Francis - Bishop of Rome

The election of Pope Francis came at the end of a tumultuous time in the Catholic Church. The global child sex abuse scandal, the trial of Benedict XVI’s butler and the subsequent resignation of Benedict XVI were all adding up to be a very shaky foundation for the church.

After Benedict’s resignation the world looked on while waiting for the smoke to appear from the Sistine Chapel. Who would succeed Benedict, can anyone bring stability to the church?

Finally “Habemus papam” was declared and out came a kindly, paternal face, smiling and waving to the crowd. Instantly people began to warm to him purely because of this warm smile and apparent humility.

I was delighted to see this infectious smile looking out at me from the cover of this book. If Pope Francis’ saintly smile on the cover doesn't sell this book then nothing will.

Brandi Eissinger - The Person Behind the Blog

In this interview we meet Brandi Eissinger who is a young person that has a lot to teach us. Brandi had a very difficult upbringing which she shares with us here and speaks about in her blog. Where most of us, and some of the best of us, would probably have buckled and turned our back on God for less than what Brandi has experienced, she has clung on to her faith.

Her blog, interestingly called Psycho Sermons, is a lot of autobiography combined with theology, prose combined with thesis. It is a blend of understandable angst, bitterness and doubt combined with love, faith and lashings of hope. She is a person that is not seeking to be doctrinally correct and is not afraid to say it as it is; to her a spade is a spade. She is not afraid to question herself and her faith, wears her heart on her sleeve and is a person who has earned the right to be wrong.

Whether you theologically agree with her or not, I am sure you will come away from her blog with a great admiration for her stoicism and honesty. You will agree with me that what Brandi writes about is living, breathing Christianity.

The Earliest Recorded Copyright Infringement

St. Columba

The name Columba is the Latinised form commonly used for the name of the Irish sixth-century saint, St Colmcille. Founder of major monasteries at Derry, Durrow and Kells (of the famous book which is also called the book of Columba) in Ireland. Columba also went to Scotland as a missionary and was instrumental in establishing Christianity there when he founded the great monastery of Iona.

Columba was studying in Ireland during the golden age of Christianity in Ireland when great monasteries such as Clonmacnoise, Kells, Clonard, Glendalough and Skellig Michael were flourishing. These monasteries were at the time the great universities of Europe in an era when classical antiquity was dying out and the middle ages were beginning. In these monasteries the study of Latin learning and Christian theology was flourishing while the rest of Europe was crumbling in the death-throes of the end of the Roman Empire.

Mark McIntyre - The Person Behind the Blog

In today’s The Person Behind the Blog series we meet Mark McIntyre. Mark is a brilliant blogger who like most of us has a day job that doesn't involve ministry. Yet he is able to blog as good as any pastor. Although he claims here that he doesn't get to read as much as he would like to it is plain to see from his blogging that he is a well-read man that derives much of his knowledge and inspiration from reading. His blog reaches out to and touches the lives of many people.

I’m sure if you go on over to http://www.mhmcintyre.us/ you’ll find some gem that will shine for you or something that will strike a chord with you.

Our Image of God Must Go

“Our image of God must go” was the headline in the Observer in 1963 when that newspaper interviewed Bishop John Robinson for his upcoming book ‘Honest to God’.

The paper went on to explain “‘Honest to God,’ by the Bishop of Woolwich, will be published on Tuesday. In this article the Bishop expresses the main theme of this controversial book: the urgent need to question the traditional image of God as a supernatural Person if Christianity is to survive”.

Ben Reed - The Person Behind the Blog

I am delighted to be joined today by Ben Reed. Ben is the blogger behind the wonderful Life and Theology at http://www.benreed.net/.

Ben is a blogger that has a knack for making the ordinary sublime. Things we often take for granted like family life, jogging, a climb to the top of Ben Nevis are cast into new light and elevated to the divine in a simple sentence. He gives excellent advice to young pastors and shares his in depth knowledge of ministry. He also advises on how not to be like Gollum!

The Lord's Prayer Part 3 - The Journey Begins

As a father has compassion for his children, so the LORD has compassion for those who fear him. - Psalms 103:13

Faith is a journey, not a thing that we possess. The vehicle for this journey is prayer. In opening with the Lord's prayer we are taking the first steps in the journey. We are taking steps into the unknown, who knows where this prayer will take us. The first stop in the journey of the Lord's prayer is to the Lord God. In beginning with God we anchor our prayer in the God that is the centre of all prayer.

In Greek the word for father (πατερ) is the same as the word for ancestors (πατέρας  -our fathers as in Lk. 1:55). In the opening of the Lord's prayer we are reminded that God is our one ancestor, πατερ ημων – Our Father.

Not only does it centre us on God but it centres us on an important fact of God as our shared ancestor. Acknowledging this Isaiah says ‘But you are our father, Lord. We are like clay, and you are like the potter. You created us (Isa 64:8 GNB) and Malachi soliloquies ‘don't we all have the same father? Didn't the same God create us all?’ (Mal 2:10 GNB).