Here

… before the ‘consensus’ on climate change is *seen* to have fallen apart, as opposed to just having fallen apart in practice. Even James Lovelock is calming down: “The problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books – mine included – because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn’t happened.”

See my “climate change is a secondary issue” for why I have for a number of years seen it as a distraction.

I’m crazy about the famously melancholic singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, who has probably never written a single song outside the minor key.  When I listen to Cohen’s musings on love, loss and yearning, I feel happy. But it’s not an exultant kind of happiness. It feels more like a marvelling at the fragile beauty of the human condition, and a pleasure in having someone articulate it so sensitively.

From here

And I would add – this is why it is so essential to sing songs of lament in church.

From my address to the West Mersea APCM this morning:

After a lot of soul-searching, and having pondered and prayed for some time, I do believe that my time as your Rector is drawing to a close, and that you need a new Rector, a Joshua perhaps, to take you forward into a new season of your life together. I don’t have anything established as yet – and it may well be some time before God actually shows me the place where he wants this slave to go – but I believe that my sharing this understanding with you now will help our on-going conversations and our common life. The truth is that I too am very tired – and as I’ve been saying, I think that this tiredness is a sign that I need to go home to God and find my rest in Him. I, too, need to cease my strivings, and find my rest in Christ alone. To go back to the Moby Dick reference, I do not know what sort of great whale God wishes me to pursue – or, indeed, if, rather than pursuing the whale like Captain Ahab, he instead wants me to be swallowed up by one and thrown up onto a beach somewhere – but I feel as if, in sharing this with you, I am recovering my spiritual balance. There is a modern Christian aphorism which I quite like – if you are going to learn to walk on water you need to get out of the boat. Well, I feel like I’m getting out of the boat, and I’m very nervous, but also excited to see what’s going to happen.

Can be found here (h/t @res_publica on Twitter).

I particularly liked this:

“…the need to amend the growing incompetence and theological incoherence on the ground. There are three crucial elements that stand out:

– Almost ubiquitous liturgical chaos, where many evangelicals and liberals alike have little sense of what worship is for.

– The increasing failure of many priests to perform their true priestly roles of pastoral care and mission outreach, in a predominantly “liberal” and managerialist ecclesial culture that encourages bureaucratisation and over-specialisation. ….

– Perhaps most decisive is the collapse of theological literacy among the clergy – again, this is partly a legacy of the 1960s and 70s (made all the worst by the illusion that this was a time of enlightening by sophisticated German Protestant influence), but it has now been compounded by the ever-easier admission of people to the priesthood with but minimal theological education, and often one in which doctrine is regarded almost as an optional extra.”

The business leader leads from above. The ministry leader is a servant leader, he leads from below. The business leader’s objective is to create confident, bold, self-sufficient leaders. The ministry leader’s objective is to encourage humble, Christ-dependant, followers of the Lord.  He must share his life, sins, fears and weaknesses with those he shepherds so they can learn how to lead in weakness. The business man must hide his sins, fears, and weakness so his people can learn how to fearlessly, boldly lead.

“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. ” – 1 Corinthians 1:27

“So the last will be first, and the first last.” – Matthew 20:16

Things are different in the Kingdom of God. They should therefore appear different.

(From here)