Author: Henry Morgan
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15. When do I worship?
May 2015 I was recently in a church for an act of worship with a small congregation, and I found myself wondering ‘At what point does this act of worship begin? And when does it end?’ Does it begin with the words of the opening prayer? Does it end with the Blessing? I wonder. Is worship…
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14. Fatherhood
April 2015 A little over a year ago my wife and I were blessed with twins. Now we have four daughters, and I am surprised at the depth of emotion each of them evokes in me. Whereas once I scarcely felt I had enough love for just me, I now have love for five. I…
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13. Meeting Eve
April 2015 Last week my step son, his wife and their two children came to stay with us. Their eldest child is a little boy of rising three who talks incessantly and bustles about with great energy and curiosity. His sister is only a couple of months old, so she sleeps a lot, waking to…
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12. The Spirituality of Jesus can be ours too
February 2015 I sense that all of the above is important because these elements of Jesus spirituality are potentially ours too. We don’t need a complicated system of teaching in order to grow as people and in relationship to God. All we need to do is the follow Jesus’ example. [1] We all stand in a…
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11. The Spirituality of Jesus
February 2015 I have been wondering about the spirituality of Jesus, and how I might describe it. Nowhere in the Gospels is it described directly, so I need to try and infer it from what we know. There seem to me to be at least several recognisable elements. [1] Jesus clearly stands within a tradition [see my…
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10. Did Jesus have a spiritual director?
January 2015 You might think of John the Baptist? Tradition talks of them as cousins, and the Gospel assumes that they were ‘family’. But John does seem to have had his doubts about Jesus [Luke 7:18-23] which perhaps casts doubt on their having this sort of relationship? Mary and Joseph seem more likely candidates. Its difficult…
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9. What is spiritual direction?
January 2015 Classically it is understood as a conversation between two people in which one helps the other to recognise God’s presence in their life, and then supports them in responding to it. Today that tends to be a matter of regular meetings every couple of months. But I’m sure that most spiritual direction doesn’t…
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8. Keeping Sabbath
November 2014 I met up with my friend Mary this week at Stixwould. She’s a retired Anglican priest with a spirituality earthed in the everyday, and she was telling me about the way she keeps Sabbath. I found it very interesting, and with her permission I share below two pieces from her blog on the…
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7. The challenge of the new
November 2014 I draw a number of conclusions from all this: 1] Most of the above take place outside the structures of the institutional churches. 2] They incarnate a face of God other than that incarnated by the church. 3] They often involve men and women of deep faith taking risks, stepping out into the…
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6. What is God doing?
November 2014 My ministry means that I listen to people trying to hear and respond to what God is calling them to. Not altogether surprisingly there is a deal of common ground: God does not appear to be calling people in completely random directions. There are certain themes that emerge, and I begin to wonder…
