Forest Row

Icon and idol God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)In the 8th and 9th centuries, the Greek Orthodox world was shaken to its foundations by disputes over the use of icons. Great treasures of early Christianity were lost as angry mobs destroyed the images of saints […]

How we behold each other There is a wonderful story, The Rabbi’s Gift, quoted by Scott Peck in his book A Different Drum, about the abbot and the rabbi, two old friends who have known each other for many years. When the abbot visits the rabbi in despair because his monastery is about to be

Victory over the world One of the greatest artistic creations known to humanity is the winged Nike – the Victory of Samothrace. Although scholars cannot date the statue, it seems likely that it was erected as a thanks-offering after a great victory. This makes its form and its effect on us all the more remarkable.

‘No-one comes to the Father except through me’ (John 14:6) At first sight, these words in John 14 can be off-putting, embodying a kind of Christian exclusivism. There is another way of looking at them, which leads to a different conclusion. This takes as its starting point a question: which human beings’ lives show evidence

The life of God “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you

Learning to love Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. Matthew 26:37-40

The good shepherd (John 10) I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John 10:11 As part of their Ordination, priests in The Christian Community receive an anointing with oil. As the oil is placed on the crown of their head, they are told that the Spirit-God will

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