Common Word follow-through

The Archbishop of Canterbury has today issued a very positive and detailed response to the 'Common Word' document issued recently by Muslim scholars, affirming the initiative and the grounds on which further dialogue should be pursued. A .pdf for the document is available for download with the title 'A Common Word for the Common Good'

Interfaith dialogue initiative

The Archbishop of Canterbury has assembled an international and ecumenical group of Christian theologians to discuss ways in which engagement in dialogue between Christians and Muslims might be strengthened. Read about it here

This is response to an historic open letter issued last year by the most comprehensive international group of Muslim Theologians ever to have deliberated together inviting dialogue with Christians on the subject of the great twofold love commandments. This was a follow up to a letter written to Pope Benedict after he had made some contentious remarks in a lecutre about Christinity and Islam a year ago.

A Jordanian website : www.acommonword.com gives an account of the work of the Muslim theologians, and a list of contributors.

The communications revolution

From St John's City Parish Church Cardiff, the sixth and final in a series of talks for Lent, given on Fridays and repeated on Sunday evenings

An examination of the positive and negative impacts of the growth of mobile phone and internet technologies, the challenges and opportunities presented for faith in the future.

The podcast is here

The pdf text file can be downloaded here

What have we done with the world we inherited?

From St John's City Parish Church Cardiff, the fifth of a series of talks for Lent, given on Fridays and repeated on Sunday evenings

An examination environmental changes and the challenge of responding to planetary crisis, that can unite all people of faith and science in common cause.

The podcast is here

The pdf text file can be downloaded here

The exodus from the churches

From St John's City Parish Church Cardiff, the fourth of a series of talks for Lent, given on Fridays and repeated on Sunday evenings

An examination of changes in the way collective acts of worship have ceased to be a priority for the majority of people over the past century.

The podcast is here

The pdf text file can be downloaded here

Lenten talks podcasted - BBC interview

BBC Radio Wales interviewed the author on its weekly technology program 'Mousemat' broadcasted on 17th February 2008.

You can listen to the interview here

The changing role of religion in society

Last week's Church Tines offered a helpful summary by Prof. Grace Davie of her other work on the role of 'vicarious religion', as expounded in her publications over the past five years.

You can read it here

War, peace, justice, freedom

From St John's City Parish Church Cardiff, the third of a series of talks for Lent, given on Fridays and repeated on Sunday evenings

A first look at the challenges facing the world in which we live, the resources and the opportunities these offer to bring human beings into closer collaboration to secure our future.

The podcast is here

The pdf text file can be downloaded here

Radical Orthodoxy - Believing in Science

This is the sixth and final lecture in a series for Cardiff Adult Christian Education Centre, given by the Ven. David S Lee, former Archdeacon of Llandaff. It explores the relationship between religious belief and scientific practice in the lives of Galileo Galilei, Charles Darwin, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

You can download the pdf of the text here

Theological insights in a Godless world -
Observations for further discussion, from a review of the lecture series

You can download here

Who do you think you are?

From St John's City Parish Church Cardiff, the second of a series of talks for Lent, given on Fridays and repeated on Sunday evenings

Looking at questions of identity and faith in the light of a world-view shaped by the extraordinarily formative cultural phenomenon which is the Bible.

The podcast is here

The pdf text file can be downloaded here

Radical Orthodoxy - The Jesus story

This is the fifth in a series of lectures for Cardiff Adult Christian Education Centre, given by the Ven. David S Lee, former Archdeacon of Llandaff. It examines the central place of story telling in the evolution of religion, and the influence of the story of Jesus has had and still may have in post-modern society.

You can download the pdf of the text here

Generations of Change

From St John's City Parish Church Cardiff, the first of a series of talks for Lent, given on Fridays and repeated on Sunday evenings

A birds eye view of the past two centuries of social change, and the impact this has had on people's religious behaviour and their faith.

The podcast is here

The pdf text file can be downloaded here

Radical Orthodoxy - The Welkin Rings

This is the fourth in a series of lectures for Cardiff Adult Christian Education Centre, given by the Ven. David S Lee, former Archdeacon of Llandaff. It discusses the way in which the content of traditional hymns can be subject to revision and editing by subsequent generations, not only modifying words that have lost their currency, but ideas that are no longer deemed acceptable. A tendency that is both liberal and secularising.

You can download the pdf of the text here

Radical Orthodoxy - The God of Israel

This is the third in a series of lectures for Cardiff Adult Christian Education Centre, given by the Ven. David S Lee, former Archdeacon of Llandaff. It explores the variety of images and portrayals of God in the Jewish scriptures.

You can download the pdf of the text here

What is evangelisation?

A long essay from Enzo Bianchi, founder of the Ecumenical Benedictine community of Bose in the Piedmont, Northern Italy. He analyses the social and cultural characteristics of post-modern secular society, and from a strong post Vatican II traditional description of the nature and purpose of evangelisation, proceeds to explore how it needs to be practiced in post-modern secular culture.
The English version of a French translation of the original Italian, you can download here

Radical Orthodoxy - The Lych Gate

This is the second in a series of lectures for Cardiff Adult Christian Education Centre, given by the Ven. David S Lee, former Archdeacon of Llandaff. It charts the spread of secularity over the past two centuries.

You can download the pdf of the text here

Spirituality evolving

A paper on 21st Century Spirituality from Tom Arthur, Minister of City United Reformed Church Cardiff.

Download it here

Radical Orthodoxy - Believing in Industry

This is the first in a series of lectures for Cardiff Adult Christian Education Centre, given by the Ven. David S Lee, former Archdeacon of Llandaff. It examines the mind-set of people in the context of modern industrial life, in which there is no room for God, or conventional piety in the everyday discourse of the work-place. A case study in contemporary secularity.

You can download the pdf of the text here