Max Warren - he say......

'It takes a whole world to know the whole Christ'.

Max Warren - Leader of CMS in mid 20th Century

To Infinities and Beyond

'A vacuum is not nothing, it is just the lowest energy level and things can be created from nothing. Just as in music silence can speak volumes.'

'The laws of physics are highly mathematical but very mysterious. You cannot see or touch them. There are mysterious symmetries in the universe. It is no coincidence that biologists like Richard Dawkins feel very uncomfortable with religion and unanswered questions because they are dealing with the messy complexities of nature. Physicists are very used to laws of nature that have no explanation of the same sort. They are used to dealing with uncertainty and being undogmatic. There is a real cultural difference between biologists and physicists'.

Professor John Barrow

Astronomer and mathematician

Quoted in CAM - Issue 58

A gift of prayer

Once again CMS Prayerlines, courtesy of Tim Dakin, General Secretary, comes up with some inspirational words - from Philip Brooks

"Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger people. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks."

Inspiring Preachers?

I recently stayed a night at the former rectory of Pen-y-Dyffryn and was amused by the description I came across of the first Rector, the Reverend Robert Williams, reliably described as "ponderous and pedantic, big and burly, waddling as he walked with three or four pupils at his heels". The 1861 census gives details of his household. He had two sisters, a dairymaid, a housemaid and two farm servants living in. He was a dull preacher, using the same sermons over and over, reading them in a monotone. He was not much liked by his parishioners, and maintained a congregation of as many as a dozen worshippers. He was, however, a Celtic scholar, and amongst other publications is responsible for the first dictionary of the Cornish language.
Two more vicars followed; the Reverend Jones until 1908, and the Reverend Morris until 1949. Both were rather more popular figures, and congregations regularly reached 100 or more. Perhaps they put a bit more into their preaching.

Which reminds me of the the parishioner who advised their vicar that rather than putting more fire into his sermons, he needed to put more of his sermons into the fire.

Confirmed Atheists

'THERE IS PROBABLY NO GOD' according to the current advertising campaign supported by Richard Dawkins - he would apparently have preferred 'There is certainly no God'. There's nothing like the dogmatism of a confirmed atheist...

Or am I being harsh? What a moving affirmation of Christianity lived out provided by Matthew Paris writing in the Times on 27th December 2008 with particular reference to Malawi:

'Now a confirmed atheist, I have become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people's hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good'.

Quite a challenge for us to make real the genuinely tranforming nature of faith in general and Christian faith in particular. And also to counter the assumption made by the second half of the slogan, that our faith leads to worry and a lack of enjoyment in our lives. Jesus came to bring 'Life in all its fullness'.

The whole 'Does God exist thing' raises fundamental questions about what God we're talking about. I'm reminded of the student who went to chaplain and said 'I do not believe in God'. To which the chaplain responded 'Tell me about the God you don't believe in'. After listening to the student's words the chaplain replied, 'No, I don't believe in that God either'.