John Drane and Olive Drane are blogging
John and Olive Drane are two interesting voices in Church thinking – John for his books on -among other things – the MacDonalidisation of the Church, and Olive for her courses on communication, and performances in clowning. Check out their new blog here
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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.
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As a rural priest there is a danger I always feel that “Harvest” is more important than more Christian festivals for people. I get asked “who’s preaching for harvest? more often than “What about about doing more for the elderly in our parish?” Ho hum
BTW An excellent site for seasonal food ideas is http://www.eattheseasons.co.uk/
follow the link for lots of ideas at the moment for what’s in season and therefore cheaper. An absolute must if you don’t know what to do with Kale for example!!! But ut has meat fush fruit – the lot.
I spent four years as missionary in charge of All Saints’ Mission in Aklavik in the western Arctic. We didn’t celebrate harvest festival in the Fall (we were way too far north for farms!), but we had a local celebration in the spring called ‘Rat Sunday’. Aklavik people derived a lot of income from trapping muskrats; the season ran from March 1st to mid-June, and every year on the Sunday after the close of rat season, the people would bring muskrat pelts to church in thanksgiving for another harvest. Those pelts often arrived in the nick of time to help us pay off the church fuel bill for the winter!!!
As my parents had a farm up until a year before I was born and my cousins still farm I have always connected with the harvest celebrations. Now that we have an organic veg box delivered each week with fruit and vegetables in season we seem to be re-connecting to the annual rhythm of what to eat when; plus rediscovering vegetables of my childhood like purple sprouting! However even I notice how difficult it seems to be to make this celebration relevant to modern city dwellers.
P.S. Maggi – I have never noticed you being “dull and fat”.
As a priest in a semi-rural area, harvest is a mighty important time, however, even here it is paid mere lip-service with local supermarkets dominating the consumer choice, the space for local and seasonal is being squeezed all to often. I was quite taken aback a few days ago though when someone from the council approached me and asked if the choir might like to contribute to the harvest festival being held on the local high school field. I was torn between being pleased at the whole idea of celebrating harvest with the wider community and the thought that perhaps the church had lost out a bit to the secular movement for local, sustainable living and also shot itself in the foot for being too prohibative.