Bishops: are they human? I hope so
Who is acceptable to be a Bishop? not only is it on the cards that we might have women bishops sometime soon, but the Church is now considering allowing divorcees or husbands of divorcees to be appointed. About time too, in my opinion. Although I’m not sure quite how new this is – if my memory serves me correctly Mark Santer (former Bishop of Birmingham) married a divorcee. I’m all for making sure that Bishops are people who are worthy of respect – people whose lives are a non-stop disaster zone wouldn’t be a good choice. But I’d SO much rather have someone who has survived a few battles than someone for whom life has always just gone swimmingly. The best of our leaders in the Church have a few scars. And the tightly kept rules sometimes lead to people living a lie – there are a few people in senior positions in the church whose marriages have proved impossible, who quietly live separate lives. How is that better than being divorced?
-
author musician theologian
Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
In an increasingly secularised society few people have a good working knowledge of the Bible. Yet a great deal of our culture is built on stories or ideas that come from the Bible. Literature, art, music, language and even the fabric of our society - such as our justice system - are built on Christian concepts and biblical references. The Writing on the Wall provides a fascinating introduction to the Bible's best-known, and most influential, stories. Each chapter gives some background to the text of the Bible, and shows how the stories have become enmeshed in Western culture. Adam and Eve, the ten plagues of Egypt, The Prodigal Son and Mary Magdalene all feature - along with how the Bible has influenced everyone from Shakespeare to Monty Python, and Caravaggio to Banksy. 
Giving It Up explores the Lenten idea of 'giving up', taking it beyond the traditional idea of simply abstaining from something, and suggesting instead that what we need to give up is our existing ideas about God. With a daily readings for each day of Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, it follows the heroes of the Bible who had to give up their own too-small ideas about God.
This is Maggi’s bestselling book of daily readings for each day of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Advent is the beginning of the Church year, and marks the anticipation of the coming Messiah. These readings explore how beginnings and endings in our own lives are illuminated by the different Gospel narratives of Christ's coming.
-
Search
-
-
