thedeepchurchproject

Snowfall in Salcombe is a rare event, the last time being back in 2010 around December. Snow has such a delightful quality in quietening us down. Sounds are muted, children play, boots crunch along paths and skylines look pregnant with expectation. To paraphrase the Prayer Book the fever of the world is briefly hushed. So although there is a lot of inconveniences to this with schools closing - there is also in me a sudden spring of joy. I can't quite explain it. Yippee!!  I was struck by the recent debates on depression/anxiety being more than just a chemical imbalance or the result of trauma. There is good evidence to show that the near epidemic of depression has some roots in our technocratic lifestyles. Depression and anxiety are a natural animal response to an environment which is not right. We were not made to be working all hours for very little pay. We were not made to be constantly bombarded with images of what we should or should not look like. We...

Have you ever been in a church where everything seems a bit too good to be true? As much as I believe that the Holy Spirit can transform a congregation there can be fake versions of that spiritual journey. The BBC2 episode of 'Rev' rather hams this up somewhat cruelly but there is some truth here. A church can easily become a club or a cult. I suppose 'Rev's' fictional church is something of museum piece but at least there is love and honesty. I am two third's through Dante's Inferno and it strikes me that the poet is inviting us to see that the only way up is by going down. This has been at the heart of my own reflections on the Ladder of Benedict and the Recovery Programme. At rock bottom, people are their most honest. Oscar Wilde said that "We are in the gutter though some of us are looking up at the stars." With that in mind do watch Nicola's testimony on Youtube as part of her journey within our intentional community -St Pet...

Though the Sunday readings focus on Abraham's faith I thought it would be good to look at Abraham and Moses together. The more I read about Abraham in commentaries and looked at articles online the more it struck that his story is an archetype of a very different history from the people who looked up to Moses.  The fans of Moses and the fans of Abraham even have contrasting styles of Hebrew (Yahwist and Elohist). They reflect the different cultural stories between those who stayed behind after the Babylonian Exile and those who were deported. It struck me that the deported had a much more focused conservative faith while those who remained were more liberal and accommodated to the pagan culture around them.  Well, its the classic liberal/conservative clash! No doubt when the deported returned there was a long period of adjustment between the two versions of Judaism. The Hebrew Canon is a testimony to their sorting out their differences. Not that I am trying to demy...