Faith Goes Walkabout – Page 18 – Thoughts and reflections

Was Moses a Super hero?

On September 7, 2014

In church seasons, pastoral, theological

Moses, leader of the Israelites, led the people out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, when the waters divided, so long in the desert, Moses found them water and manna and quails eggs, he brought down from the mountain the Ten Commandments written on stone, he had a staff which God gave to him and changed it from a snake, his staff did all sorts of wonderful things.

In fact, he was like a modern day Super hero, and I’m going to include, Super man, Batman, Gandalf, Professor Dumbledore, and….well there are many more.

In the story of Moses and the Burning Bush, Moses was quietly doing his work as a shepherd and was wandering in the desert.And there he saw the burning bush.

He could have chosen to walk away and not get involved, but he turned and spoke with God.

‘There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire, out of the burning bush’.

The bush. Moses noticed was burning and not going out.

And this next bit is crucial…
‘Then Moses said, ‘ I must turn aside and look as this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up.’

Moses in that few seconds had not ignored God and was going to listen.

What happens when super heroes and powerful people are ignored?
What about the people in the stories, can they just carry on with their lives just the same or do they need help and do they have to do something to make that help happen? Harry. Bilbo and Frodo?

More reflections in www.faithgoeswalkabout, on Sermon for 12th Sunday after Trinity.

Revd Sue Martin, Diocese of Norwich

Reading made Possible – spreading the word digiitally

By faithgoeswalkabout

On August 27, 2014

In community, Faith and business

Worldreader - books on Kindles and mobile phones...

Getting to grips with the text…anywhere!

World Reader and Cambridge University Press, South Africa (CUP SA) are working in partnership on e-readers and mobile phones.

This means that anyone with a phone (non smart phone), in South Africa, can now access books through the World Reader app, which is hosted on the cloud based mobile application platform BiNu. This enables phones, such as Nokia which are widely used across the continent of Africa, to be used as reading devices.

Wow!!

This is amazing news for literacy and for all who are working to make reading a possibility for everyone across the world.

Niall McNulty, digital publisher at CUP SA, described the development as ‘genius’.

‘A recent report by UNESCO, Reading in the mobile era: A study of mobile reading in developing countries, highlights the importance of using mobile devices to encourage a culture of reading by providing access to books to people who previously had none.’ Â African Branch of Cambridge University Press, 11.8.14

Last year, World Reader had 330,000 monthly active users, reading 650,000 books on mobile phones.

CUP has made 360 e-books available via the app, including titles from the Cambridge African Language Library which is a primary reading series.

SmithMartin Partnership are excited at this development and all that it may mean for future readers. We are working with World Reader in a smaller way, through our Books Go Walkabout project to support e-reading and literacy.

The way ahead for future readers!

Sue Martin

Books Go Walkabout & Dolphin Booksellers, part of SmithMartin Partnership LLP

Robin Williams by his daughter Zelda

By faithgoeswalkabout

On August 15, 2014

In pastoral

Robin Williams as Peter Pan in Hook – forever an inspiration and joy.

“My family has always been private about our time spent together. It was our way of keeping one thing that was ours, with a man we shared with an entire world. But now that’s gone, and I feel stripped bare. My last day with him was his birthday, and I will be forever grateful that my brothers and I got to spend that time alone with him, sharing gifts and laughter.

He was always warm, even in his darkest moments. While I’ll never, ever understand how he could be loved so deeply and not find it in his heart to stay, there’s minor comfort in knowing our grief and loss, in some small way, is shared with millions. It doesn’t help the pain, but at least it’s a burden countless others now know we carry, and so many have offered to help lighten the load. Thank you for that.

To those he touched who are sending kind words, know that one of his favorite things in the world was to make you all laugh. As for those who are sending negativity, know that some small, giggling part of him is sending a flock of pigeons to your house to poop on your car. Right after you’ve had it washed. After all, he loved to laugh too…

Dad was, is and always will be one of the kindest, most generous, gentlest souls I’ve ever known, and while there are few things I know for certain right now, one of them is that not just my world, but the entire world is forever a little darker, less colorful and less full of laughter in his absence. We’ll just have to work twice as hard to fill it back up again.”

Zelda Williams

Revd Sue Martin – Faithgoeswalkabout

The Mustard Seed

By faithgoeswalkabout

On July 27, 2014

In church seasons, theological

The Mustard Seed

Sixth Sunday after Trinity July 27th 2014

Readings Matthew 13: 31 – 35, 41 – 52. Romans 8

The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.

A mustard seed so tiny and innocuous , but it has an intelligence to become a large plant in a year, to spread and to grow and to produce beautiful flowers.

How though can the kingdom of God be like a mustard seed?
No wonder that the disciples found it hard to follow, a country, a world, a universe like a mustard seed?

The world is a pretty big place. The vastness of the oceans, the great continents and land masses, no-one could say that our world is small. And the universe, well there is something that is so vast it the size is beyond our comprehension.

But is that really so?

To find out more go to Sermons on Faith Goes Walkabout.

Rev’d Sue Martin

Hope for the Future

By faithgoeswalkabout

On July 6, 2014

In community, pastoral, Uncategorized

hope Across the world, women and girls who are caught up in political battles, in the name of religion.

They are kidnapped, held hostage, taken away from their families and living in impossible situations.

Where is the logic that girls are not allowed to have an education? How does it work for anyone not to allow their daughter to be able to read? Let alone being unable to marry a person of their choice or unable to walk without a chaperone.

In so many ways we value our freedom in the UK and that equality issues are not so basic and so dire as in many places, not saying however, that suffering by girls is not taking place in the UK.

Fear can work in so many ways, faith does not use fear as a justification.

The Road….

By faithgoeswalkabout

On July 6, 2014

In theological

road to Carmelit convent

The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet,

And whither then? I cannot say

From Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien

Community Energy Projects

By faithgoeswalkabout

On June 24, 2014

In Uncategorized

Midsummer and a far cry from the dark days of a northern winter. So maybe not the best time to think about energy and energy savings, but when we heard about community and energy we began to sit up from our sun loungers( only joking!) and start thinking about how communities in all shapes and sizes can take more control over their energy sources and become more efficient.

There are many benefits, the most obvious being coming together as a group to make savings and to use the knowledge and skills of many people to benefit the whole community.

There are now moves to work with, for examples, Parish Councils to engage with their community and become the mover of a community energy project. The team at Community Pathways have a great source of documents to support and develop the projects.

In our partnership, we work with people and community organisations to deliver benefits to the community.

We see the potential impact of these projects in a number of ways; using volunteers, bringing together expertise in skills and knowledge, using local business and groups, working with people across age groups and across family involvements.

There is nothing like making a saving to ensure that people will become active. And this way it can be the community that will be the real winner.

Sue Martin FRSA- SmithMartin Partnership LLP

The Longest Day

By faithgoeswalkabout

On June 24, 2014

In church seasons, pastoral, theological

This was the view from home on June 21st 2014 at 21.25,just as the sun disappeared over the horizon. The longest day was coming to an end and it wasn’t over yet as the daylight and twilight continued until well past 22.00.

What an amazing experience and wonderful to have so much sunshine on the longest day.

Most of the information available relates to the Summer Solstice and to the druids at Stonehenge, rather as if they were and still are the only ones who find this a special time.

Solstice’ literally means the stopping or standing still of the sun. It is used as a name for the longest day of the year – 21 June – when the sun is at its highest point in the northern hemisphere.
The sun reaches its highest position in the sky twice a year as seen from the north or south pole. This is when either hemisphere is tipped towards the sun more than on any other day of the year.
The day of the solstice has the longest period of sunlight in the calendar year (16 hours and 38 minutes in London). The only exception is in polar regions, where daylight can last for days or months.

Light is powerful, and that our relationship with our star, the sun, is crucial to our planet.

Being filled with light gives us hope and joy and a real lift to our souls.

Rev’d Sue Martin

D Day Landings 70th Anniversary

By faithgoeswalkabout

On June 8, 2014

In community, theological

A few days ago, we were sitting quietly in the office at Cambridge , when we heard the low rumbling of a plane. The noise of planes is not unusual but they usually come overhead with a jet engine roar or the quiet calmness of a Cessna 2 seater.

This plane was a Dakota, and as it flew overhead we couldn’t help but look out at the window and sense the memory of all that plane had seen 70 years ago.

What strikes me about all the commemorations about the D Day landings is the elderly men, now in wheelchairs or struggling to walk, but getting to that place in France, where as young men in their late teens and early twenties, they emerged from the boats into the seas, straight into the firing guns.
What courage! What strength! And what conviction?

And the 90 year old man who made his own way from his Care Home in Hove to get there, courage, strength and conviction.

This day that meant so much to the eventual end of the war. The joining of nations fighting in desperation for peace and for freedom.

The Four Freedoms Speech in 1941 as expressed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt were and still are fundamental for all people in the world.

Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Worship
Freedom from Want
Freedom from Fear

A time now to remember the people who gave their lives for those freedoms for us and a time to look forward to how we can still ensure that tyranny does not succeed and The Four Freedoms can still be our goal for all people.