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Year: 2021

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Dec262021

RIP Desmond Tutu

At the Community of the Resurrection

RIP Archbishop Desmond Tutu. A genuine modern legend who truly had an impact upon the world and brought about change for the better. Someone who gave gave us a glimpse of the Kingdom of God, a hope of a world in which people are created equal and not trapped by the structures society places them into.

When I met Desmond Tutu, I had been ordained about five minutes. I was a young guy with long hair who spent most of his life answering the question “are you really a vicar?” On the day of my ordination I wasn’t even sure my own bishop thought I was suitable. I imagined him going along the line, putting his hands on the other candidates heads, getting to me and skipping me in the line.

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Oct52021

Poverty | Time to Challenge the Narrative!

If you have hung around for long enough, you will know that I have strong opinions about poverty and how it is created within our society. As the world re-emerges from the last 18 months of Covidtide, we are seeing a sharp snap back to a narrative of the undeserving poor.  With universal credit being slashed in the coming week affecting 6 million people, we are once again seeing an ideological drive to level up the wealthy at the expense of the poor. 

At the heart of it all is the narrative we tell ourselves about who we are as a community.  This clip is well worth two and a half minutes of your time.

Our national narrative is once again being steered by those at the top towards one of the “undeserving poor”.  This is a narrative we must stand against at all costs as a church.  It doesn’t fit.  It’s not Christian.  We must shout loudly and proudly about the inherent worth of every single human being, created in the image of God and beloved.  If we don’t rise to this challenge, we have failed to live up to our call as Jesus apprentices.

“Blessed are the poor.”

Jesus

~Fin~

Sep62021

We Thank Thee Lord | a Harvest Hymn to Last of the Summer Wine

Ruth and I have been writing lots of new songs this summer. Yesterday she said “this tune reminds me of something”. When I pointed out what it reminded me of, we fell down a rabbit hole setting Last of the Summer Wine as a hymn tune. The best we came up with was a harvest hymn we found on the internet but we can’t find an author for it.

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