Nunc Dimmitis
Significant moment in Luke 2.22ff
Presentation
Purification
to Jerusalem ch 2
like 1 Sam 1
fulfills the law of Moses (Ex 13.1 and 13.11)
Mother is purified
Simeon
not much known about him
"upright and devout"
Holy Spirit is upon him
"Waiting for the consolation of Israel"
Brief
Personal Prayer
Rooted in the Theology of Isaiah
- the world of darkness pieced by the light of Christ
our eyes have seen
a light to the nations
a light to glory
Christ is presented to us
We now get out to present Christ to the world
Sunday 8 February 2009
Education Sunday St Mary Abbots 070209
Children's Society have published a report this week
A Good Childhood
what do children need in childhood?
what constitutes their happiness?
The Archbishop of Canterbury has joined in the debate
Today is Education Sunday
prayer and reflection
for all those involved in it
pertinent themes:
faith schools
sustainability
virtual world
Things to think about
1.
The success of the Church of England and their work in schools
4700 schools
1 million children
2.
Pray for more teachers
Not enough good head teachers around
Too many re advertisements
3.
Support our local schools in working as governors
4.
As churches we need to support parents
tough time to bring up children in every age
5
Keep a lively interest
Education news is huge
Lots of stories around
Plato - "what is worthwhile or necessary to teach?"
William Inge
"The aim of education is the knowledge not of fact but of values"
B F Skinner (New Scientist in the 1960's)
"Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten."
A Good Childhood
what do children need in childhood?
what constitutes their happiness?
The Archbishop of Canterbury has joined in the debate
Today is Education Sunday
prayer and reflection
for all those involved in it
pertinent themes:
faith schools
sustainability
virtual world
Things to think about
1.
The success of the Church of England and their work in schools
4700 schools
1 million children
2.
Pray for more teachers
Not enough good head teachers around
Too many re advertisements
3.
Support our local schools in working as governors
4.
As churches we need to support parents
tough time to bring up children in every age
5
Keep a lively interest
Education news is huge
Lots of stories around
Plato - "what is worthwhile or necessary to teach?"
William Inge
"The aim of education is the knowledge not of fact but of values"
B F Skinner (New Scientist in the 1960's)
"Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten."
Sunday 1 February 2009
Poetry Moment
The TS Elliot Prize for poetry was awarded this week by Poet Laureate Andrew Motion to the youngest ever recipient, 30 year old Jen Hadfield. Her collection of poems, representing her life in Scotland and travels around the world, were widely commended.
It’s perhaps a bit early for her to be in the running to take over from Motion when he steps down as poet laureate later this yea. But there is obvious speculation in the literary world as to who will succeed him.
Motion did a poetry reading in my central London church just after his appointment almost a decade ago. He was in top form that evening. It was a stark reminder to me of how popular poetry still is. The place was packed, people were enchanted; poetry is the most under-rated and unexpected form of personal expression.
Wordsworth, who was also poet laureate, remarked that poetry “is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity”. If we are really honest, most of us will have tried to write a poem at some point in our life. However bad it was, it was probably at a moment when all other forms of expression seemed inappropriate or limiting , whilst a poem allowed us a potent personal representation of how I feel about this or that person or situation, right now, at this minute.
Here is an essential paradox of a constrained literary form providing new depths of freedom of expression.
That’s why the connection between poetry and what I do or don’t believe is so obvious. The struggle to believe, the understand, to love is an essentially personal one shared, along the way, with other human beings. Biblical scholars generally agree that the Hebrew poetry of the Old Testament can generally be divided into two broad categories: the liturgical or cultic poems, written to be said with other people as part of sharing life’s experience and the wisdom poems which are intensely personal and which reflect depth, joy, pain, uncertainty.
I spent quite a bit of time yesterday looking at poems which are so far only published on the internet. And it is quite clear that in an age of blogging, personal opinion, self expression, poetry is an exciting and creative option for us to try to explain how we are feeling and what we believe.
Faith in poetry throughout the centuries is tribute enough to its enduring and sparkling qualities. In these challenging and uncertain times, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s still urges us towards “That willing suspension of disbelief for the moment which constitutes poetic faith”; and poetic faith knows no bounds despite natural constraints.
It’s perhaps a bit early for her to be in the running to take over from Motion when he steps down as poet laureate later this yea. But there is obvious speculation in the literary world as to who will succeed him.
Motion did a poetry reading in my central London church just after his appointment almost a decade ago. He was in top form that evening. It was a stark reminder to me of how popular poetry still is. The place was packed, people were enchanted; poetry is the most under-rated and unexpected form of personal expression.
Wordsworth, who was also poet laureate, remarked that poetry “is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity”. If we are really honest, most of us will have tried to write a poem at some point in our life. However bad it was, it was probably at a moment when all other forms of expression seemed inappropriate or limiting , whilst a poem allowed us a potent personal representation of how I feel about this or that person or situation, right now, at this minute.
Here is an essential paradox of a constrained literary form providing new depths of freedom of expression.
That’s why the connection between poetry and what I do or don’t believe is so obvious. The struggle to believe, the understand, to love is an essentially personal one shared, along the way, with other human beings. Biblical scholars generally agree that the Hebrew poetry of the Old Testament can generally be divided into two broad categories: the liturgical or cultic poems, written to be said with other people as part of sharing life’s experience and the wisdom poems which are intensely personal and which reflect depth, joy, pain, uncertainty.
I spent quite a bit of time yesterday looking at poems which are so far only published on the internet. And it is quite clear that in an age of blogging, personal opinion, self expression, poetry is an exciting and creative option for us to try to explain how we are feeling and what we believe.
Faith in poetry throughout the centuries is tribute enough to its enduring and sparkling qualities. In these challenging and uncertain times, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s still urges us towards “That willing suspension of disbelief for the moment which constitutes poetic faith”; and poetic faith knows no bounds despite natural constraints.
Thought for the Day Sat 31st Jan
Thought for the day
31st January 2009
Rob Marshall
Good Morning
Most children find it impossible to imagine a world without broadband. The rise of digital technology has been phenomenal. And this week’s Government report Vision for Digital Britain has set a target of everyone to be connected to broadband before the 2012 Olympics.
The report pulls no punches. Broadband should become the backbone of our economy, important in education and necessary for entertainment. Britain, though, has slipped from 7th to 12th in world ranking for digital technology and so the pressure is on to continue to invest and to develop. To communicate.
The report celebrates all that is good about the new technology: it is generally fast, interactive and involves the sharing of stories (Andy Burnham, the culture minister, calls this “content creation”) at a personal and corporate level. Charles Leadbeatter, writing in the Spectator last year, noted that “our collective capacity for collective memory will make us more productive.” And it’s true, generally speaking, communications in the 21st century are certainly more integrated and dynamic.
Most of my work in the church has been associated with the interaction of modern communications methods and media and how faith and spirituality can find a place in such a shifting landscape.
What I often find, is that whilst people celebrate the impact of the digital revolution and its transforming qualities at home and at work – there is, at the same time, a discernible concern that it can so easily take us over, disrobe us of our humanity and distort our priorities in life.
And I hear this time and time again, speaking to groups across the country – we love the broadband revolution, it is exciting and somehow limitless – but it does leave us “never quite there”, restless. There are some deep questions about how human beings cope spiritually with such a communications revolution.
The corpus of literature in the Old Testament which I grow increasingly fond of and which is very relevant here, is known as wisdom. And in those books there is an overt difference between the grasping and gaining of knowledge and what Proverbs calls “understanding”: “He that hath knowledge spares his words: a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit”
And it’s our sense of understanding, or not, that perhaps feels most left out as the broadband revolution gathers momentum. Searching brings knowledge: but without understanding, all the knowledge in the world, is both transient and without lasting value.
31st January 2009
Rob Marshall
Good Morning
Most children find it impossible to imagine a world without broadband. The rise of digital technology has been phenomenal. And this week’s Government report Vision for Digital Britain has set a target of everyone to be connected to broadband before the 2012 Olympics.
The report pulls no punches. Broadband should become the backbone of our economy, important in education and necessary for entertainment. Britain, though, has slipped from 7th to 12th in world ranking for digital technology and so the pressure is on to continue to invest and to develop. To communicate.
The report celebrates all that is good about the new technology: it is generally fast, interactive and involves the sharing of stories (Andy Burnham, the culture minister, calls this “content creation”) at a personal and corporate level. Charles Leadbeatter, writing in the Spectator last year, noted that “our collective capacity for collective memory will make us more productive.” And it’s true, generally speaking, communications in the 21st century are certainly more integrated and dynamic.
Most of my work in the church has been associated with the interaction of modern communications methods and media and how faith and spirituality can find a place in such a shifting landscape.
What I often find, is that whilst people celebrate the impact of the digital revolution and its transforming qualities at home and at work – there is, at the same time, a discernible concern that it can so easily take us over, disrobe us of our humanity and distort our priorities in life.
And I hear this time and time again, speaking to groups across the country – we love the broadband revolution, it is exciting and somehow limitless – but it does leave us “never quite there”, restless. There are some deep questions about how human beings cope spiritually with such a communications revolution.
The corpus of literature in the Old Testament which I grow increasingly fond of and which is very relevant here, is known as wisdom. And in those books there is an overt difference between the grasping and gaining of knowledge and what Proverbs calls “understanding”: “He that hath knowledge spares his words: a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit”
And it’s our sense of understanding, or not, that perhaps feels most left out as the broadband revolution gathers momentum. Searching brings knowledge: but without understanding, all the knowledge in the world, is both transient and without lasting value.
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