he has passed into history indicates the vastness and depth of his teaching, which he combined with holiness of life. However, his contemporaries did…
The Minister as Entrepreneur - 10 An entrepreneurial God?
The Minister as Entrepreneur - 10 An entrepreneurial God?
by SPCK - Michael Volland
An entrepreneurial God? I have written this book in the belief that entrepreneurs are a gift of God to the Church, and that in a time of discontinuous cultural change they have the potential to help the rest of us to recognize opportunities offered by the Holy Spirit and to step …
The Minister as Entrepreneur - 22 What do we do next?
The Minister as Entrepreneur - 22 What do we do next?
by SPCK - Michael Volland
What do we do next? I am now going to share with you a number of suggestions for what the Church might do next. But before that it is worth reminding ourselves that the only worthwhile starting place for anything in life – including, and perhaps especially, entrepreneurial approa…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Sixth Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Sixth Sunday of Easter Acts 10.44-48 1John 5.1-6 John 15.9-17 The desire for certainty goes very deep, and all of today’s readings look at that longing with sympathy, though the answers they give are as challenging as they are reassuring. In the Gospel, Jesus is at last givin…
Occasions for Alleluia - The opening of the eyes
Occasions for Alleluia - The opening of the eyes
by SPCK - David Adam
The opening of the eyes If the doors of the perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chambers of his cavern . . . Unless the eye catches fire then God will not be seen. (Willi…
Meanderings
Meanderings
by Roger Johnson
Evangelism Bulletin 261 – Meanderings So, the Israelites escape from slavery in Egypt under the faltering leadership of Moses. Timidly he confronts Pharoah asking him to release the Israelites from slavery. At the God-ordained moment they make their hasty escape. Miraclulous even…
A Dead Sect
A Dead Sect
by Roger Johnson
Evangelism Bulletin 266 – A Dead Sect? John Wesley famously said, ‘I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist… But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The First Sunday of Epiphany Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Baptism of Christ - The First Sunday of Epiphany Genesis 1.1–5 Acts 19.1–7 Mark 1.4–11 What is nothingness? We have no concept of it. Our image of it consists of the absence of things that we can picture and describe, which is very different from the nothingness before creati…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Fourth Sunday of Epiphany Deuteronomy 18.15–20 Revelation 12.1–5a Mark 1.21–28 ‘If I hear the voice of the Lord my God any more, or ever again see this greatre, I will die’ (Deuteronomy 18.16). This, according to Deuteronomy, is the source of prophecy. The people of God hav…
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The First Sunday of Christmas Year B
Twelve Months of Sundays Year B - The First Sunday of Christmas Year B
by SPCK - N T Wright
The First Sunday of Christmas Isaiah 61.10—62.3 Galatians 4.4–7 Luke 2.15–21 God sent the Son...and God sent the Spirit of the Son. St Paul brings together Christmas and Pentecost – as unlikely a pair, to our culture-conditioned minds, as plum pudding and a May Bank Holiday. So…
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Second Sunday of Easter Year B
Lectionary Reflections - Year B - The Second Sunday of Easter Year B
by SPCK - Jane Williams
The Second Sunday of Easter Acts 4.32–35 1 1 John 1.1—2.2 John 20.19–31 The recent popularity of The Lord of the Rings has helpfully given new vitality to the word ‘fellowship’. The people who make up the ‘fellowship of the ring’ are not natural allies. They have little in comm…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 15 Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - Proper 15 Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
Proper 15 John 6: 51-58 Gaze on a typical communion service. In some churches people sit patiently in their pew before being stewarded to the rail. In others, people get up and go when it suits them. There is the circle of people around the altar – the elderly and arthritic stand…
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Fourth Sunday before Advent Year B
Gazing on the Gospels Year B - The Fourth Sunday before Advent Year B
by SPCK - Judith Dimond
The Fourth Sunday before Advent Mark 12: 28-34 Gaze on Jesus still in the Temple after hours of debate. Imagine him standing in the outer Temple courts where the doves are fluttering and goats bleating and penned ready for sacrifice. Five hundred years old, the Temple is the gold…
Acts for Everyone part 1 - An Explanation is called for