Author: stuart

  • struggle and reconstruction

    struggle and reconstruction

    We often find our own answers in amongst our struggles in life.  Often what we desire and seek may not give us any lasting satisfaction.  Perhaps that is what Jesus is getting at in The Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge.  He asks the troubling question at the end, will the Son of…

  • One life each at the church of sharp edges

    One life each at the church of sharp edges

    I saw this church made of scrap at Greenbelt this year.  It was built to advertise the URC campaign ‘scrap the church’. It made me think about what is important, especially at times of festivals when we like to put on a ‘good show’. What is it that we hunger and thirst for?  Is it…

  • The Spring onion of Salvation

    The Spring onion of Salvation

    We love to tell stories. Jesus it seems was no exception.  Lazarus and the Rich Man.  It is a traditional tale.  We love the villain to get comeuppance, we love the hero to win and we love the journey between.  A story with many similarities to this turns up in, perhaps an unlikely setting, Fyodor…

  • In search of a fold

    In search of a fold

    There are at least two ways of seeing in every situation.  Seeing what is before you in isolation and seeing in the context of everything else.  One way of seeing our readings today could be I suppose as an encouragement to see things from another’s point of view.  Take the image of a stone circle…

  • The twisted tree is me

    The twisted tree is me

    At first glance this tree looks quite ordinary.  Almost dead, but quite ordinary.  Perhaps a slightly more charitable assessment would be to suggest that it is clinging on to life.  It is, I hope still there, on a footpath above Trefriw up towards Llyn Geirionydd, for it is worth going to see.  There are countless…

  • Christ and the Hiddenness of God

    Christ and the Hiddenness of God

    This began as a conversation, and has nagged at me for the past week, so to do it justice, I thought it ought to be put down in some form, then perhaps it will go away, however, such thoughts rarely do.  The conversation was about talking about ‘God’ and the statement, ‘but you believe in…

  • Carnivore or Herbivore?

    Carnivore or Herbivore?

    Carnivore or Herbivore? Was the question asked by Taliesin when he was asked to portray the Good Samaritan as a dinosaur.  And what a good question.  Should the image of the good Samaritan be one which drives us to go against our natural inclinations and do things which we might otherwise not do!  Is it…

  • Doubt, Faith and Honest Thomas

    Doubt is not the opposite of faith, that is certainty.  In a world where everything is governed by what is certain, there is no room for faith.  But that’s not the world we live in.  I remember upsetting someone at a youth group suggesting that those who did not have any doubts about their faith…

  • Lle Gorffwys – a resting place

    Lle Gorffwys – a resting place

    I have for some time given worth to the idea of a shared common task.  A task other than maintaining a building or a pattern of worship as these things ought to serve the central task rather than the other way around.  Be that common task a community project, or supporting a local charity or…

  • Fourth Person of the Trinity

    Fourth Person of the Trinity

    I want to introduce you to the fourth person of the trinity.  Unlike Douglas Adams, who we forgive for the subtitle of his fifth book of three ‘the increasingly inaccurately titled “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy”’, there is some difficulty in adding to the Holy Trinity, one might assume, however, as A.A. Milne should…