Spending the Day Dead
If anyone asks me what I’m doing on Holy Saturday, I always say that I’m spending the day dead. It’s a very peaceful feeling. The point is that this is a day of contemplation; [...]
The Mystical Gospels and the Crucifixion
One of the great theological debates about the New Testament is ‘why four gospels?’ We know that many more were written, including the famous Nag Hammadi scripts. These were Gnostic gospels which had a [...]
The Lessons of Betrayal (Maundy Thursday)
Today is Maundy Thursday, the day when Jesus would have come before Pilate and been condemned to die on the cross. You’ll know the story; Judas left the last supper early (and maybe avoided [...]
The Professor, Physics, Atheism And Ableism
On the day Professor Stephen Hawking died, Australian artist Mitchell Toy published an image of him standing in the stars. I thought it beautiful and posted it on social media, as did many others. [...]
Passover, Sacrifice and the Promised Land
This year, the Jewish festival of Passover runs over Eastertide – just as it did at the first Easter. I love the years when they coincide because it helps me to see how both [...]
So This is Advent…
It’s Advent 2017 — the start of Christmas, right? Certainly it’s the time when folk like me who refuse to even consider the Festive Season until December finally surrender to the behemoth that is [...]
The Voice In My Soul
I was lying in the bath, pondering the Bible passages that orthodox religious folk use when discussing the folk they disapprove of – as you do – when I got a sentence in my [...]
God, Gays and the Rainbow Clerical Shirt.
Today I bought a rainbow-coloured clerical shirt for going to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe. I’m not gay and, to be totally honest, gay marriage still makes me feel slightly weird. It’s not that I don’t [...]
A Date With God
Let’s face it, God has had some very bad PR. Interpretations of the Holy Books haven’t helped. According to the Old Testament, God’s fond of mass genocide (Noah’s Ark), destruction of idolators (Exodus, Kings), [...]
Children of a Greater God
Until about a hundred years ago, we were all pretty comfortable with a small, exclusive, tribal God. We lived in villages, towns and cities without a wider view of the world and when news [...]