One of the things us evangelical Christians like to do is to take a small passage of scripture and hang an entire praxis on it. This gets us into a bit of trouble sometimes, for example: I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. 1 Tim 2:12 This was (presumably) fine for the specific context Paul was writing to, but applying it as a global practice for all time doesn’t really stand up against the weight of the rest of scripture regarding the place of women in the Kingdom […]

In honour of my pending ordination (tomorrow!!) I have set up a new blog, which will (hopefully) be a bit deeper than my ramblings on here. It’s at revjameshandley.wordpress.com I intend to keep this site going with photos, reviews, random thoughts (not that there has been a lot of that recently – doing a theology degree will have that effect!), but my main blogging will now be on t’other site. This isn’t a sacred/secular divide thing, it’s more like the difference between the editorial and the cartoons in the newspaper. I will leave you to decide which one you think […]

Well – it’s all real now. I am going to be ordained Deacon at Bradford Cathedral on Saturday 1st July 2017, to take up my curacy at St Mark’s Harrogate one day a week (plus Sundays). While the journey is by no means ending on the 1st July, it is a significant milestone, and many would hold that I will be something different after the Bishop has laid hands on me (the posh phrase is an “ontological change”) – and again when I am priested in 2018, God willing. I personally find it unhelpful to set clergy too far apart […]

While I was at this year’s Easter School in Durham, I have the chance to attend the book launch of a new book, which has several contributions from YMC tutors. The book looks excellent, and is available now in paper and Kindle format from Amazon. Once I’ve read a bit more of it I’ll do a more detailed review.

Prayer is the lifeblood of the church, and having discussed personal quiet times, it is worth thinking about corporate prayer – or prayer meetings. Sadly these can make the heart sink, at the thought of sitting in a cold, uncomfortable chair for 20 minutes in silence without 3 other people who are looking at their feet! However, there are many models of prayer that enable a group of people to pray in a way that is exciting, relevant, and powerful. The nicknames of these models are not my own, they are how I have heard them referred to over the […]

October 31st is an interesting day for the Church. How to engage positively with modern culture while still celebrating the Light? One approach is to subvert the festival to point in another direction altogether (i.e to Jesus). One possibility is to run a Light Party – a celebration of all that is light, with music, games, and sweets. The idea being it’s even better than dressing up as a zombie and going trick or treating! Another approach is to carve a ‘Christian’ pumpkin – as illustrated here. There is a little poem that goes with it that is a sort […]

Wow – life has got busy since I started my ordination training in September! The Yorkshire Ministry Course is really good – we’ve settled into a rhythm now, of Wednesdays and weekends, working our way through the New Testament and elements of Ministry and Mission. My fellow ordinands are awesome, and there are one or two in particular who are fantastic to be walking alongside, to help and be helped by. What is particularly noticeable is that an awful lot of “normal life” has got squeezed out. I’m hugely enjoying the reading, writing, thinking, reflecting… but I also used to […]

Well, the exiting news from the household is that I have been recommended for ordination training in the Church of England! I have felt that God was calling me to ordained ministry for many years. It has been a long and, at times, quite difficult journey. The process of discernment is long and thorough, and deeply searching. Those who were with me 8 years ago will know that this is not the first time that I have been an ordinand (i.e. someone preparing for ordination), but for various reasons we had with withdraw from the process last time. If I’m […]

There’s been a couple of quite interesting posts by Bishops recently on the changing nature of the clergy in the Church of England, and I wanted to bookmark the links, as it can be horrendous finding these things again! First is by Tim Thorton (Bishop of Truro) on Shaping Vicars – http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/views/shaping-vicars. Second is by Stephen Croft (Bishop of Sheffield) on Self-Supporting Ministry – http://bishopofsheffield.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/generosity-humility-liminality-new.html

Wow – not blogged for ever. Been so busy recently, and I think my all out assault on the Times Crossword has sucked up more of my time than I realised it had. Anyway, about to go to bed, so no time for a long one, but I wanted to at least put down a couple of markers. First of all, a Twitterless Lent. It wasn’t actually too hard, in the end, although I had removed the shortcuts off my mobile devices, which I’m sure helped. The interesting thing was how out I touch I felt with what was “Going […]