Geoffrey Colmer's Blog (6)

One of the things that I struggled with as a minister of a local church, was keeping the distinctiveness of the different seasons of the church year. It felt that although we called it ‘Advent’, often it was simply Christmas come early. And the same was true of Holy Week. It was hard to resist the pull of proclaiming Christ crucified and risen from the outset of the week. However, I persevered, and while, at the Good Friday Walk of Witness, I could understand the need to express something… Continue

I included the following in my blog the other day but thought it was worth sharing with CBA Ministers as well. It happened in the context of our prayers as National Settlement Team and Regional Minister Team Leaders' Meeting: Over the three days we pray together and on Wednesday one of my colleagues, Phil, led us in a characteristically creative and inspired reflection. We thought about John 11 and the death and resurrection of Lazarus, and went on… Continue

This morning we held one of our theological reflection groups for newly accredited ministers. I look forward to these occasions as they are a good group of reflective practioners and invariably I come away enriched. Sometimes I will provide some input, or we will invite someone in to speak on an issue, but also the ministers themselves are invited to contribute a paper on an aspect that they are exploring or raise an issue for discussion. Today we thought about the 'advantages and drawbacks for… Continue

Just to let you know that I've recently begun my own blog, Wonder and Wondering, and you can find it here. I've been thinking about doing one for a long time, but CBA Ministers gave me the opportunity to dip my toes, and now I've begun. Take a visit and leave a comment. Continue

On Saturday I went to a workshop on Godly Play. It needs to be experienced to do it justice, but in short it is an imaginative way of telling Bible stories to children, using both play and structure and inviting a response in the form of 'wonderings'. A key premise is that a child is not a pot waiting to be filled - the pot is not empty and the task of the adult is to help find out what's inside. This is of a piece with the attitude shown by Jesus to children.

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Happy new year, or if that’s a bit late happy Epiphany!

Over the Christmas and new year I did a few of my favourite things: watched some films

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