Category: acceptance
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Inclusive Church
The church I serve, Mutley Baptist Church, has recently joined the Inclusive Church Network. The ICN statement reads: “We believe in inclusive church – a church which celebrates and affirms every person and does not discriminate. We will continue to challenge the church where it continues to discriminate against people on grounds of disability, economic power, ethnicity, gender, gender identity,…
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Lovingly Inclusive (part 2)
We recently put up these banners outside our front door, on a main thoroughfare through Plymouth. They are 12ft tall! If you zoom in you can see our newly adopted values. This bloggage explores the second of our values which Mutley Baptist Church has adopted. The full text is: Jesus calls us to love God…
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Bryan Adams or Meat Loaf?
I was watching a Top of the Pops 1991 television programme* recently and they played Bryan Adams’s ballad Everything I do, I do it for you. The song spent 16 consecutive weeks at Number 1 in the UK chart, still the longest ever run. It’s a song I loved when it was released in 1991…
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I have never been so offended (well, perhaps I have)
If you shop in Sainsbury’s* you may have a Nectar card, through which you accumulate Nectar Points that ultimately can be redeemed in different ways. We think it is a special loyalty bonus scheme that they give us out of the kindness of their hearts but in reality it is a way of them tracking…
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a frame of thrones
It is Neolithic Britain. The tribe was proud of the new king because he had overseen the building of Stonehenge. They decided to build him a special house. They put up wooden pillars and then wove together the strong marsh grass into panels which formed the walls and roof. The king was very proud of…
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service
A nice man has just come to read our electricity and gas meters. He made a joke about not outstaying his welcome as he left. Yesterday I had a courtesy phone call from the company with whom we have some of the family mobile phone contracts. And the lady with whom I was speaking was…
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setting boundaries
Isn’t it amazing how God draws things to our attention when he’s trying to tell us something? Well, perhaps it’s not amazing because he often does it. It’s more that I’m amazed that he persists with me. Last week I was sent an e-mail about something I had shared with the church a long time…
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je ne regrette rien
We are following a series of sermons at our church at the moment: ‘Living life in all its fullness’. On Sunday morning we will be looking at ‘Living without regret’. It’s a theme that seemed important when I prepared the series. In preparation I have been wrestling with Peter after he had denied knowing Jesus.…
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spiritual botox?
On Saturday I had a series of Botox injections in my head. No, it was not because of vanity. When you look like me, vanity has left the building well before Elvis! The first image here will confirm that for you. It was medical, and if you want to know more, read the previous entry.…
nukelearfishing 