Seeker

The Halloween celebrations of my childhood seem so innocent in retrospect, as indeed they were.  For a start they were very low-key.  Bobbing for apples in a bucket of water without using hands was about as dangerous as it got at the Sunday School party on 31 October. Well, I suppose a child could have been drowned if there had been someone there of such evil intent or if the supervision had been lax. Passing round a paper bag containing 'eyeballs' to feel in the dark was as scary as it got. And when the light was turned on and the eyeballs revealed to be grapes gave reassuring relief. One year at a friend's house I remember   carving lanterns from swedes (turnips for some of you), standing those outside the door, then running around inside house covered in an old sheet as a group of children pretended to be 'ghosts' to frighten each other. There was much more laughter than fear. The Irish/American custom of 'trick or treat' was completely absent a...

What's the best way to honour Luke the Evangelist and Physician on his Feast Day today? One tradition is to eat beef. I only discovered that yesterday after we'd already decided to give our lunch guests beef today. The reason for that tradition in some places is that since early Christianity Luke's Gospel (and its writer - the evangelist) has been identified with one of the 4 living creatures around God's throne, described in John's vision in Revelation, namely the winged bull or ox. If eating beef and attending a 'red-letter' day church service is all we do to honour Luke I think we miss the point. I suggest that in remembering Luke we need to hear and share his message. Luke's message in his gospel and its sequel the Acts of the Apostles is the message of Jesus, good news for all people, including people seen by others as outsiders. Jesus' message of God's power to heal, save and set free is what we give thanks for today and Luke's ...

http://www.blogactionday.org/ Blog Action Day this year has the theme of #Raise Your Voice. The idea is for bloggers to celebrate people  "who raise their voice when faced with censorship, threats, and violence." Today I want to celebrate journalists who keep on reporting the facts in areas of the world where that is a really dangerous thing to do. In some places, to be a news reporter is to risk your life or your freedom. Last year 2014 nearly 100 media workers were killed directly because of their work. In 2015 so far 22 have been killed and 160 imprisoned.  These figures are from Reporters Without Borders , a non-profit organization founded in France in 1985 but now international. The quote below, from their website explains why freedom of information is so important: "Freedom of expression and of information will always be the world’s most important freedom. If journalists were not free to report the facts, denounce abuses and alert the public, how...