Category Archives: Reflection

Beginning Public Ministry in a Liminal Time

Posted on July 2, 2020 by Gerry Lynch

Hundreds of people who should have been ending a long road to ordained ministry this week have instead been commissioned as lay ministers via videoconference. Can this experience of liminality help us serve God by helping midwife the new life he and the world seek? Continue reading →

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The Mosque of Bohoniki

Posted on June 17, 2019 by Gerry Lynch

The mosque at Bohoniki is one of the last places of worship of the Lipka Tatar community which still survives as it has since the late 14th Century in what are now the borderlands Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus. The mosque … Continue reading →

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The Bright Field

Posted on May 21, 2019 by Gerry Lynch

Late on a summer evening, as I took photos from the summit of Divis (478m above sea level) the highest of the Belfast Hills towards Lough Neagh, suddenly a shaft of sunlight broke through and illuminated the fields on top … Continue reading →

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Blogging Staggers Day One: Praying With the Lepers

Posted on September 30, 2018 by Gerry Lynch

The Bartlemas Chapel – a name that sounds like something out of Dickens, and the chapel felt like something from a disappeared world as well. A few hundred metres down a laneway from the noise and bustle of the Cowley … Continue reading →

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Presbyterians, Salvation, and God

Posted on June 9, 2018 by Gerry Lynch

Cross-posted at Slugger O’Toole. We cremated my friend James on the freakishly warm Friday before St Patrick’s Day, between the two bouts of even freakier snow. We did this after a celebration of the Supper of the Lord Jesus Christ … Continue reading →

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God in the West: the New Atheism and Its Discontents

Posted on December 6, 2016 by Gerry Lynch

My Address to the Bournemouth William Temple Association, 5th December 2016      Thank you for inviting me to speak at a meeting of the William Temple Association. Temple has long been a man I have admired. Indeed, he is … Continue reading →

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Sermon Preached at St James’ Church Alderholt on Sunday 3 May 2015 (Easter 5)

Posted on May 3, 2015 by Gerry Lynch

Readings – John 15:1-8; Acts 8:26-40. Pruning doesn’t seem like a very pleasant process for whomever is being pruned. It carries connotations of being taken down to size, perhaps of having one’s wings clipped. Christ says in today’s Gospel that … Continue reading →

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Lent

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Gerry Lynch

What am I giving up for Lent? I’m going to try giving up cynicism and unhappiness. Cynicism is worn as a badge of maturity in 2010s Britain. To dare to be optimistic, to dare to hope, is a sign of … Continue reading →

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