Reflections and Stories

Challenge Accepted!

30 Apr 2019

As a teenager, whenever someone uttered those dreaded words, “I challenge you to…”, I could never resist attempting straightaway whatever it was that ended the sentence. As a result I wouldn’t normally recommend jumping into something so quickly, but as part of...

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A Community Divided?

21 Mar 2019

Speaking as someone who has grown up in the Methodist tradition and still proudly calls themselves a Methodist, recent events at the United Methodist Church General Conference (UMCGC) have saddened me deeply. For those of you who aren’t clued up on Methodism, ie. most people, the United...

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Carving Out Christian Community

20 Mar 2019
How do you participate in a Christian community when you cannot attend church due to health issues? This was the painful predicament I found myself in several years ago, when a shift in my mental stability meant that attending church became challenging and, at times, even dangerous. I do not...
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Community In Action

14 Mar 2019

I will never forget the moment that I knew I wanted to become a Church Related Community Worker (CRCW) with the United Reformed Church. Community work has always been a big part of my life. In the village where I used to live, teach and worship, I organised Messy Church sessions, set up Guiding...

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Celebrating Community in Lent

14 Mar 2019
I have successfully celebrated Lent one time in my life, and I look back on it with a mixture of horror and laughter; I would really prefer to never again go 40 days drinking only water! It was a valiant effort tied with a charity fundraiser, and I’m impressed I accomplished it. However, the...
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Methodist and Proud

6 Mar 2019

I am a Methodist. I love the Methodist Church, and one of the things I most value about being a Methodist is our connexionalism - the idea that we are all interdependent. Despite the fact that the Methodist Church in Britain is not a...

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On A Journey

28 Feb 2019

When I was given the choice to either remain in Malaysia or come to the UK to pursue my postgraduate studies, I faced a really difficult decision. Standing at the crossroads I had to choose between staying where I had a good solid thing going on, or stepping out of my comfort zone towards a new...

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Why My Path to Prayer Is More of a Long and Winding Road

28 Feb 2019

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is reported to have at least once uttered the words, “I am far too busy to pray for less than two hours a day.” While I am in no position to confirm if this is still the case for the Most Rev. Tutu, I have little hesitation in admitting that this is not the situation that...

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Lesbian Love as Vocation: My Journey as a Roman Catholic Lesbian

27 Feb 2019

I cannot tell you the moment I decided to first identify as or tell people that I am a lesbian, but I distinctly remember the moment I “realised” I was called to love women as well as men (or so I thought. This later turned out to be “rather than men”!). For a lot of people such an epiphany...

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Learning To Be My Whole Self

20 Feb 2019

I’ve been a Christian for as long as I can remember. In late 2014 I figured out I was part of the LGBT+ community, too. For a long time, especially whilst I was still figuring out exactly who I was, these two identities were very much separated in my mind. Having grown up in a traditional Church...

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