This afternoon, I had the privilege of attending Jolyon Mitchell's Inaugural Lecture, marking his appointment as Professor of Communications, Arts and Religion in New College Edinburgh. Jolyon has been given a well earned honour by Edinburgh University. He has worked tirelessly to bring academic credibility to his subject and has sought to inspire theologians and students alike to think creatively and to engage with the power of the visual image. The theme of his lecture...
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One of the issues that is facing the church today is how we can be more relevant. Too often the church is viewed a a museum rather than a movement. The "Church Without Walls Report " continues to be an important piece of literature to give the church direction as many of us try to understand its shape its future. Understanding 'shape' is essential. The content may be the same down through the centuries but the shape it takes will always need to be relevant to the...
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I believe the powers that be in Philadelphia are not too pleased, to say the least, that Brad Pitt's potential blockbuster, "World War Z is being filmed here in Scotland. So why did he not use Philadelphia? Well from what I can read it would appear that the City of Philadelphia dithered when it came to making the deal. I believe in the end it came down to finance. Glasgow offered a better deal. The fact is Glasgow;s city centre is laid out in squares not dis-simmilar...
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I can never forget the picture that I saw on a Mega Church wall on one of my visits to the United States. It simply read " You Build It : They Will Come." Underneath was a picture of Noah waiting for the animals to arrive. It has stayed in my mind because I fear that too often we church leaders all play safe. We want the people to come to whatever we're building before we've built the Ark. However we know it doesn't work like that . People only come when they...
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London's burning but it's more than property damage. The PM was right when he talked about sections of our society that seem to be sick. Its more than sections perhaps it's all of us who are sick in different ways. We are living in a generation that has lost it's way. We've disregarded the road maps of morality and no one knows where to turn. While the three 'Ps' protest about the criminality of these actions. Could they not be contributors to the angst that seems...
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