My amazon wishlist

we're approaching the time of year when you will all, no doubt, be wondering what to get me for Christmas. Well - panic over - I have updated my amazon wish list. you can view it here. I have even added an order of priority and some comments! Happy shopping!

the Skinny at hOME

Good to have Andrew Jones with us last night at the hOME gathering. He joined in with our worship and we gave him the mic for a while. He told us some stories and shared some thoughts. He blogs it here and you can listen to the podcast here.

A load of us went for pizza and beer afterwards at Cafe Coco down the road from our meeting venue.

Casino Royale

Pip and I went to see Casino Royale last night. Brilliant! Two hours of top notch entertainment and definitely the best Bond film for a long time. Everyone's right about Daniel Craig - probably the best Bond since Connery. I'm really glad they decided to go for a much grittier, 'real', Bond, and it was a much grittier, 'real', film too - far less of those cheesy one-liners, no unbelievable gadgets that Bond just happens to have on him and that just happen to be the perfect gadget for the moment, no stupidly named, double-entendre laden females. Bit disappointed about some of the product placement in the film (you even see Richard Branson for a split second which is a bit bizarre), but all in all this is a cracker of a movie. Go see!

Off to Lindisfarne

After another lovely evening tonight with the hOME community I am off on retreat early in the morning to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in Northumbria for a few days. It's come at a great time - one of those things that's difficult to plan when you have to book quite a way in advance. Lindisfarne is an old place of retreat for me - I used to go there when I lived in Edinburgh as it's actually only about an hour south of Edinburgh. I'm planning to read the Orthodox classic - The Way of a Pilgrim - as well as Richard Rohr's 'Everything Belongs'. But I'm sure that much of the time will be spent walking and praying and reflecting. And I might even make it to the pub too. Bring it on!

Spurs v Chelski

as a long-suffering Spurs fan I have been waiting 16 years for Spurs to beat Chelsea. 16 years of hurt ended yesterday (though I suspect Jonny might have a different perspective on the result!)

Quote Me Happy

Another great quote - via Bob Hyatt's blog - from the inimitable Brian Maclaren:
"It's often easier to promote Christianity than to practice it". Ouch!

"absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"

There has been a lot of talk - perhaps even a resurgence in some senses - of atheism recently. It's cool to be atheist again. Richard Dawkins book 'The God Delusion' has received a lot of attention (and also, it should be pointed out, some pretty damning responses as well). I blogged below about this quote - "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" - which I came across recently. I love it and it's really made me think but as I have reflected on it I have begun to wonder whether actually the problem is not a lack of evidence for God's existence but - and I know this sounds nuts - almost that there's too much! Now I know this is not an argument to use when talking with an atheist! But the whole of life seems so deeply suffused with divine presence that I wonder whether it's just too obvious - we're too close to it - and we almost can't see the forest for the trees. What do you think?

iCount - Stopping Climate Chaos

Off to London today to participate in the 'iCount' Stop Climate Chaos march/rally in Trafalgar Square. Speakers to include: KT Tunstall, Rob Newman, Miranda Richardson, Simon Amstell, Rufus Hound, Ashok Sinha (Director – Stop Climate Chaos), Bishop of Liverpool, Adam Hart Davis, Dr Hany El Banna (President – Islamic relief) and Sharon Looremeta. If you're around London why not come and play your part. It's from 1-3pm. More info here. There's a service before hand at St Martin in the Fields church nearby at 12.30.