Goodhand in Banbury

 In sharing my book it needs to be noted that it was written some time ago while I was still in active ministry. While I have sought to ensure it was updated in places for my blog, it is still a snapshot in time. Anyone of discerning faith will recognise that our conclusions about what we believe or understand are always provisional. Retirement has provided the space to read far more widely than when working and continues to feed my changing understanding of discipleship, scripture, the church etc.  Being a part of a local faith community with anglican roots brings into sharp relief that what has formed me, namely Methodism, continues to shape my understanding of church life. When I retired from methodist ministry we have to go through a quant tradition of standing up at ministerial synod asking permission to sit down.  My final comment was to say that ... "on Sunday I attended the accreditation of a local preacher which just reinforced for me what I wanted to end with sa...

  Chapter 13– My own story My own background has seen a movement from a born and bred Methodist to one who now finds it hard to sit within that denomination, but who is now more than at the outset, someone trying to work out what it means to be a disciple of God through the person of Jesus. In other words I am journeying toward God. The more I have come to know has meant recognition of the little that I do. It’s the circle thing. Everything inside the circle is what I know and everything outside the circumference is what I don’t know. My circle has got larger as I learn more, but the circumference only gets bigger, pointing to how much I don’t know. This is fun and this keeps you in your place. I can’t stand those Christians who have God neatly explained and in a box. Their God is too small.   So to a potted personal history that underpins what has made me. My parents created for me a pattern of life that has sustained me over the years. The hard wiring of regular worship, rea...

  Ghana   On moving to Sheffield a whole new opportunity opened up to me. At one of my churches in the inner city I found we had a predominantly Ghanaian congregation attached to the church. Their worship took place on an afternoon and I was committed to preach and lead communion each month. I duly rolled up for the 1pm service only to discover week by week the meaning of African time. 1 pm was just getting warmed up with song and prayer. The congregation gradually gathered so that by the time I was due to preach 2.20 pm everyone had arrived. The expectation was for a long sermon before communion. While I adapted the style of preaching I was not about to add length to the sermon just for the sake of it. I was to discover that many of the women were in fact thankful for a shorter sermon.  Their leaders on visiting me one evening expressed their desire to find a way of retaining vibrancy but without just doing a copy of the worship they had experienced back home. So began a...