Understanding Prayer – Something Understood

In this week’s Something Understood on Radio 4, Mark Tully talked to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, about his personal understanding of prayer… and it is one of the best descriptions of prayer that I’ve heard in ages.
He talks of prayer as stilling your body and imagination, which aid communion with God and [...]

Inspiration

Just thought I’d share a few things that have been inspiring me lately….

Conversations
Had some great conversations with a few people lately… sharing hopes and sparking ideas… conversations with people you love and respect surely have to be one of the best ways of finding inspiration.

“Be the change you want to see”
Enjoying the quote [...]

Mark Scandrette and family

Mark Scandrette, originally uploaded by mattfreer.
Really enjoyed the company of Mark Scandrette and family who stayed with us at House244 whilst visiting Oxford at the weekend. They joined us for hOME’s Pentecost service and Mark and Lisa spoke about their community ReImagine in San Fransisco and their involvement with their wider community… incarnational radical presence… [...]

May News

It has been a long time since any updates on the blog… and a lot has been changing for us…
Back in March I finished working at CMS, and earlier this month I started working for the Social Responsibility Department of the Diocese of Oxford. My work at the diocese is focussed around the environment, supporting [...]

Hospitality and Jean Vanier

Boy with the purple hat #1, originally uploaded by Matt & Polly.

I’ve recently been re-reading From Brokenness to Community by Jean Vanier, the founder of L’Arch. It is a great little book based on lectures he gave at Harvard, and is one of the best books I’ve read on the area of community. So I [...]

Benedict and community

A while back I finally got round to reading Finding Sanctuary by Abbot Christopher Jamison, the Abbot from Worth Abbey that gained a lot of attention through the BBC TV’s ‘The Monastery’ a few years back. I really enjoyed it and in particular welcomed the chapter on ‘community’, which starts to explore some of what [...]

21M – Five Marks of Mission Resource

Whilst working for CMS I was involved in getting a long awaited resource called 21M finished, and it is now available…
21M is an eight-part DVD resource that explores the Five Marks of Mission, which were produced by the Anglican church to help give a broad understanding of ‘mission’. Others might talk of integral mission or [...]

The road not taken

path to the sea2, originally uploaded by mattfreer.

Being awoken by a baby early in the morning can have its benefits… one such benefit was discovering Radio 4’s Something Understood programme last year. Each week it looks at “some of the larger questions of life, taking a spiritual theme and exploring it through music, prose and [...]

Snow at sunset

Snow at sunset, originally uploaded by mattfreer.
Beautiful snowy sunset over the rooftops in Oxford tonight .

George W condensed

Well radio silence from my blog is being interrupted with a quick note about The Condensed History of George W Bush on BBC Radio 4 last night. Very funny look at the George W years in 15 mins… it’s kind of predictable but nicely done…
Adam Long, co-founder of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, joins two [...]