Multi-faith Britain

This is Bishop Michael Nazir Ali:-

'The arrival of people of other faiths provided chaplains with an opportunity for Christian hospitality in making sure that such people had access to a spiritual leader from their own tradition and had their spiritual needs met. This has now mutated into the closure of chapels, the retrenchment of a distinctively Christian chaplaincy and the advent of a doctrinaire multi-faithism. Let me say immediately that this has little do with people of other faiths who have no objection to chapels andchaplains, as long as their own needs are met, and everything to do with secularist agendas which marginalise all faith but seem especially hostile to Christianity. There is no reason at all why a Christian chapel and chaplaincy cannot be retained, whilst also providing adequately, and with dignity, for the needs of others.

'The long withdrawing roar of the sea of faith seems to be getting louder: nurses cannot pray, the Creed cannot be recited at Christian services for fear of offending non-believers, Christian marriage counsellors are removed because they believe in Christian marriage and Christian adoption agencies cannot be publicly funded because they believe that children are best brought up in a family with a mother and father to look after them and provide appropriate role-models for their personal development and relationships.'

Find more here

What really counts in the crunch ....

I am writing this in mid-March (late as usual!) and the news on the radio is not uplifting.

We are all used to hearing about the dismal toll of closures and job losses, news re-inforced by a stroll down Union Street with it's recently closed shops. For many of us the past few months have provided our first insight into the way our financial machinery works and it has been a shock. It is hard to get a way from the bad news when people we know have lost jobs and homes, and when the headlines scream at us every day. (Want some investment advice? - take out shares in Robert Peston!) The chaos wrought in the financial sector seems to cast a cloud over everything.

But there are things in the news for which we should be thankful.

How about the wonderful people of Northern Ireland? After the awful murders of policemen and soldiers this month they have united to condemn the perpetrators and voice their commitment to peace and stability. I'm sure you are praying and asking God to sustain them in that determination.

How about Jade Goody? Whatever you think of the publicity surrounding her last days, she has been reminding us all that somethings are much bigger and and more important than Sir Fred Goodwin's pension. She wanted to seal her relationship with her partner by getting married. She has made financial arrangements for her children but also made sure they were baptised, made a part of God's family. Today's report is of her wanting to see a last sunset over the lovely Essex countryside. Stardom can make a fool of you, but she has shown that when the ultimate crunch comes she knows what is important - and reminded us too! By the time you read this she may well have died - so think of her and her family and be thankful for all those who see what really matters and life and treasure their family, their ability to love, their relationship with God.

The credit crunch is big news - but those things are bigger and even more important. We can still love. That power is so strong in us, because God's love is the source of what we are and what we can hope for. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

You may be a fundamentalist atheist if ....

Rabid atheism is seemingly everywhere at the moment. Even Radio 4 seems quite happy for belief to be attacked on an almost daily basis - well Christian belief, certainly not Islam!

Do you worry, pooor lost sheep, that you might be affected by this? How do you know if you are becoming a atheist fundi yourself? Take heart! I found a web-site the other day called

"You may be a fundamentalist atheist if...."

Give yourself a check-up!

The forgotten birthday.

It grieves me, it really does. We call ourselves a "Reformed" Church and so far no cleric of the church, let alone any church member, has shown any awareness, in my admittedly feeble hearing, that this year marks the 500th birthday of John Calvin! On July 10th to be precise.

So it gladdens an old sheep's heart to learn that our Minister will be giving five summer-evening talks on the basic ideas of Calvinism, ideas which have shaped the history of Europe and therefore the world far more than most of he flock realise.

Do you know Calvin's TULIP? No, the great man never committed horticulture - TULIP is the famous acronymn for the central themes of classic Calvinism.

Keeping it simple ......

T for "total depravity". This doesn't mean people are as bad as they can be. It means that sin is in every part of one's being, including the mind and will, so that a man cannot save himself.

U for "unconditional election". God chooses to save people unconditionally; that is, they are not chosen on the basis of their own merit.

L is for "limited atonement". The sacrifice of Christ on the cross was for the purpose of saving the elect.

I for "irresistible grace". When God choses to save someone he will.

P is for "perseverence of the saints". Those people God chooses cannot lose their salvation; they will continue to believe. If they fall away, it will be only for a time.

Gripping eh? Or annoying? Did you know this is what "Reformed" means?