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Church

Build or Destroy?

April 12, 2013, Published by

If I leave my office by the back door and cross the road I’m faced with a beautiful old building with swinging double doors and a gold name plate that reads: The Literary and Philosophical Society. It is the largest independent library outside of London and contains hundreds of thousands of books in its wonderful reading rooms. One of the books is an original of Chains of Slavery by infamous revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat. Marat practised as a veterinarian in Newcastle and wrote his first revolutionary material here; his words, as history so readily tells us, helped ignite uprisings in Europe and made him a key player in the...
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Ekklēsia:III

November 27, 2012, Published by

I remember when I was younger there was an expression of love that went beyond all other; sure you could like a person, you could even love a person, but could you love anyone enough to give them your last rolo? There was a long running line of television commercials built around the idea that these small chocolate treats were so tasty that you’d only give up your last rolo if it it was really love. In the last two posts we’ve looked together at the definition of church, and at the need for us to love the church. But there...
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Ekklēsia:II

November 20, 2012, Published by

It’s complicated. I don’t know who first coined the description but in an era where millions use Facebook to define their lives it has become the go to description for relationships that just aren’t working as they should. Any time I see a friend set their status to ‘It’s complicated’ I start to worry about them; it’s not that I don’t recognise that life is complicated, but rather that when a relationship is defined by its complications that’s usually a very negative situation. What really saddens me is when people seem to have a relationship to the church that they’d define in...
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Ekklēsia:I

November 15, 2012, Published by

If you follow me on twitter, or have me as a friend on Facebook, you may have became aware of something. Perhaps at first you thought I had a little bit of a crush, the photos and updates would lead to that conclusion, then as it kept up you figured that it’s more of an infatuation. The thing is, it’s neither of those. It’s love. I love church. It’s not a passing fad, it’s a lifelong commitment – we are even Facebook official. I am hoping that you might bear with me as I dedicate a few blog posts to...
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Gathered

May 24, 2012, Published by

Have you ever heard the phrase ‘running off to join the foreign legion’? The French Foreign Legion is the stuff of legend because of its amazing feats of courage and bravery; on the 30th April 1863, for instance, at the Battle of Camarón, 65 legionnaires defended a position all day against 2,000 Mexican troops. They defended it literally until it was two of them standing back to back to face down enemy charges. So who were these crack troops? The cream of the academy? The best men from Sandhurst? Well, not exactly.  For many years the legion was what one historian described as ‘an...
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