Today I came across Holy Trinity Cheltenham's rather well produced parish magazine while at New Wine's offices. I say parish magazine, it's actually a bit more than that - it's a blinkin' 60-page glossy mag!  Anyway, there is a thoughtful article by one of its members who t...

 Director Danny Boyle, him of the much praised film Slumdog Millionaire, made an interesting observation about faith in a recent interview. He said: " It's faith that's linked to the imagination - the power of taking a leap - rather than it being faith in a strictly conventional r...

The BBC have launched their online religious news round-up service, Faith Diary, written by Robert Piggot, Religious Affairs Correspondent. It includes a survey that describes 72% of the UK population as having some kind of Christian faith or 'fuzzy faith', as Professor David Voas of the Cat...

Been sadly reading about the 82-year-old televangelist Robert Shuller whose succession strategy has come unstuck and how his life's work is in free-fall. In a period where we have also seen the demise of Todd Bentley last August and the implosion of the Lakeland Revival it makes sober reading. &...

I was in WH Smith today browsing the newspapers while my daughter bought a fountain pen when I noticed the bold headline on the Daily Mail - "Persecuted for praying". No this was not Saudi Arabia, Indonesia or China, but Weston-Super-Mare, north Somerset. Putting the sensationalist vagarie...

Image courtesy of my favourite subversive cartoonist AsboJesus. As you'll know from the previous post, I have been at Hayling Island on the south coast. I am now back exhausted, but refreshed from a stimulating week with fellow Vineyard leaders. And what a lovely bunch they are too. I always app...

If you like me caught the Inaugural Prayer by Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church this week you might have been incidentally judging his performance. It's hard not to, isn't it? After all, we are conditioned to judge performances through a TV screen. It makes a big part of the schedule ...

I keep bumping into people who keep mentioning to me Mathew Parris' article in the Times newspaper back at the beginning of this month. I notice that Jason Clark had posted his words too. Though, of course, he is much more on the ball than old slow coach here. The columnist argues for the place ...

I've been reflecting about the virtue of kindness in the last few days after reading an article at the weekend about Kindness. It was an extract from a new book called On Kindness by Adam Phillips and Barbara Taylor. It included quite a disturbing perspective: "All compassion is self-pity, ...

I was walking though Waterloo yesterday and I came across this arresting poster for a charity called C.A.L.M., which stands for Campaign for Living Miserably. It's aim is to help young men between the ages of 15-35 open up and talk about stuff which is making them deeply unhappy. In its hip, coo...