Joined-up Listening: 12 questions to ask of albums
Having been asked to write a list of questions for reading novels (I ended up with a not very succinct 20), Lars Dahle asked me to do the same thing for albums. Actually, to be fair to him, he asked me to do both at the same time, but I’ve been slack and not got […]
A wander back in time from the Agora to the Acropolis
After a really successful 48 hours in Sofia in the first half of the week, have been in Athens for similar meetings for the last few days. In between meetings with various church leaders, we had a free morning yesterday so my fantastic host Constantinos showed me the ancient sites. We did all the A’s […]
Beauty amidst the Brutalists in Bulgaria
Apologies for the rather contrived alliteration but couldn’t resist. Have been in Sofia, Bulgaria since Monday and on my way now to Athens for another couple of days’ meetings. Pretty intense but lots of big encouragements. Here in Bulgaria and Greece to plan for the launch of Langham events in both countries this Autumn. But […]
“To be… or not to be”: Rhyming dilemmas of homicide and suicide
No, please don’t worry – I’m contemplating neither. But I did rather enjoy these two little ditties in Wendy Cope’s marvellous anthology of humorous poetry, The Funny Side. The first is by Stanley Sharpless, about whom I’ve been able to dig up little (apart from this reflection which is fun because Fitzroy Sq is just down […]
How can I give you up? An overview of Hosea
Our small groups are studying the book of Hosea this term and so last week I had the job of giving an overview and providing background for it. In my prep, I was particularly struck by the effect of reading the relevant chapters of 2 Kings (ch 13-17) alongside Hosea, because these give the historian’s […]
JB Phillips on the KJV’s ‘prison of traditional beauty’
Following up last Friday’s post on Eugene Peterson and the King James Bible, my colleague Roger Salisbury reminded me of the ethos that lay behind J B Phillips‘ pioneering modern English translation of the New Testament. He started it during the Second World War, culminating in the publication of the New Testament in Modern English in […]
The King James and the possibility of upward desecration
The 400th Anniversary of the King James is everywhere. And that’s fantastic. There’s perhaps a greater chance of it being read by British people this year than there has been for years. The Word is God One of the most intriguing developments has been the way that the media has taken up the cause – […]
PLAY from the Conspiracy of Freedom
In case you missed this from a few months ago, here is a fantastic video from the genii at Conspiracy of Freedom – I was reminded of it by the Simple Pastor – and it is definitely worth revisiting. Not sure where they got their graph stats from or on what basis they were drawn, but […]
Confessions of a magazine junkie
Someone made the mistake of asking me the other day what magazines I read. And it came as a bit of a shock to me when I tried to work out my list. I’ve always been a magazine junkie, I suppose – because at their best, they’re far more significant than mere advertising vehicles or […]
A courageous nod to God in a Soviet-era show-trial
Came across this fascinating morsel in a short New Yorker article by David Remnick from the run up to the recent Mikhail Khordorkovsky trial in Moscow. This fallen oligarch, it seems, has taken on the mantle of the dissenter from the Soviet era – not least because he is being pursued by former KGB agents and […]
The glories of Dovedale at Dusk
Just back from a week over New Year in the glorious Derbyshire Peaks. We walked up Dovedale several times over the week, including a wonderful ascent (which makes it sound far grander than it really was!) of Thorpe Cloud just as the sun was setting. Truly magnificent. I can assure you that no filters have been […]
Q’s 2010 in review (courtesy of WordPress)
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how Q did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health (the rest of this post is automatically generated): The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow. Crunchy numbers The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 130,000 times in […]
