the red pill

A number of people have asked to have a copy of the words we used for the Communion service on Sunday afternoon. The team that write and design these sessions draw on a variety of influences, but this year our own Craig Gardiner wrote most of the significant portions. I include here the text of the Gathering Prayer, the prayer following In Memoriam, the words used to welcome all to the table, and then the invitation to come. A Gathering prayer Gather us in, Lord, the lost and the lonely, the broken and breaking, the tired and the aching who long for the nourishment found at your feast. All: Gather us in, the done and the doubting, the wishing and wondering, the puzzled and pondering who long for the company found at your feast. All: Gather us in, the proud and pretentious, the sure and superior, the never inferior, who long for the levelling found at your feast. All : Gather us in, the bright and the bustling, the stirrers, the shakers, ...

Today has been a sad day for evangelicals in the UK. The largest umbrella organisation, the Evangelical Alliance (EA), has today discontinued the membership of Oasis Trust, an agency that has done more than almost any other to raise the profile of evangelism, youth ministry, gospel-inspired social action ministry and a distinctively Christian approach to matters of education, health and social welfare. The reason the EA did this? Steve Chalke, the founder and director of Oasis, has called for a public conversation between evangelicals around the issues of human sexuality, same-sex marriage and faithful examination of approaches to scripture. Let me be clear, what I feel is a tragedy is not that the wider evangelical constituency might differ with Steve and Oasis, but that the simple act of calling for a conversation has led to them being effectively defined as non-evangelical. It was remarked to me recently that Jesus merely had to say one sentence for Lazarus to be raised from t...

I very often hear people make comments about how their votes make no change, or not feeling there is any merit in getting to the polling station. Today I came across this wonderful cartoon from Dave Walker , which he has given me permission to repost from his site CartoonChurch.com . I'm not sure there's any need for me to make further comment other than - get out and vote!