Cippenham Baptist Church

Here’s a video from a video blog where Marcus Borg and John Crossan address the issue of atheism, pointing out that atheism is the rejection of theism, not disbelief in God.

No there aren’t – but could there be?  A group of witches have been denied permission to hold their Annual Witches Ball at a Catholic churches social club.  You can read an article about it on the Telegraph website here.

According to the Telegraph article, the witches’ High Priestess, Sandra Davis says “Does the church check everyone’s beliefs before allowing them in the club?” -  the answer is obviously no.

But of course the witches are of a different religion.  Sure they’re not worshipping the devil or lighting candles round bowls of blood, but they do have different spiritual beliefs.

So what if some witches wanted to hire the Church Hall?  If we told them that they couldn’t, on what grounds would we do that?  Are they doing any harm?  Would their presence cause some kind of spiritual conflict?

It’s an interesting question.  If you want to comment, please click on the comments link below.

Cool!

These paintings drawn on buildings are amazing!

Here’s a short slides show we used this Sunday to reflect on some of the reactions of people after Jesus was killed on the cross.

Sit back, turn up the sound and reflect on how people respond to the crucifixion, then and now…

Apparentely Portugal has been experimenting with decriminalisation for the last five years. The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank..

“…. found that in the five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled…..and deaths related to heroin and similar drugs were cut by more than half.”

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html

Reckon we will be hearing more about this in the news soon…

On Easter Sunday, we began our service by splitting into groups of mixed ages and shared events that changed our generation.

There were many varied suggestions:

• World War Two
• Facebook
• Twin Towers attack
• African Famine in 1980’s

We discovered that these events had impacted each generation in various ways:

• It changed behaviour for the rest of their lives
• Had emotional impact – traumatic events, even though far away, introduced fear
• Shaped attitudes and behaviour for many years later
• Immediate impact on current lifestyle (facebook makes us lazy!)
• Events from earlier generations continued to influence later generations who had no personal experience

When we consider the Easter events from 2000 years ago, the way that the disciples reacted to the events can tell us a lot.

• After Jesus was executed on Friday, they were scared – hiding away in fear and grief…
• After encountering the risen Jesus in the days following Sunday, they were joyful, empowered and motivated…

How do we respond to the Easter events in 2009?

Our society associates this time of year with chocolate eggs, daffodils, double-pay and family visits. The impact of Easter is one of consumerism and time off work.

How can we have an encounter with the living Jesus that changes our lives the way it changed the early disciples?

Formula One’s newest British star’s reputation is in tatters after lying to get one of his competitors into trouble.  He deliberately mislead an official enquiry, only to be contradicted by audio evidence.  Under “safety car” conditions (where you aren’t allowed to overtake because of an accident on the track) during a race, he let another driver, Jarno Trulli, past him.  Because of this Jarno Trulli was deemed to have overtaken him and was penalised, losing all points in the race.  Even though Lewis Hamilton knew this, he told race officials that he hadn’t let him through.

Sadly, even after the recording of a conversation of Lewis Hamilton telling his team that he had let Jarno Trulli through, he still denied it.

This excerpt from the Autosport website paints a pretty sad picture …

An FIA source told AUTOSPORT: “First of all, Lewis heard the radio exchange. It appeared that the strategy was to be extremely vague and not be very direct with the answers. Then the interview where he said, ‘I was told to let him through’ was played.

“At that point they both got very uncomfortable, but still denied that’s what had actually happened.

“It was a bit surreal, this situation where you had the radio evidence and the interview, and they were putting a completely different interpretation on what the words actually meant. But the words were very, very clear.”

FIA race director Charlie Whiting has also revealed that Hamilton denied more than once in the original hearing in Australia that he had let Trulli pass him.

Whiting said: “When asked very clearly, ‘Did you consciously let him past, did you pull over to let him past’, he [Hamilton] said, ‘No’. The question was asked more than once. He was adamant that he hadn’t slowed down and hadn’t let Trulli past.”

What has happened here?  Lewis Hamilton is a very fast racing driver, but he has been so focused on this, his vision so narrowed, that he has forgotten to be a human being.  Even his fans are deserting him now.  Is there a lesson to be learned here?

As the Church changes (yes I am drawing a Christian analogy from Motorsport) and becomes focused on different and new things, it too needs to remember that it’s made up of people, and remember morality, that age-old binder of society.

This isn’t a call to be old fashioned, but to be aware that being relevant to society, something that the church needs to do, isn’t “selling out”, it’s being respected and trusted.  Something that the Church has lost and needs to regain.

The Church is having to re-think itself because it abused it’s power and took it’s position for granted.  Now it has lost it it has gained something of greater value – humility.  Let’s remember that for ourselves and the wider church as we all move forward together.

As for Lewis Hamilton, maybe he’s a lost cause.

According to widespread press reports there’s a woman in Kazakhstan who’s 130 years old! That’s 16 years older than the previously thought of oldest person at 114 years.

Discovered in a census, her passport confirms her age, although officials still have their concerns, one said: “There’s no doubt she is very old. But is she really 130? Or was there a white lie long ago which was never corrected? We need to find out.”

A fan of dairy products and traditional medicines, she says “I don’t have any special secret, I’ve never taken pills and if I was ill, I used granny’s remedies to cure me. I have never eaten sweets, I don’t like them. But I love kurt (a salty dried cottage cheese) and talkan (ground wheat).”

Her Passport

“The best show never to be on network tv” is now being shown on the BBC from the beginning, starting this week.

If you are bored of the same old police drama, don’t mind long complicated storylines with grey definitions of good and bad (and if you are over 18) then try “The Wire” BBC2, 11.20 p.m. every day.

Quality TV.

Jim