Reignite

I've just come out of a long conversation with the guy from British Gas who came to do a safety check on my boiler. The fact that I live within a theological college meant that the conversation got around to faith. We began by talking about the differences between the different denominations represented here at college. This got us around to Unitarianism, and what is stands for. We stood in my kitchen for half an hour talking. He asked me a lot of questions about Unitarianism, and I did my best to answer him. Then he started talking about his own faith. He was Pentecostal. He asked me for a Bible and showed me some proof texts as he talked about his faith and what it meant to him. He talked in an articulate way about what he believed with gusto and confidence. I fully enjoy such conversations, even though I feel inadequate to express my beliefs. I'm sure God is working in such conversations, but I don't always know what result God is working to come out of the encounters. S...

Someone mentioned to me at GA that Andrew Brown, minister of Cambridge Unitarian Church, has a blog, and so I finally looked it up and found it. It's part of the Church's website, with a format that needs an individual click to read each entry, which is a bit annoying. And there is no commenting facility which means which can't get a dialogue going, which is a shame. But I'm glad our number is slowly increasing. Andrew makes three, in addition to me and Matt at Renewed Hope . Cambridge Unitarian Church Minister's Blog .

Happy St George's Day. Here's an article from Ekklesia : The patron saint of the English should be rebranded and St George's Day should become a national day of dissent, a religious think-tank is proposing. The ideas come in a report published ahead of St George's Day, this Monday 23rd April 2007 - and in an article published on Friday in the Church of England Newspaper. In the report published today (Thursday 20th April) entitled; "When the Saints Go Marching Out: Redefining St George" Ekklesia co-directors Jonathan Bartley and Simon Barrow propose that George once again take his place as the 'people's saint'. The report points out that the original story which dates from the 4th century CE told of St George offering hospitality to a refugee, defending the marginalised, and challenging the persecution policy of the Emperor. This image has been distorted, and replaced by one of a dragon slayer who backs the crusades (religious wars). 'Re-bran...

My friend emailed me the other day and ended the message with, 'Have you seen Johndeep on TV?' I hadn't but guessed at the type of programme she was talking about and looked him up, and there he was on Any Dream Will Do on BBC1. I went to school with Johndeep and so have known him many years. I remember the times when I was getting better parts than him in school shows!! He's been in London trying to break into that ol' acting and singing malarkey for a few years now. And now he's got into this. Good luck to him. I missed the first show but this weekend I'm with my parents and my dad had accidentally recorded it from last week so I managed to watch it yesterday. Tonight is the second show, so watch it and vote Johndeep!

Yes, it is me. It was Halloween.

From Pressure Works . The European Union is trying to get former colonies to sign up to the new unfair trade agreements and we've only got to the end of the year to put a stop to it. Come out on Thursday 19 April in the biggest trade justice event of 2007 and send a loud and clear message to EU leaders that you: - Say no to unacceptable pressure on developing countries to accept the new unfair trade agreements. - Say no to locking African, Caribbean and Pacific nations into poverty so European companies can carve out bigger profits. - Say no to Europe undermining jobs, healthcare, education and the environment in developing countries. March in London and in cities across the UK and Ireland to demand the EU stops trying to impose these new agreements. The governments of the EU are pushing unfair trade deals on 75 former colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP). These countries - some of the poorest in the world - are under extreme pressure from Europe as it rushes to ...

(Not exactly live anymore, I'm talking about last Friday, but I'm still faster than any other news source, barring the GA Zette, but you have to come along to get that) The last business meeting dealt with the left over motions and the procedural motions, and some more reports. David Dawson gave his address as the retiring President. He said one thing that is worth repeating. He might have said a couple, but I can only remember one now. He recommended we use a different 'brand name' as 'the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches' is rather too long and combersome. I agree entirely. David advocated 'Unitarians in Britain' which is fine. For me I'd want to call us 'The Unitarian Church' or when talking internationally 'The British Unitarian Church.' That's what I've written for my link on the right here. The trouble is of course that some would see it as a rejection of Christianity to drop the word 'Chris...