With all our talk about Justice and the kingdom of God over the last few months, I have had a number of conversations with you guys about what we do about it. We talked at church about the impact of Uzbekistani Cotton – which is just the sort of things which seems too obscure toContinue reading “Ethical Living”
Author Archives: Mark
Time
Chatting to Pete Burnham after football last night (good result for the vaders!) about the idea of tithing our time. It came up for me when I was preparing this talk on generosity. It is often said of people working in London that they are cash rich/time poor. I don’t know about the cash richContinue reading “Time”
The peoples republic of heaven
This term at Church on the Corner we are studying Luke’s gospel, a series called ‘The peoples republic of heaven’, an intentionally provocative title which should become clearer as we go on. Luke is unique, and quite distinct from the other three gospels, with its own purpose and message. Gospels are not simply collections ofContinue reading “The peoples republic of heaven”
Come bow before your Maker
This is one of our favorite songs at COTC, written by Sam Chaplin. He says “This song was written partly in response to the ‘me’ focussed songs around and written so that anybody of faith or none could sing without having to sing words about their own response that they may not be able toContinue reading “Come bow before your Maker”
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice…
Our series on Isaiah is coming to a conclusion, and the theme of our concern for justice, and our understanding of the extent of God’s concern for our world is at the fore. You can hear the sermon on our resources page. It is making lots of us feel uncomfortable – which is not aContinue reading “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice…”
Who would live in a church like this?
We had a fine time on Sunday night, with the Archdeacon and the trustees of the Cloudsley trust visiting, loads of people and Sam going all Justin on us (I wanna try somethin’ right now. See they don’t do this anymore…). Love this picture. The waving thing was intended as a homage to theContinue reading “Who would live in a church like this?”
Community & Humanity
“One’s own self-worth is tied to the worth of the community to which one belongs, which is intimately connected to humanity in general. What happens in Darfur becomes an assault on my own community, and on me as an individual. That’s what the human family is all about”. Great quote from Tom P by WoleContinue reading “Community & Humanity”
Relationships and all that
Friday was mine and Angela’s 11th wedding anniversary. 11 Years. Crazy. 11 years ago was Cool Brittania, Britpop and Trainspotting. The internet was still a minority interest; Yahoo was only a year old, Google wouldn’t exist for two more years. It was the summer of Euro 96 when football came home and we were beatenContinue reading “Relationships and all that”
Church on the Beach 25th-28th May
The Bank Holiday is here, and the weather is looking good (at least until monday when the end of the world seems to be due). You can download driving directions here. We are staying at the Pitton Cross Campsite which is five minutes from the beach. There are some pictures of the Gower here. TheContinue reading “Church on the Beach 25th-28th May”
Our new website
Over the last year or so the focus of our website has shifted away from the old static site and more towards our blog. The blog is much easier to keep up to date, and has the potential for rather more collaberation. So we have now moved over to the excellent open source tool ‘WordPress’,Continue reading “Our new website”
Football tournament 2007
We had another amazing football tournament on Bank Holiday monday, despite the weather in the morning it was a fantastic day. Here is a video of the highlights, and there are lots and lots of photographs from the day on the Football page of the COTC website.
The Last Sunday – Image and Truth
This sunday evening we hosted a group of London based photographers for an exhibition of their work. A really good evening, the place was packed, Barry Dunnage spoke on ‘Image and Truth”. Liz has lots of pictures from the night here
COTC Pub sign
I was thinking today about what image I would like for our new pub sign outside church. How about an iconic Jesus image in the style of the Angelic, or how about doing something in reaction to that. One of my favorite images is Banksy’s Fallen angelHow about this for our pub sign?
Sunrise
We had a beautiful Easter, from the solemnnity of our service of shadows, watching the excellen and thought provoking Jesus of Montreal on Saturday night, watching the sun rise on Hampstead heath on easter morning and a lovely all age service after a fine breakfast.
Ex Libris COTC
As we look to develop the Cloudsley room at COTC (as the upstairs end room is now known) as a place for reading, study and prayer I thought it would be good to develop our Library. There are lots of good books at the moment, but on the whole they are cast offs. So insteadContinue reading “Ex Libris COTC”
Old Paths – Thomas Cranmer
We are coming to the end of this series, and though there are many amazing figures of recent church history I would love to cover we will just choose some of the key ones. Last night we told the story of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, architect of the Church of England and Martyr forContinue reading “Old Paths – Thomas Cranmer”
Old Paths – Martin Luther
More has been written on Martin Luther than any other figure in Church History. He stands between the medieval and modern worlds, and on one of the great faultlines of Christianity, and his thinking defines protestant theology to this day.Lots of good online media on the subject. Melvin Bragg on Radio 4’s ‘In our time’Continue reading “Old Paths – Martin Luther”
Old Paths – Thomas Aquinas
Scholar, mystic, politican. You can download the whole of his epic ‘Summa theologica’ here. But perhaps just a taste is all you need – here is his ‘Sacred Doctrine’
Francis of Assisi
Francis of Assisi is well known for his love of nature and his simple peaceful lifestyle, and his founding of the radical Franciscan order of Monks. He is one of the most Christlike figures in History, but the aspect of his life which is more pertinant to our day than any other is his relationshipContinue reading “Francis of Assisi”
The cost of life
I found this excellent ‘game’ today. I say ‘game’ because actually it is a bit traumatic. You have a little family who you need to keep alive, feed and educate. And it is really hard. They kept dying on me. It is sponsored by unicef and if has a very serious point about how hardContinue reading “The cost of life”
Church on the Corner 