Sticks and stones
Emma shares thoughts on how words shape us.
Christmas Trees: An Advent Journey | Part Two: Tender Hope for Fragile Lives
A reflection on the Hiroshima survivor trees, Isaiah’s “tender shoot,” and how hope grows quietly in dry ground — unnoticed, resilient, and alive.
Christmas Trees: An Advent Journey | Part One: Hope for a World Cut Down
In this first of three reflections for Advent, Paul considers what Advent means in a world that feels cut to the stump. If you look around at the world right now, optimism feels like a distant memory. At the turn of the millennium, many of us believed a more connected world would be a safer, …
Read more “Christmas Trees: An Advent Journey | Part One: Hope for a World Cut Down”
Doomscrolling is Out. Enter the Newsnami.
There’s a lot of bad news out there. How do we stay afloat when the waves keep coming?
Remember Who You Are
Paul reflects on the paradox of Ash Wednesday, that we are both dust and beloved.
A friend’s eye is a good mirror
Emma shares insights for churches in Ireland gleaned from paying attention to friends beyond these shores.
Rumours of Light
The opening of John’s gospel provides some of the richest poetry in all literature. As an erstwhile English teacher, I am drawn back time and time again to the complex layering of metaphor as John urges us to begin to conceptualise this miracle of miracles – God made flesh. In the beginning was the Word, and …
Was it something I read? (Or, why the interpretation of Scripture matters and how we can do it better.)
Paul reflects on “Let Justice Roll”, the 2023 conference of The Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence. This year the conference was held in partnership with Christ at the Checkpoint, a community of evangelical Christians based at Bethlehem Bible College who explore what Christian discipleship looks like amidst the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
God-forsaken Questions
Is it part of Christian faith to accept the inexplicability of evil? Paul continues his Lent reflections by contemplating the fourth last saying of Jesus from the cross.
Swords into ploughshares, gas canisters into Christmas baubles…
Paul reflects on the hope of Christmas in light of his recent experience in Bethlehem.