The Sunday Refill – 7 Links for Your Weekend (24/1/21)

Seven up…

1) Every Moment Holy II – Very excited about the launch of the second EMH, providing delightful prayers for all manner of ‘everyday’ situations. You can see Kristyn Getty pray one of them, A Liturgy for Seasons of Uncertainty.

2) Are you underestimating your ordinary days? – Parenting is full of the mundane and monotonous, perhaps especially so in lockdown! We really appreciated how this piece celebrates the small things, and the Julie A.F. Carney poem that Liz Wann quotes is a gem!

3) We Have A New President — A Christian Response – After the Inauguration of Joe Biden in the States this week, I appreciated this from Scott Sauls, who always seems to have a timely and gracious word.

4) How to Speak about the Value of Life – Recently Lord Jonathan Sumption sparked controversy on the BBC1 programme, The Big Questions, by saying that not all lives are equally valuable. But when Piers Morgan tried to call out Sumption he then seemed to get into trickier waters himself. Glen Scrivener seeks to untangle the mess and reflects on how we speak of the value of life — both before God and in the face of difficult social choices.

5) Shame on the ‘four lads’ meme snobs – This is an interesting take on ‘classism’ in the UK.

6) ‘On Good Preaching’ – I don’t whether it’s because it’s January and maybe every minister is re-evaluating their preaching, but it felt like a whole bunch of articles and opinions came across my desk on preaching this week. For starters, Ian Paul asks, ‘What does good preaching actually look like?’ and then there was this on why preaching must be more than mere explanation. Not dissimilarly, Liam Goligher gave a stimulating Twitter thread on how preaching is different to teaching. And then there was this on why good preachers need to learn to cook an omelette.

7) ‘I only know one god – and that’s me’: non-believers on the meaning of life – For something a bit different, this is a fascinating piece in The Guardian, as reported by Harriet Sherwood.

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