Showing everything tagged as Thought for the week

I’ve always found the Sundays after Easter tricky.

Today I saw a map of the West Bank – a patchwork of Palestinian communities fractured by Israeli settlements, connecting roads forbidden with the threat of being shot.

The eggs have been hunted, the Lenten abstinences have been joyfully left behind, the Easter feast has been celebrated and schools have started again.

I recently went to Israel and Palestine, to listen to people’s stories of reconciliation and to visit ancient sites.

I began my first Palm Sunday sermon from the back of the church and not, as expected, in the pulpit. That was intended as an illustration of the reality that Jesus, through his life and teaching, turned our understanding of life upside down.

From our Vicar, Sam, I learned the phrase ‘going to the bottom of the pond’. It means that kind of deep conversation with a good friend that helps you delve deeply and safely into all the murky bits that are troubling your life.

This year we have been studying the Confessions of Saint Augustine as the basis of our Lent Course. We decided it would be interesting to look at a text which has been one of the most influential and translated books in the Christian Church.

At Epiphany I began my new job as Chief Operating Officer for the Church of England Diocese in Europe. By Easter I will be just over 100 days in.

I have just finished reading The Crossway by Guy Stagg. It is a deeply personal account of a 5550-kilometre pilgrimage from Canterbury to Jerusalem via Rome, which took Stagg 10 months to complete.