Feb 20, 2025 | Global Focus, QPUpdate
Global Focus Weekend It’s the best-known verse in the bible, John 3:16: “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son…” It tells us that God’s love is immeasurable and indiscriminate: he loves the whole of humanity in all our variegated glory. He is...
Feb 13, 2025 | QPUpdate, The Way of Jesus
There have been any number of viruses knocking many of us for six this winter. Nevertheless, one abiding infection continues to make Western societies sick. It is a condition named by psychologist Oliver James as “Affluenza”. He diagnoses the affluenza virus as: “The...
Feb 6, 2025 | QPUpdate, The Way of Jesus
Nowhere does following Jesus feel more counter-cultural than when it comes to sexual ethics. In a hook-up, casual-sex culture Jesus holds up an ethic of intimacy which protects and honours faithful, committed relationships between a husband and wife. It is an ethic...
Jan 29, 2025 | QPUpdate, The Way of Jesus
Electricity and I have not always been the best of friends. I have, mainly through my own stupidity, given myself several electrical shocks. One which stands out in my memory – yes there is more than one – was when I set up my brother’s keyboard at church. The plug...
Jan 16, 2025 | QPUpdate, The Way of Jesus
As religious practice appears to freefall in the UK, interest in Jesus and Christianity is on the rise. Take Russell Brand’s 2024 baptism for instance and his meandering reflections on faith amongst his many online followers. To my point, Brand recently joined forces...
Dec 19, 2024 | Christmas, QPUpdate
If you’ve ever been in the car on a journey with kids, you may be familiar with that phrase. Children are generally not known for their patience; it’s a trait we learn and develop over time (hopefully!) Advent, that stretch of time, when we wait and prepare for...
Dec 12, 2024 | Christmas, QPUpdate
I am not usually an aficionado of Christmas adverts. However, this year, I found myself irresistibly drawn to “Loganair actually” the Scottish airline’s offering. The images in the first frames of their compilation of Christmas journeys were curiously familiar. Where...
Dec 5, 2024 | Christmas, QPUpdate
Mary, did you know that you would be misrepresented, misunderstood and overlooked for most of Christian history? Whether we’ve shrouded you in plaster-cast superstition or cancelled you out as nothing more than a convenient womb for the incarnation, I suspect we...
Nov 28, 2024 | Christmas, QPUpdate
Did you know that one of the Christmas songs we will no doubt sing this season has a link to Paisley? In recent years we have at Christmas time sung the song Adore which was written by Martin Chalk and Graham Kendrick. Martin, who now lives in South Carolina, grew up...
