For my money, the most important thing about doing church in post-modernity is this: you don’t know what you are doing. Not only that, you don’t know anything at all. You don’t know where you are going, and so you don’t know how to get there either. Don’t feel bad, neither does anyone else, least […]
We had a good conversation on the weekend at Cafechurch Crafternoon about the nature of desire, bouncing off a conversation one of our members had with her meditation teacher. I can’t quite call to mind the exact words, but it was something like this: You suffer so much because of your attachments: the solution is […]
“You aren’t an emerging church until someone eats dessert while you are trying to have communion” – Cafechurch saying. It occurs to me that this blog is supposed to be about doing church in post-modernity, and I have been mainly blogging about culture, not church. The problem is, it is so hard to start – […]
After a last salute Jack glanced aloft – still the sweet west wind – and then he looked fore and aft: a fine clear deck, hands all at their stations and all beaming with pleasure; and turning to the master he said, ‘Mr Hanson, pray lay me a course for Cape Pilar and Magellan’s Strait. […]
Last week I read Alister McGrath’s new book – C.S. Lewis: A Life – Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet. Of the many good things about it, I was especially struck by his description of how Lewis saw his task as integrating rational and imaginative approaches to the spiritual journey. This was timely for me, because that […]
I watched the new Disney take on the Lone Ranger on the weekend, and I must say I enjoyed it, even though I know this admission will remove any faint vestiges of cool that I might have once had (though after blogging about Midsomer Murders, I suspect that bridge has well and truly been crossed.) […]
I’m not sure I’m keen for it to be widely known, but I am a fan of Midsomer Murders. I sometimes wish I could find it within me to be a fan of something cooler, grittier, edgier. Like The Wire. How I wish I could love The Wire. Or some subtitled Scandi-noir. But alas, like […]
On Sunday evening, Anne looked at me from her end of the sofa as I Facebooked whilst watching TV and drinking wine, and said: you use your smartphone all the time. It’s annoying. I think we should have a day off. Alright, I replied cockily, you’re on. Gauntlet taken up. On Monday, no smartphones, and […]
Alister Pate