Musings on faith and real life
Most of the time churches are friendly, kind places where people can grow in trust because they are supportive. However, as thinking about safeguarding has developed over the past few decades, and churches have had to come to the humbling realisation that abuse of many kinds goes on in their congregations, the category of spiritual […]
Read More
For those who have been significantly traumatised it is important that churches are non-shaming environments. Memories of traumatic events can leave any of us feeling deep shame for not being able to avoid or protect oneself from what happened. However, creating church cultures which do not reinforce shame often has a long way to go. […]
Read More
My training as a cross-cultural mission partner taught me that there are many ways to talk of the gospel. The book of Acts shows St Paul adjusting his message depending on who he was talking to. For Jews he spoke of their history (Acts 13); for the Greek philosophers he uses their altar to the […]
Read MoreWe know Jesus’s death on the Cross helps with guilt. But how does it help with shame? Artwork by my friend John Elson helps me explain in this video:
Read More
Let’s imagine what happens if we try to help someone suffering from shame by using our usual method of explaining Jesus’s death. Rebecca: Oh hi Sarah – how brilliant to see you! How long is it since I last saw you? About a year? It was last Easter wasn’t it? Sarah: Yes, and it’s been a pretty rubbish year, too. Rebecca: Oh no, what’s happened? Sarah: […]
Read More
So many times at the drop-in we run in the church where I volunteer I have been talking to someone who is caught in an impossible cycle. They were abused as children, which continues to give them mental health problems. Because of the mental health problems they can’t get work. Because they can’t get work […]
Read More
As they sat in the front seats of the parked car, Judith know that her mother was about to launch into one of her rants about Judith’s recent gain in weight. But on this occasion, things turned out differently. An enormous Lion stepped into the space between Judith and her mother, and as her mother […]
Read More
A candle in my treehouse 