Tag: Ian Banks

In the year 2000, adverts had to grab a persons’ attention within 12 seconds. By 2013 that had dropped to 8 seconds. The attention span of a goldfish is said to be 9 seconds. So, longer than humans now. And if you’re Gen Z, then your attention needs grabbing in 1.3 seconds.

The Blues is more than music. It’s a theology of brokenness and hope, pain and survival. Written on dusty roads and freight trains, on back porches and in bars. It tells the truth about suffering and injustice, sin and redemption. A theology which embraces Good Friday as well as Easter Sunday.

The September 2025 magazine includes thoughts on Psalm 100, a reflection on the Nicene Creed plus news and updates from our groups and organisations.

On top of everything else, the Sabbath had been commercialised, used for individual interest and gain. Here the prophet really goes to town, as well he might in our society today. Remember the Sabbath was to be holy. People were to do no work.

There’s a very close relationship between the words ‘faith’ and ‘hope’. As we’ve seen they are often used interchangeably. But there is a difference.

Thanks to underground fungal networks, trees share water, nutrients even signs of danger. There are parallels with our lives too – and there’s something to be said about prayer and the wood-wide web.

Between Sarah and Abraham the practice of hospitality with their guests is extra-ordinary. We don’t tend to consider the spread of food that they put on together but it’s of truly heroic, epic proportions.

July 14th has become the day when the French celebrate their national identity – and identity is what’s important in our readings today.

We don’t get to hear God’s inflection. So, it depends on where we put the emphasis in that question: What are you doing here?

I will draw all the water from the sea and empty it into this hole quicker than you will succeed in containing the vast mystery of God in the mere words of a book.

‘Ebenezer’ might be a word that sounds old and dated to our ears but this Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the Church and this church, may the Spirit descend on us again and let today be a fresh Ebenezer—may this be a place of praise for what God has done both in this building and in each of our lives. But also a mark of trust for what’s to come.

How will we be the ongoing visible presence of God, here, in this time and in this place? How do wE become both guest and host?

The menorah is lit night after night as a reminder of the miracle of the oil that lasted longer than it should have. In Baptism, we light a candle, too, saying, “Shine as a light in the world…”

Nowhere else in Scripture is that affirmation, those words of witness, made. And they were drawn from the mouth of the much maligned, Thomas. Courageous Thomas, questioning Thomas. But doubting? I doubt it.

What kind of donkey do you prefer? A limo-style donkey or a get-away donkey? Do we lean towards confrontation or modesty?