Congregations

Seeing is believing… (John 20:19-31) The scientific method is based on the belief that we can only know what we can verify with our senses. Sensory data comes to us and we form hypotheses to explain what we have experienced. Convictions we hold about the world that cannot be verified in this way are relegated […]

Redemption Redemption is a word that originally came from the context of hostage-taking and kidnapping. To redeem someone is to pay a ransom that they could not pay themselves. How can such a concept relate to Christ’s act of life and death on Golgotha? In an age that imagined the spiritual world far more concretely

The grave of hope The English language contains a paradox, where to grieve and to have a grievance come from the same word, but have very different meanings. To have a grievance means to be defined by our loss, and to be in search of redress. To grieve means waiting tenderly while our loss takes

‘Let him who is without sin be the first to cast a stone.’ (John 8). One thing that stood out during our weekend conference on the Holy Land was Ilse Wellershof-Schuur’s ability to embrace multiple viewpoints. She helped us to see that this is the only way we can imagine a future in the troubled

The valley of the shadow… The Lord – who speaks the ‘I’ within me – He is my shepherd.I shall lack nothing.He lets me rest on green pastures;He leads me to the stream of life;He restores my soul.He lets me walk on the path of truthfulnessin the all-wielding power of his ‘I’.And – though I

The Sign of Jonah When the crowds were increasing, Jesus said: ‘This generation is alienated from the spirit; it seeks for a sign of the spirit, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of

Transfiguration: an imagination .. and from the altar there flowed golden ribbons that wound round about us and connected us: the stranger in his dull overcoat; the old lady counting her money for the collection; my best friend with whom I was quarrelling. All were joined in a great web of gold. And gradually I