Sheila Bridge Blog
Okay so this blog post will go some way to make up for the previous one! This year for Advent in church I constructed an advent calendar with just four windows: one for each Sunday of Advent. The front of the calendar was plain black - deliberately so. I wanted it to look as unadorned and... Continue Reading →
Okay so this might not sound too seasonally cheerful... but I've been thinking about the Christmas stories and how in so many encounters in these stories, the participants are told "do not be afraid". But there is one story in which the chief participant, Mary, might well have expected to hear those words and they... Continue Reading →
You know you are in Ireland ... when there are more Protestant churches than eating places... or perhaps we just got hungry in a particularly fervent part of Belfast? When the first thing you see when you step out of terminal one in Dublin is a large church tower in the middle of the car... Continue Reading →
Travel Light. You need much less than you think. Alternatives can always be found for those things you deem so necessary. For example, the swimming costume I sent home on the morning of the afternoon I finally had a chance to go wild swimming. It turns out that swimming in your undies works perfectly well. Nobody was there... Continue Reading →
When you have defended yourself for a long time against discouragement, despair, disappointment and doubt you assume the defensive posture of someone who is only afraid of more of the above and certainly not hopeful of alternative experiences such as joy, peace, fun and hope. When you’ve battled through so much you can actually get... Continue Reading →
This wonderful Easter reflection (used with permission) is by my friend Wendy Bray, a priest and author who lives with terminal cancer. She is also quoting Debie Thomas For anyone who finds Easter hard because it seems to be all about sunshine and brightness and life -all-sorted, this might be helpful for you. Happy Easter. (... Continue Reading →
I’m not sure if that title is entirely theologically correct and I’m happy to engage in conversation with anyone who disagrees with me. It was prompted by a typo in a caption my friend gave to a photo of his boys dressed as waiters. They had just made their mum Sunday lunch for Mother’s Day... Continue Reading →
A 14-year-old boy called Walker whose heart is breaking prays and the next day Jesus turns up in his bedroom, long flowing robes, sandals and all. This short story/poem is absolutely amazing. The Jesus we meet is the Jesus I'd like everyone to meet. I often ask people to read one of the gospels to... Continue Reading →
No plot spoilers This is an awesome film, I loved it. Set in 1962, a very refined black American piano virtuoso hires an ignorantly racist Italian nightclub bouncer from the Bronx to be his driver on a two month concert tour of the deep South. It's hardly surprising that he needs more than a... Continue Reading →
What a joy to come across this is utterly wonderful CD of 20 recordings: some are songs, some are poems, with and without music in the background, some are funny ('Perfect Fit' and 'Somewhere in the Library'), some are heart-breakingly sad ('Breakages') but all of them have hope and all of them are clever and... Continue Reading →
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