QuartzAt Christmas we remembered the story of Jesus being born, fully man. Rooted in a particular place and time. How many of us live in the place we grew up in, or continue the same occupation as our parents? Even if we do, how much of our everyday lives are spent connected with the soil […]
If you were omnicompetent, understood everything and held the expanse of time like a lump of clay in your hand – how would you handle creating everything? Or scale it down to something as simple as a trip to your ancestral home. Would an unexpected pregnancy, room booking failure, and the univited arrival of a […]
The featured photos are of a piece of interactive art in a cafe about five years ago. They have spread though facebook and pop will pop in memories for years to come. Another addition to the colourful expression of life in winter. But have you ever wondered if Angels are real, and if so what […]
We are choosing to work in relationship with the natural environment when we meet as Forest Church. We are taking a chilled out approach to this though. This means that our midwinter meeting is on a Sunday close to the solstice but not the day of it. We will meet outside the Crichton chapel as […]
It makes me smile when I think that one of the things which early Christians in these isles are remembered for is illuminated manuscripts. The grin gets broader when I compare the ready appreciation of this art with the slowness with which “youthwork for adults” has been accepted in many worshiping communities. The Manga gospels […]
Those interested in pioneer ministry will hopefully be recognise many common ways of working in this article (and perhaps even identify glimmers of micro-gospels). The article is about creative placemaking, and a phrase which stood out to me is: “The common thread amongst various definitions, however, is that it is a process that helps to […]
Here is a video made by Simon as part of his chaplaincy work with Dumfries High School. It was used during mental health week, with an introduction linking the advice given by Jesus to reflect on what is important, and the way in which our social media feed can drag our attention down unhealthy paths. […]
Most of life is filled with questions about “what”and “how”. What do you want to do to day? How will we manage that? Then someone will answer the first question with “For everyone to be happy” or “to have fun” and the second question often becomes very difficult to answer. This may be because a […]
Some more thoughts by Alison, blogged by Simon for Quartz. Read part (I) here. In the first of these reflections Alison described encountering God “Sitting on a bench looking out at the Solway restores my soul, and through it I sense a spiritual truth and reality. In this place it comes naturally to me as […]