Rogation Sunday - what are we asking for?
- Written by Jonathan Clatworthy Jonathan Clatworthy
- Published: 30 April 2018 30 April 2018
- Hits: 922 922
This is my sermon for Rogation Sunday, the traditional name for the Sunday before Ascension Day.
The word ‘rogation’ comes from the Latin for ‘to ask’. There is a tradition of praying for the crops to grow well and produce a good harvest.
War. What fun!
- Written by Jonathan Clatworthy Jonathan Clatworthy
- Published: 14 April 2018 14 April 2018
- Hits: 703 703
More air strikes. America attacks. Britain and France meekly follow Trump’s lead. Britain’s four RAF Tornados may not be the biggest part of the initiative, but it means we’re metooing.
Most of the public discourse is about surface isssues: who did what, what do we know, which laws have been broken? Beneath them lie deeper questions which we rarely ask.
Doing theology in La La Land
- Written by Jonathan Draper Jonathan Draper
- Published: 13 April 2018 13 April 2018
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Theology matters. That’s been a theme running through many of the contributions we’ve heard at the annual Society for the Study of Theology conference in Nottingham this week.
Whether it is in interpreting popular culture (including Dr Who, zombies, vampires and all), in confronting the great injustices of our world, thinking through the Cartesian dualism present in current thinking about Artificial Intelligence (AI), or simply trying to bring pleasure and meaning together to create delight, theology matters.
The 'Why?' question
- Written by Lorraine Cavanagh Lorraine Cavanagh
- Published: 09 April 2018 09 April 2018
- Hits: 548 548
A great cosmologist dies and is buried on March 31st, Easter Eve, as it was kept this year by Western churches. For the Orthodox churches, Easter comes a week later.
This year, partly due to the disparity which exists between the Eastern Julian calendar and the Western one, the Western celebration of the Feast of the Annunciation was moved to April 9th. It often falls in the latter part of Lent or in Holy Week itself. This year it would have fallen on Palm Sunday. So the Western church allows it to be a ‘moveable’ feast.
True Resurrection
- Written by Lorraine Cavanagh Lorraine Cavanagh
- Published: 03 April 2018 03 April 2018
- Hits: 593 593
If you are someone who has to speak publicly about the events of Good Friday, and if you have done that with integrity and the conviction of faith, you will be feeling pretty wrung out by Saturday morning.
A single day, the day we call Holy Saturday, is hardly enough time to gather shattered emotions together and turn a numb brain towards thoughts of the Resurrection, but it must be done, and it must be done with as much conviction as anything that was said on Friday.