There is now a new preview track from the hOME Gloria EP to listen to on our MySpace site. It's an electronica setting of the old prayer of St Patrick - St Patrick's Breastplate. As before - the EP is available for download via our Lulu site, where you can also listen to previews of all trh tracks and download instrumental versions to use in your own setting.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Gloria EP - new preview track on MySpace
There is now a new preview track from the hOME Gloria EP to listen to on our MySpace site. It's an electronica setting of the old prayer of St Patrick - St Patrick's Breastplate. As before - the EP is available for download via our Lulu site, where you can also listen to previews of all trh tracks and download instrumental versions to use in your own setting.
Friday, September 22, 2006
if you're local to Oxford...
...the Al Gore movie, An Inconvenient Truth, is now showing at both the Phoenix and the Odeon. Go see it and tell your friends. As Empire said in their review, "if you ever thought it was possible for a film to change the world, this could be it."
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Peace One Day
Heard a report about today's Peace One Day (not a snappy title - but I think someone had already pinched 'World Peace Day') on the Breakfast news this morning and found it very moving. The dream of one day where all forms of violence are laid down is a very potent prophetic sign of the inbreaking of the kingdom of God. There are some fantastic suggestions for how to participate in the day here - including some very overtly spiritual ones.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
hOME Gloria EP
We've just finished hOME's first 5 track EP. It's for sale by download via our Lulu site where you can listen to previews of each track and download. There are also instrumental versions if you want to use the tracks in your own setting. On our MySpace site there is a full track from the EP that you can listen to. Let me know what you think!
Thursday, September 14, 2006
who's he talking about?
A little while back I suggested that the story of the Sheep and the Goats may not mean what we often take it to mean. Some people didn't like that too much.
In a nutshell, I suggested that even though we have always been told it's about how we treat the poor, could it actually instead be about how the world treats Jesus' disciples? There are some hints in the text that it could.
In yesterday's lectionary readings we find a similar idea emerging. Luke 6:20 says,
20 Looking at his disciples, he said:
"Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
Obviously this is the parallel to Matthew's account of the Beatitudes but I thought it was noteworthy that Jesus is directing his statements, not to the poor in general, but to the disciples.
Admittedly, a few verses later Jesus says "Woe to you who are rich" and it could be said that if he is directing verse 20 towards the disciples why not verse 24 too, but I'm still left with this sense that Jesus isn't saying that to be poor is somehow virtuous in and of itself. There are unfortunately plenty of very poor people on estates all across the country. Some of them have ASBO's. In what sense are they particularly and unusually blessed, or have a special relationship with God, simply because of their social status?
Of course I'm not saying that God doesn't care about them and that we should not care for them or work to eradicate poverty. Of course we should. I'm just asking a hermeneutical question - what was Jesus really getting at with some of these things that he said?
In a nutshell, I suggested that even though we have always been told it's about how we treat the poor, could it actually instead be about how the world treats Jesus' disciples? There are some hints in the text that it could.
In yesterday's lectionary readings we find a similar idea emerging. Luke 6:20 says,
20 Looking at his disciples, he said:
"Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
Obviously this is the parallel to Matthew's account of the Beatitudes but I thought it was noteworthy that Jesus is directing his statements, not to the poor in general, but to the disciples.
Admittedly, a few verses later Jesus says "Woe to you who are rich" and it could be said that if he is directing verse 20 towards the disciples why not verse 24 too, but I'm still left with this sense that Jesus isn't saying that to be poor is somehow virtuous in and of itself. There are unfortunately plenty of very poor people on estates all across the country. Some of them have ASBO's. In what sense are they particularly and unusually blessed, or have a special relationship with God, simply because of their social status?
Of course I'm not saying that God doesn't care about them and that we should not care for them or work to eradicate poverty. Of course we should. I'm just asking a hermeneutical question - what was Jesus really getting at with some of these things that he said?
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Monday, September 11, 2006
9/11 Five Years On
"Let me say this another way… the ‘War-On-Terror’ has to date killed 8 innocent people for every innocent person killed in a terrorist attack… discuss." Great, thought provoking post from Jim on this very sombre day.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Friday, September 08, 2006
go and see this film...please
An Inconvenient Truth - the Al Gore movie - that I blogged about before opens in the UK today. You really must go and see it and tell all your friends to go and see it too! Definitely one of the films of the year for me.
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