26th July 2024
To keep abreast of recent developments in politics and public life, I watch daily TV programmes like Politics Live and Newsnight, and weekly listen to radio programmes like Thinking Allowed, Beyond Belief and the Moral Maze. Time and again, those partaking are political or social commentators from a bewildering array of policy institutes, think tanks, research groups, charitable institutions and the like. Mostly it impossible to guess from their title whether they lean to the Left or Right, or are fiercely independent. Some may have some kind of religious motivation for their existence; many will not.
So many analysts must increase the talking no end, much of it speculative; quite a lot, when all is said and done, a waste of time. That is reinforced by the way in which many of these matters come to be resolved in the long term.
It could be said of this that ‘when all is said and done, more is said than done’. Lately, many in Britain think this particularly true of politics. And before we, as Christians, begin to feel ‘holier than thou’, we need to be sure that this is not true of our faith, individually or as churches. Scripture encourages us to stop being spectators, and get involved in the games. In that wonderful little book of James in the New Testament, there’s a strong theme of looking after someone’s physical needs before their spiritual ones; food then faith.
I wonder how many of these analysts might be more use to society by getting into the thick of it, rather than sitting commenting on it?
Dave Bell
24th July 2024
Churches, at their best, can be a brilliant meeting place for the generations; the youngest and the oldest can get to know each other in a safe, supportive and friendly environment. A recent service, led by Elizabeth and Alex, reminded us of the rich resource that is offered to the rest of us by older people. Their experience and wisdom can produce good advice and welcome encouragement to the following generations.
I notice that I see differently those people I have known all my life and those who I have only known as older people. That suggests to me that I need to get to know older people better and learn something of how they once were as well as how they are now.
I have a mother who is now in her nineties. I recently found a diary that she kept in 1968 while our family spent a year in the USA. Reading it has been fascinating; I have re-met the mother I had when I was 10. She was busy, energetic, thoughtful and worked hard to ensure that we all got as much as possible out of our stay in a different country. And I saw my young self, my sister and my brother from a very different perspective!
A God that exists outside the constraints of time sees all of this, sees the innocent youngster we were, the vivacious adult we became and the wise, mature older citizen that we have become. (If all has gone well!) And that God has loved us every step of the way.
Nick Parsons
Sunday 21st July 2024
Join us in person or online for a streaming service via Zoom at 10.30 am – check your email or contact us for the details.
The service is led by the Revd Dr Rob Ellis, former principal of Regents Park College, Oxford, and a previous minister of Tyndale.
A recording of the service is available here.
17th July 2024
I once knew a psychiatrist who sometimes prepared reports for courts to assist with sentencing those found guilty. He described this as “trying to distinguish the mad, the sad and the bad”. I was reminded of this by the new prisons minister saying that about one third of those in prison needed to be there for public protection, one third had mental health problems and probably should not be there and the remainder were harder to classify.
When working for the Open University I taught one or two students in prison most years. They were all on long sentences – usually lifers and at Shepton Mallet. Even among those who were probably murderers (one does not ask!) I recognised these categories. I recall one definitely ‘bad’, one with mental health problems which were not treated in prison hindering his eventual release and several who were ex-Army, taught to kill and had over-reacted perhaps when drunk and were probably not a recurring danger to others.
The criminal justice system and prisons are a part of life we rarely encounter. It is clear both are close to collapse. Prison sentences have been lengthening steadily for 20 years and prisons are running out of space. Courts have closed delaying justice for victims and for those on remand. Barristers have been on strike.
We cannot all carry out Jesus’ implied command to visit those in prison but perhaps we ought to take more interest in what is done in our name and to observe the injunction in Hebrews to pray for those in prison which does say for ALL in prison.
Margaret Clements
Sunday 14th July 2024
Join us in person or online for a streaming service via Zoom at 10.30 am – check your email or contact us for the details.
The service is being led by Elizabeth Webb (Tyndale) and Alex Drew (Faith in Later Life).
A recording of the service is available here.
12th July 2024
While on holiday recently, the phrase, ‘You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars’ cropped up in conversation. If your formative years were the 60s and 70s, you’ll recognise it comes from the Desiderata, or ‘things to be desired’ for a good and well-balanced life. Beloved of the hippy generation, it’s a prose poem created by Max Ehrmann (1872-1945), an American poet, writer and attorney. You may even have once owned a wall poster version!
Reading it again many years later, I’m touched to rediscover its excellent, common sense and wise reflection. The hippy dream of love, peace and universal brotherhood was a worthy one no doubt, but, sadly, it never materialised, bringing disillusionment for quite a few. What was lacking was a realistic understanding of human nature and the way things can go in this world. If they’d read the Desiderata more carefully, they’d have found an approach to life that combined positive optimism with guidance for dealing with the doubts, setbacks and hard times we must all encounter.
If I have any criticism of the poem, it’s that this facing up to life apparently has to emerge from within ourselves. God does get a mention, and we’re to be ‘at peace’ with him, but he’s not necessarily the Christian God. There’s no explicit sense of him supporting and strengthening us through life’s trials and disappointments – more a benevolent presence watching how we do. So, while I’m glad to have been reconnected of the wisdom of the Desiderata, I know I also need the peace of God ‘which surpasses all understanding’ (Phil 4:7).
Ken Stewart
10th July 2024
What’s on your wish list for what the new Government might achieve I wonder? I was heartened that they’d brought in someone who knows something about prisons, wonder what’s in store for our health and social care services – and can but dream that one day reliance on food banks could become a thing of the past. That’s just for starters! We certainly need to hold our politicians and the civil servants supporting them in our prayers as they tackle an unenviable to do list.
This Sunday’s sermon included a passing comment about the Old Testament story in which we see God fulfilling his plans through Rahab. It made me think back to the “I Daniel Blake” film of 2016. That powerful film might be fictional, but includes heart rending truths – including scenes set in a food bank, and also of a single-parent mum feeling she had no choice but to become a sex worker.
Just as there’s been a reset in Government at a national level, I wonder how we might reset our own commitments to our communities? Tyndale has from time to time supported the charity One25 in Bristol. I took a look at their website today (https://one25.org.uk) and commend it to you. This charity reaches out to women who are street sex-working, supporting them to “move from crisis and trauma towards independence in the community”.
There is so much political narrative about what ‘hard working families’ deserve. God puts no limits on who deserves His love. May we notice and act when we need to be a sign of God’s love and compassion to those particularly in need.
Ruth Allen
Sunday 7th July 2024
Join us in person or online for a streaming service via Zoom at 10.30 am – check your email or contact us for the details.
The service is led by the Revd Dr Peter Morden, principal of Bristol Baptist College, and includes the celebration of communion.
A recording of the service should be available here this afternoon.
5th July 2024
‘ONE LOT OF SINNERS OUT – ANOTHER LOT OF SINNERS IN’. So proclaimed a poster outside a Baptist Church in Leeds immediately after the 1945 general election which Labour unexpectedly won. The author was a young Welsh minister, Howard Williams, destined eventually to become minister of Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church in London and famed for his pulpit eloquence and often controversial views (that poster caused quite a rumpus both in Baptist and political circles in Leeds). This morning, as results are declared and post-mortems begin, we might feel it apt today as well. Or, we might judge it unduly cynical. Is there really never a possibility of change for the better? Howard, to all who knew or heard him, was not a cynic. He believed passionately in the universality of God’s love for all, and in the Gospel which motivates us to hope and work for justice. But he knew too that Christian faith must combine hope with realism: there is the endemic tendency for all our thinking and actions, even (or especially!) when they have noble ambitions, to be warped by self-interest. His poster was a call for our politics to be laced with humility and an openness to grace.
One of my favourite hymns is Albert Bayly’s ‘Lord, your kingdom being triumphant, give this world your liberty’ (BPW 578). It prays for every part of our life in society to be imbued with God’s grace and wisdom. Its final verse (I’ve put two most telling words into italics) runs:
Lord, your kingdom bring triumphant,
visit us this living hour,
let your toiling, sinning children,
see your kingdom come in power.
Keith Clements
Sunday 30th June 2024
Join us in person or online for a streaming service via Zoom at 10.30 am – check your email or contact us for the details.
This morning’s service will be led by Ian Waddington.
A recording of the service should be available here this afternoon.