Archie Catchpole
What we can learn about evil from the demon-possessed man and all those pigs in Mark 5
Mark 5:1-20 should be a happy story, given that Jesus deposes a demon and saves a man's life. But it's not. It's unsettling (and not only because pigs die). It exposes the ugly reality of evil â especially as Jesus expels it.
My experience of graduating into a Covid world
Graduating has seldom been easy. Jobs are hard to come by and the safety of studenthood dissipates almost immediately. Imagine graduating into a world near-paralysed by a pandemic.
Britain is still a Christian country? Why I'm not so excited
It is good news though, right? Christianity isn't as socially irrelevant as some glum folk claim. I wish that I could agree with this comforting conclusion. Sadly, I find myself fearing a far more unsettling reality.
The Church needs its prophetic imagination â now as much as ever
The Old Testament prophets possessed a prophetic imagination that refused to accept things as they were and sought to render them as they should be. Creation could do with some of that prophetic imagination right now
We can be angry with Trump and his Bible stunt, but we must be more angry that another black man has been unjustly killed
I have seen more Christians condemn Trump's use of the Bible for a political powerplay than they have Derek Chauvin's use of excessive force that killed George Floyd.
What the coronavirus pandemic feels like for a theology student
Maybe the resources are scarcer and the challenge is greater, but if we are students then it is our duty to do just that: study - however strange the backdrop.
What Simeon and Anna can teach us about effective witnessing
We might need to clean up our act if we want people to take our testimony seriously.
An alternative arrival: learning from Palm Sunday at Advent
For all the nativity's yuletide dominance, the quirks of the Anglican Second Service lectionary nudged a different arrival story onto centre stage on the First Sunday of Advent: Jesus's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.
We need to have a Word
In our eagerness to make ourselves heard, we continue (with most of Church history) to forget that Scripture asks only that we proclaim and obey it.
Theology might disappear, but it cannot die
Considering that the Word of the Lord endures forever, God is not going to stop speaking. Neither do I think that we will stop responding simply because one subject has disappeared from university education.
Eugene Peterson beyond The Message - poet, pastor, prophet
Although The Message may be his most remembered work, the real legacy that Peterson leaves behind is as poet, pastor, and prophet.
When it's not OK to not be OK
On a very personal level, one of the best things we can do is to educate ourselves.
'Are those donuts free?' and other meaningful Spring Harvest questions
Masses upon masses descend upon Spring Harvest each year for one thing and one thing only: the exhibition tent.
Exegesis and #MeToo: The unlikely combo primed for a positive impact
Let's face it, theology and cutting-edge social movements fighting sexual harassment seem to be worlds apart.
Reflections on resignations: God is still good
Even if our insatiable desire for gossip finds this infuriating, a lot of the time we don't know many details about these incidents. Nor do we necessarily need to.
After the cross: Reconciliatory mediation, the continuing work of Christ
We can focus so much on what Jesus once did for us that we forget who he still is for us.