copyright BBC
Rob Marshall
27th May 2008
Good morning
The French are even more furious than the British over the escalating price of fuel.
There were more police than usual as my ferry arrived in Caen on Friday. Burning rubber tyres lit by striking fishermen blocked several roundabouts. Large neon motorway signs advised motorists that the Port of Cherbourg – was simply blocked.
The political consequences of these price hikes are blatantly obvious throughout the developing world; the economic ramifications even more serious.
The British Government, it seems, are to at least consider the introduction of personal carbon credits, where we could exchange what we don’t use with others who need them more as we look more carefully at our priorities.
Only months ago, reducing our carbon footprint and having a sustainable lifestyle were trendy options based on ethical choices: now, people, simply and quite suddenly, have no choice. The need to adapt is essential.
Sociologists will point out that human beings need to make journeys. It is an inherent part of our make up: we leave our home and do what we have to in order to live the rest of our lives. We visit family and friends, change the scenery, enjoy ourselves, do business.
In the Ancient world, journeys to the market and to see family were amongst the highlights of people’s lives. Some of the oldest stories in the Bible concern people going on significant journeys – where the main intention is usually to pass on an important message, greet others, spread the word.
The combination of financial necessity and environmental concern is a new and potent one as we re evaluate our priorities and our travel plans. We all know that many of the journeys we make are not really necessary. National and local government can only do so much.
Those burning tyres on the Normandy coastline really made an impact on me. In one way, they are a genuine cry for help and for economic improvement. But they are also a symbolic smokescreen because just about everyone of us is being forced to face the kind of realities which we don’t like to face and which, after decades of relative affluence, are more about the journey inward than the journey to anywhere else.
Ironically, it is the French spiritual writer Michel Quoist, who in trying to adapt modern living to theological principles suggests that many human beings spent most of their time pursuing and therefore wasting different types of energy, which will always run out in the end. Instead, he suggests that a respect for creation and a genuine concern for and love of one’s neighbour is, paradoxically, the only form of energy which actually costs nothing in material terms and it lasts forever.
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Monday, 26 May 2008
Hull City in the Premiership
Having watched Hull City (the Tigers) since my dad first took me aged 11, it is an astonishing achievement that Hull have made it to the Premiership.
Watched the Wembley final in St Sever (Normandy) before a celebratory barbecue.
An aamzing day!
Watched the Wembley final in St Sever (Normandy) before a celebratory barbecue.
An aamzing day!
Sunday, 18 May 2008
The Trinity St Mary Abbots 180508
The Trinity
In the Bible
The Word of God has always been!
190 AD Clement Of Alexandria "When [John] says:
'What was from the beginning [1 John 1:1],' he touches upon the generation without beginning of the Son, who is co-equal with the Father. 'Was,' therefore, is indicative of an eternity without a beginning, just as the Word Himself, that is the Son, being one with the Father in regard to equality of substance, is eternal and uncreated. That the word always existed is signified by the saying: 'In the beginning was the Word'
In Our Prayers
Many of the Prayers since Pentecost are prayers of the Trinity
Orthdodox
ONE God: Three persons
Bishop Tom Wright
We are called to hold firm to trinitarian monotheism in the face of neopaganism, and thus to become the people through whom the one God makes his love, holiness, healing, and justice known in his world. If the love of God is our message, the love of God must also be our breath of life. Prayer such as this can become a means to this end, equipping the renewed church to face the new God-given tasks.
In the Sacraments
Baptism - -Love of the Father, Blessing of the Son, Work of the Spirit
Eucharist
In Our Lives
The doctrine of the Trinity is the affirmation that self-giving is characteristic of Being, that mutuality of self-giving love belongs to God’s perfection and the self giving of God towards his creatures is possible because of the glory which the Father has with the Son in the love of the Spirit eternally
Michael Ramsey
Thursday, 24 April 2008
20th April StMA Retrospective Texts
Evening address on John 5
Looking at how the scriptures change in light of the resurrection.
Looking at how the scriptures change in light of the resurrection.
Thought for the Day 19th April
Copyright BBC
TFTD 19th March
Pope Visit
Rob Marshall
Good morning
After listening intently to Pope Benedict XVI’s first speech on US soil this week, Mr.Bush, unaware that a TV microphone would catch what he said, warmly congratulated the Pope on his awesome speech. The relaxed exchange has set the tone for a significant visit.
A Papal visit of the kind we are currently observing in the United States is unusual because it is attracting a level of analysis and comment which is out of sink with the media’s usual claim that whilst faith is of great interest to many people – organised religion and Mass attendance is on the wane.
But here we have the direct successor of St Peter, flying from city to city, riding in a pope mobile, attracting huge crowds and filling baseball stadiums; he has held talks with business and community leaders and was at the United Nations in New York yesterday.
Several newspaper columnists have got my goat in recent days writing sulkily that only America could greet a Pope in this way – doing justice in their writing neither to the office of Pope nor to the integrity of the American people.
When John Paul II came to the United Kingdom several decades ago, I went to one of the open air masses and it really was quite extraordinary to behold: why, I asked myself, could the church not learn something quite basic from this excitement – this sense of a great event.?
But the one thing which will be remembered above all after the visit of this very different Pope to the United States is the simple word “sorry”. The Holy Father recognised that there was no way he could celebrate the essence of his own faith amongst new friends without first offering a deep and profound apology for previous wrongs- and particularly to the victims of terrible abuse by representatives of his own church in former times.
The protection of children, young people and vulnerable adults is now a massive priority for any organisation working with and for them. And whilst the putting in place of stringent measures to protect children in the future is admirable – we cannot forget those who have suffered terribly in the past and who still bear the scares of previous wrongdoing.
By saying sorry so openly and unequivocally, Pope Benedict’s confession and appeal for forgiveness has obviously rallied many Americans behind him and given millions of Christians a basic reminder of how true repentance can lead to a fresh start. There’s no room for complacency but there’s certainly an opportunity to live out perhaps the most famous prayer of all: forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those have trespassed against us.
TFTD 19th March
Pope Visit
Rob Marshall
Good morning
After listening intently to Pope Benedict XVI’s first speech on US soil this week, Mr.Bush, unaware that a TV microphone would catch what he said, warmly congratulated the Pope on his awesome speech. The relaxed exchange has set the tone for a significant visit.
A Papal visit of the kind we are currently observing in the United States is unusual because it is attracting a level of analysis and comment which is out of sink with the media’s usual claim that whilst faith is of great interest to many people – organised religion and Mass attendance is on the wane.
But here we have the direct successor of St Peter, flying from city to city, riding in a pope mobile, attracting huge crowds and filling baseball stadiums; he has held talks with business and community leaders and was at the United Nations in New York yesterday.
Several newspaper columnists have got my goat in recent days writing sulkily that only America could greet a Pope in this way – doing justice in their writing neither to the office of Pope nor to the integrity of the American people.
When John Paul II came to the United Kingdom several decades ago, I went to one of the open air masses and it really was quite extraordinary to behold: why, I asked myself, could the church not learn something quite basic from this excitement – this sense of a great event.?
But the one thing which will be remembered above all after the visit of this very different Pope to the United States is the simple word “sorry”. The Holy Father recognised that there was no way he could celebrate the essence of his own faith amongst new friends without first offering a deep and profound apology for previous wrongs- and particularly to the victims of terrible abuse by representatives of his own church in former times.
The protection of children, young people and vulnerable adults is now a massive priority for any organisation working with and for them. And whilst the putting in place of stringent measures to protect children in the future is admirable – we cannot forget those who have suffered terribly in the past and who still bear the scares of previous wrongdoing.
By saying sorry so openly and unequivocally, Pope Benedict’s confession and appeal for forgiveness has obviously rallied many Americans behind him and given millions of Christians a basic reminder of how true repentance can lead to a fresh start. There’s no room for complacency but there’s certainly an opportunity to live out perhaps the most famous prayer of all: forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those have trespassed against us.
Sunday, 13 April 2008
Thought For The Day: Radio 4 12th April
Copyright - BBC
12th April 2008
Rob Marshall.
Good morning.
The price of wheat has doubled in the past year. The price of rice has risen an astonishing 75% in the last two months.
People are drawing a connection between affordable food and social stability. Food riots have already broken out in Haiti, India and Mexico. There are chronic food shortages in many countries.
The President of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick (Zellick), says that “while many worry about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs.” The fight against poverty has been put back 7 years.
Assessing Britain’s economic downturn against an international backdrop of widespread hunger and malnutrition is both sobering and challenging. Can it really be true that we actually throw away one third of the food we purchase every week – mainly because we buy too much in the first place and then let it go out of date?
I felt appalled by this statistic. I next opened my fridge in shame. Realising that I really was seduced by elaborate packaging, special offers and was locked into a culture of purchasing without thought which suddenly seemed enormously naive – yes, even disgraceful.
In the Old Testament, a famine is always a suggestion that things are not right in creation: that imbalances need to be sorted out. Faith responds by focussing on the common good rather than on individual greed; on the will of God rather than the priorities of wayward humanity.
James Martin, in his recent book, The Meaning of the 21st Century, urges political and financial initiatives to build up food reserves to tide populations over during dry and difficult spells. This, he refers to, as food security.
Achieving food security on a global scale can be tackled at many different but equally important levels. It starts, of course, with an individual acknowledgement that this is a serious issue which we should all be aware of and respond to accordingly.
As the World Bank and the IMF meet in Washington this weekend, there’s an urgency in finding the political and financial will to deal with the escalating numbers hungry people and the misery of poor.
In about the 8th Century BC, the prophet Isaiah surveyed the miserable imbalances in society and conveyed God’s message which is just as appropriate today: “What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the face of the poor?” It remains a fair question.
12th April 2008
Rob Marshall.
Good morning.
The price of wheat has doubled in the past year. The price of rice has risen an astonishing 75% in the last two months.
People are drawing a connection between affordable food and social stability. Food riots have already broken out in Haiti, India and Mexico. There are chronic food shortages in many countries.
The President of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick (Zellick), says that “while many worry about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs.” The fight against poverty has been put back 7 years.
Assessing Britain’s economic downturn against an international backdrop of widespread hunger and malnutrition is both sobering and challenging. Can it really be true that we actually throw away one third of the food we purchase every week – mainly because we buy too much in the first place and then let it go out of date?
I felt appalled by this statistic. I next opened my fridge in shame. Realising that I really was seduced by elaborate packaging, special offers and was locked into a culture of purchasing without thought which suddenly seemed enormously naive – yes, even disgraceful.
In the Old Testament, a famine is always a suggestion that things are not right in creation: that imbalances need to be sorted out. Faith responds by focussing on the common good rather than on individual greed; on the will of God rather than the priorities of wayward humanity.
James Martin, in his recent book, The Meaning of the 21st Century, urges political and financial initiatives to build up food reserves to tide populations over during dry and difficult spells. This, he refers to, as food security.
Achieving food security on a global scale can be tackled at many different but equally important levels. It starts, of course, with an individual acknowledgement that this is a serious issue which we should all be aware of and respond to accordingly.
As the World Bank and the IMF meet in Washington this weekend, there’s an urgency in finding the political and financial will to deal with the escalating numbers hungry people and the misery of poor.
In about the 8th Century BC, the prophet Isaiah surveyed the miserable imbalances in society and conveyed God’s message which is just as appropriate today: “What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the face of the poor?” It remains a fair question.
Never Forget - The Musical : Wimbledon Theatre
Yes - I went!
Can't quite believe it.
On it's way into the West End this exhuberant, brilliant night out has all the ingredients of naffness and energy which goes to make a completely harmless and thoroughly enjoyable evening!
Relight my fire! :)
Can't quite believe it.
On it's way into the West End this exhuberant, brilliant night out has all the ingredients of naffness and energy which goes to make a completely harmless and thoroughly enjoyable evening!
Relight my fire! :)
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