Perhaps you saw in the headlines recently some controversy surrounding the release of Oxfam’s new ‘Inclusivity Document’? A document created to help employees and volunteers use more inclusive language to show people dignity globally. They have received quite a lot of criticism, mainly due to the potential money and resources spent on creating such a document, described as ‘beyond parody’ by one journalist. As I have reflected on the commentary, I’ve been reminded of Jesus’ challenge to Judas after his scathing criticism of Mary’s extravagant worship as she poured expensive perfume at Jesus’ feet. (John 12) This is perhaps a reminder that overcoming poverty is rarely achieved simply by using money, that we need to be measured in our judgments and that grace is a necessary ingredient as we......

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This last few weeks quite a few of us have been using the “Dust and Glory” resources, available in the booklets / apps / smart speakers etc as well as at Six o’clock live. I wonder how you’ve found our journey so far. This next week we’re going to be thinking about how “the church” might be part of this story of being both beautiful and broken. Yes, hopefully a place of love, worship and community, for us here at Trinity expressed by people a people who are “growing faith, proclaiming hope and living the love of Jesus.” Sadly at times however we see our brokenness too, where church becomes one of division, failures and frustration. I know that’s my experience, and I’m sorry for where, at a local......

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I confess that I put off writing this piece for a few days, because I couldn’t think what to write about. And then today, it happened…a catastrophe worth sharing! My daughter set off for a GCSE Geography Field trip but in line with the school risk assessment, she was not allowed to board the coach because she had forgotten her inhaler! The school office quickly called me to see if I could make the two-minute journey from home and drop the inhaler off, but I didn’t hear my phone! So, I missed the call and the coach set off leaving my daughter at school in her outdoor clothes and boots, and without her friends! When you are a fashion-conscious 16 year old, that probably feels like the worst day......

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A few weeks ago, at Holy Trinity Belle Vue, Peter Madley prayed about the warmth of the sun bringing life to bulbs buried deep within the soil, and asked God that the warmth of the love of His Son might bring forth green shoots from that which has been planted deep within us. I’m grateful to Peter for this profound and prophetic prayer for the church, and for us as individuals. However young or old we are, and however far along we are in our walk of faith, we will all have had things planted in us: Bible passages spoken over us, prayers prayed for and with us (often without our knowledge), encouragements given to us, examples set for us…and much more. Sometimes we may be unaware of their......

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“Vicar talks about failure.” I’m very aware that we might be here a long time, with long lists of parental mistakes I have made, online bloopers I have committed, or the many messes I have found myself in through my life! And yet as we begin Lent we often talk about faith… and failure. We might begin with Adam and Eve – two original ‘failures’ – before going on to countless more stories of faith, failure and forgiveness. But there’s good news in this. “Failure is inevitable” as Emma Ineson says. “But it isn’t the end of the story.” What a beautiful invitation to the big story of scripture. Failure doesn’t need to have the last word. From Noah to Moses, Jacob to David, God’s grace means human failure......

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What’s your story? Recently, being confined to the house with COVID, I picked up a book I had been given at Christmas. I could claim it was a theology book – aren’t we supposed to be reading these?! – but it is a theology book like no other I know of. It was written by a well-respected modern theologian, Dr Paula Gooder, and tells a story about Phoebe, mentioned in Romans 16: 1 – 2, who, the author suggests, may well have taken Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome. It is an experiment in historical imagination, an attempt to imagine what it felt like to be Phoebe. Why was she in Rome, when we know she was a deacon in Cenchreae (near Corinth)? Whom did she meet in......

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