From here on in go to http://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/ for the full blogging experience

8 Aug 2007

Conversations with a heretic - A recent podcast for your delectation

6 Aug 2007

Some more bicycle photos

6 Aug 2007

On the evening of Tuesday 12 June twenty-five members of the church met to discuss our church’s core religious identity. This question has become pressing in the light of various events which I have brought to your attention in the last few editions of the newsletter (pdf copies of these can be accessed at the church’s website or just ask me for hard copies). The discussion was well informed and lively and the feeling of the meeting was unanimous; namely that we should, in the words of our Chair David Rooney, “take a clear stand on the firm basis of our non-dogmatic liberal Christian heritage.”

20 Jul 2007

I've been reading Alasdair MacIntyre's "After Virtue" (2nd Edition 1985) (2006: London, Duckworth Press) the last couple of weeks. He seems to have said something very important that liberal relgious folk need to be exploring - especially since we are clearly a group of people who have lost a sense of "man-as-he-should-be-if-he-realized-his-essential-nature" in the crazy headlong rush towards an unthinking and unrooted individualism.

1 Jul 2007

I've just spent my time off this week in a frenzy of bicycle maintainance. That last ride made me realise everything needed stripping down and regreasing. It is always a great pleasure to do this even though I have to spend the week with rather blackened hands - hardly ministerial I once thought. I used to worry about this for a time but gave up - keeping my bicycles in good order is one way I can help save the planet and if that involves dirt under the fingernails then so be it. Sometimes I think the best religions are those with a little bit of dirt under the fingernails - at least it shows that the tradition has rolled up its sleeves and got dirty in the work of service.

23 Jun 2007

I love the bicycle – I love the history of its development as well as its social history. The story of the Clarion Cycling Clubs, for example, is fascinating with its commingling of cycling and socialism. It is also the ‘place’ (the saddle that is!) where I can best think about life the universe and everything. One of the things I have realised on the bike is pertinent to some of my recent blogs . . .

8 Jun 2007

“Sir Cam”, a friend of the church from various creative and enjoyable Muslim/Christian meetings, spun by the church a few days ago and took some photos of the church, me and our knitted blue church mouse “Blume.” You can take a look at them at Sir Cam’s site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/camdiary/

5 Jun 2007

My own reply to Stephen Lingwood's email

24 May 2007

A reply to my recent blog from Stephen Lingwood: "In regard to your entry beginning 'This, then, is my dilemma' I have a few thoughts that I wanted to share. (I'm also posting this on my blog http://reigniteuk.blogspot.com/)."

24 May 2007

“If the way I have shown to lead to these things now seems very hard, still, it can be found. And of course what is found so rarely must be hard. For if salvation were at hand, and could be found without great effort, how could nearly everyone neglect it? But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare” (Spinoza, B., Ethics, in Curley, E., A Spinoza Reader, Princeton, 1994, p. 265).

21 May 2007

This, then, is my dilemma – I minister to a church community that has inherited the name Unitarian and that name now means at least two very different things. I want to display to you what I think are its beautiful and historically true qualities but I also need to let you know that this same name is also being used to present a very different religion from the one I preach here and try my best to practise.

21 May 2007

Two Unitarian & Free Christian Prayer Books

29 Apr 2007

What Unitarians Believe - A short pamphlet by Dorothy Tarrant

28 Apr 2007

The contemporary relevance of the work of former Cambridge Unitarian and Free Christian ministers along with three useful texts

28 Apr 2007

What is to be done?

25 Apr 2007

A further thought on the previous post

21 Mar 2007

Unitarian or not? You decide

21 Mar 2007

A quick spin on the fixed to the Queen's Head in Newton - Heaven!

10 Mar 2007

Ecology, Nagel, Truth, a bit of Spring and a visit to a fantastic tea room and labyrinth in Saffron Walden . . .

5 Mar 2007

A dangerous kind of contemporary "Unitarianism" - and one to be avoided at all costs

1 Mar 2007

Jazz - the other half of my life

26 Feb 2007

A Liberal Threefold Cord - A Visit to Northern Ireland

22 Feb 2007

The Unicity of Existence - Wahdat al Wujud

15 Feb 2007

A further thought on religion, economics and ecology

15 Feb 2007

Northern Ireland, Ecology and Religion, Arne Naess and a chat with a Sheikh

13 Feb 2007

Religion, economics, business and ecology

4 Feb 2007

The Idea of the Kingdom of God

26 Jan 2007

Why the RC request for exemption from the Equality Act should be challenged.

24 Jan 2007

A musical link for you

22 Jan 2007

Muslim Christian relations - at table

22 Jan 2007

Further thoughts on liberal commitment, covenants and bonds of union

18 Jan 2007

Liberals and Commitment

17 Jan 2007

Welcome

15 Jan 2007