Beckenham Baptist Church

  Thought for the Week: In her book, Music of Eternity – Meditations for Advent with Evelyn Underhill , spiritual director and retreat leader Robyn Wrigley-Carr explores the spirituality of this early 20 th Century writer and spiritual guide and writes of the presence of God as we embrace the coming of Jesus to earth and his continual coming to us every day. She says Underhill invites us to respond in worship as we adore God, seek to be humble, loving and forgiving and share the peace of Christ with others. Underhill writes, ‘The old mystics always insist that love and humility are sisters. As we learn about love, we seem to get smaller and smaller and the wonder of God to get greater and greater. The more we realise the fact of this love pouring out from the heart of God to draw all things… the deeper grows the love which is demanded from us in return’. As we once again remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, we thank God for his incredible act of love in giving his p...

  Dear Friends,  In his book ‘ Preparing for Christmas – Daily Meditations for Advent ’, the Franciscan priest and founder of the Centre for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Richard Rohr, reflects on the genealogy of Jesus at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel, and what he calls ‘the amazing thing of the deliberate inclusion of four foreign, non-Jewish women, of whom at least three were of easy virtue, or even public “sinners”’. In a piece entitled, ‘The Authority of Those Who have Suffered’, Rohr wonders why the gospel would risk such characters appearing in the list, concluding that ‘it clearly wanted to say that Jesus came from the ordinary, the human, the broken, the sinful suffering world, as all of us do. His birth accepted the full human condition, which becomes his first step toward the cross’. For Jesus, his authority is found in ‘the authenticity of his message and because of the transformative power of his journey through death to resurrection’....

  Dear Friends,  As you may be aware we are now the owners of a dog called Marlow, a cute fluffy Cavapoochon. One of the things that I’m discovering about owning a dog (and there are many things I’m discovering) is that he does like to come and sit next to me on the sofa, and when I say next to me, it is more like he is trying to sit on me, he is that close. The upside of course is that it is like having my own personal hot water bottle to keep me warm. In The Little Book of Advent , a collection of Bible readings, prayers and reflections for each day of Advent, in section called ‘God is near you’, David Adam who was the Vicar of Holy Island, Lindisfarne and published several books of prayers, reflected on Isaiah 43, where the Lord says, ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through the fire you shall not be burne...

Dear Friends,  For the Advent season this year I’m using again The Little Book of Advent , complied by Canon Arthur Howells, it is described as ‘an indispensable collection of readings from some of the most celebrated modern-day spiritual writers’ including Henri Nouwen, Kathy Galloway, Jane Williams and David Adam. In a reflection entitled ‘Be Still’ by Michael Stancliffe, a Church of England priest who was a canon of Westminster Abbey, a former chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, and Dean of Winchester, he reflects on the prophet Elijah’s encounter with the Lord on Mount Horeb where God met him, ‘not in the roaring of the wind, nor in the commotion and convulsion of the earthquake, nor in the terrible power of the fire – but in a still, small voice’, and as Stancliffe, describes, Elijah ‘had reached the still point at the centre’. He says, ‘For the still centre is the source of all life and power and might… ‘Be still and know that I am God’ (Psalm 46:10) … We are t...