James Woodward
@woodwardjames.bsky.social
Pondering, Reading, Writing, curiosity
Practical Theology, Human Flourishing, Ageing, Pastoral Supervision, Art,
Practical Theology, Human Flourishing, Ageing, Pastoral Supervision, Art,
Advent verses from Jim Cotter
December 5, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Advent verses from Jim Cotter
I am a Christian because of women who said yes.
—Rachel Held Evans
—Rachel Held Evans
December 4, 2025 at 11:30 AM
I am a Christian because of women who said yes.
—Rachel Held Evans
—Rachel Held Evans
“If we know who we are, we need fear neither the hostility of the nations nor their friendship. For we are strong enough to fight for our safety and for our values.”
(Rabbi Sacks on Parshat Vayishlach, c. 1980s)
(Rabbi Sacks on Parshat Vayishlach, c. 1980s)
December 1, 2025 at 7:14 PM
“If we know who we are, we need fear neither the hostility of the nations nor their friendship. For we are strong enough to fight for our safety and for our values.”
(Rabbi Sacks on Parshat Vayishlach, c. 1980s)
(Rabbi Sacks on Parshat Vayishlach, c. 1980s)
On this first day of Advent and on this Advent Sunday a journey through this season attending to the generative heart and pen of Jim Cotter
November 30, 2025 at 7:37 AM
On this first day of Advent and on this Advent Sunday a journey through this season attending to the generative heart and pen of Jim Cotter
Gratitude is strongest, clearest, most robust, and radical when things are really hard.
Diana Butler Bass, Grateful
Diana Butler Bass, Grateful
November 28, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Gratitude is strongest, clearest, most robust, and radical when things are really hard.
Diana Butler Bass, Grateful
Diana Butler Bass, Grateful
Somewhere along the way of life, we learn that love means very different things to different people, and yet all personal love is but a fractal of a larger universal love. Some call it God. I call it wonder. Dante called it “the Love that moves the Sun and the other stars.”
November 26, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Somewhere along the way of life, we learn that love means very different things to different people, and yet all personal love is but a fractal of a larger universal love. Some call it God. I call it wonder. Dante called it “the Love that moves the Sun and the other stars.”
The more we bump into the folks who are so-called “other,” the more we are stretched and the more we are pulled out of bias. We have new truths, because we have tangible evidence of the beautiful, powerful creativity of our God who made all of this diversity for us to enjoy
Jacqui Lewis
Jacqui Lewis
November 21, 2025 at 8:46 AM
The more we bump into the folks who are so-called “other,” the more we are stretched and the more we are pulled out of bias. We have new truths, because we have tangible evidence of the beautiful, powerful creativity of our God who made all of this diversity for us to enjoy
Jacqui Lewis
Jacqui Lewis
You are not here to verify,
Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity
Or carry report.
You are here to kneel
Where prayer has been valid.
—T. S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”
Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity
Or carry report.
You are here to kneel
Where prayer has been valid.
—T. S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”
November 16, 2025 at 9:50 AM
You are not here to verify,
Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity
Or carry report.
You are here to kneel
Where prayer has been valid.
—T. S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”
Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity
Or carry report.
You are here to kneel
Where prayer has been valid.
—T. S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”
Real communication occurs, and this evaluative tendency is avoided, when we listen with understanding. It means to see the expressed idea and attitude from the other person’s point of view, to sense how it feels to him, to achieve his frame of reference in regard to the thing he is talking about.
November 16, 2025 at 6:19 AM
Real communication occurs, and this evaluative tendency is avoided, when we listen with understanding. It means to see the expressed idea and attitude from the other person’s point of view, to sense how it feels to him, to achieve his frame of reference in regard to the thing he is talking about.
Friends do join us
The event is hosted at Sarum College and will be accessible via Zoom. Please do let me know (mhahn@sarum.ac.uk) if you would like to attend through either means, and I can make the Zoom link available.
November 15, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Friends do join us
Reposted by James Woodward
Next Thursday at Sarum College, we are hosting a postgraduate seminar on the theme of "Spirituality and Human Flourishing." Alongside a keynote paper from James Woodward (@woodwardjames.bsky.social) we have three great student papers.
November 15, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Next Thursday at Sarum College, we are hosting a postgraduate seminar on the theme of "Spirituality and Human Flourishing." Alongside a keynote paper from James Woodward (@woodwardjames.bsky.social) we have three great student papers.
There are no privileged locations. If you stay put, your place may become a holy center, not because it gives you special access to the divine, but because in your stillness you hear what might be heard anywhere. All there is to see can be seen from anywhere in the universe, if you know how to look.
November 14, 2025 at 4:12 PM
There are no privileged locations. If you stay put, your place may become a holy center, not because it gives you special access to the divine, but because in your stillness you hear what might be heard anywhere. All there is to see can be seen from anywhere in the universe, if you know how to look.
Everything is in some way sacramental. All depends on the receptiveness and openness of our hearts
November 13, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Everything is in some way sacramental. All depends on the receptiveness and openness of our hearts
Sacramentality breaks through our surface obsessions in the world and plunges us into the depth of the Sacred l. It is a spontaneous reminder of God’s creative upwelling and expansive love, calling us to love beyond boundaries.
November 10, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Sacramentality breaks through our surface obsessions in the world and plunges us into the depth of the Sacred l. It is a spontaneous reminder of God’s creative upwelling and expansive love, calling us to love beyond boundaries.
God brought things into being in order that God’s goodness might be communicated and be represented by them. God’s goodness could not be represented by one creature alone, God produced many & diverse creatures. For goodness, which in God is simple and uniform, in creatures is manifold and divided.
November 9, 2025 at 7:29 AM
God brought things into being in order that God’s goodness might be communicated and be represented by them. God’s goodness could not be represented by one creature alone, God produced many & diverse creatures. For goodness, which in God is simple and uniform, in creatures is manifold and divided.
Michael Hischer
WV 466, 2017
Painted Aluminium
New Art Centre
WV 466, 2017
Painted Aluminium
New Art Centre
November 8, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Michael Hischer
WV 466, 2017
Painted Aluminium
New Art Centre
WV 466, 2017
Painted Aluminium
New Art Centre
Most of us pedal pretty hard to avoid going in the direction of Jesus’ Beatitudes. We read books that promise to enrich our spirits. We find all kinds of ways to sedate our mournfulness.
—Barbara Brown Taylor
—Barbara Brown Taylor
November 8, 2025 at 7:18 AM
Most of us pedal pretty hard to avoid going in the direction of Jesus’ Beatitudes. We read books that promise to enrich our spirits. We find all kinds of ways to sedate our mournfulness.
—Barbara Brown Taylor
—Barbara Brown Taylor
@luxmuralis.bsky.social @salisburycathedral.bsky.social
Wonderful immersion into story and colour and lost worlds
Wonderful immersion into story and colour and lost worlds
November 5, 2025 at 5:24 PM
@luxmuralis.bsky.social @salisburycathedral.bsky.social
Wonderful immersion into story and colour and lost worlds
Wonderful immersion into story and colour and lost worlds
The state of enchantment is one of certainty. When enchanted, we neither believe nor doubt nor deny: we know, even if, as in the case of a false enchantment, our knowledge is self-deception. WH Auden
November 5, 2025 at 5:23 PM
The state of enchantment is one of certainty. When enchanted, we neither believe nor doubt nor deny: we know, even if, as in the case of a false enchantment, our knowledge is self-deception. WH Auden
It is only in the second half of life that we come to understand that dying is not opposed to life. Dying is a part of a greater mystery—and we are a part of that mystery. In my experience, it is usually the older psyche that is ready to hear such sober truth.
November 2, 2025 at 8:18 AM
It is only in the second half of life that we come to understand that dying is not opposed to life. Dying is a part of a greater mystery—and we are a part of that mystery. In my experience, it is usually the older psyche that is ready to hear such sober truth.
Aging is not for the weak. One day you wake up and realize that youth is gone, so go insecurity, haste, and the need to please.Learn towalk more slowly, but with greater certainty. Aging means accepting, discovering that beauty was never in our skin but in the story we carry inside us.
Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
November 1, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Aging is not for the weak. One day you wake up and realize that youth is gone, so go insecurity, haste, and the need to please.Learn towalk more slowly, but with greater certainty. Aging means accepting, discovering that beauty was never in our skin but in the story we carry inside us.
Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
What some call “liminal space” or threshold space (in Latin, limen means a threshold) is a very good phrase for those special times, events, and places that open us up to the sacred. It seems we need special (sacred) days to open us up to all days being special and sacred.
#Rohr
#Rohr
October 31, 2025 at 8:13 AM
What some call “liminal space” or threshold space (in Latin, limen means a threshold) is a very good phrase for those special times, events, and places that open us up to the sacred. It seems we need special (sacred) days to open us up to all days being special and sacred.
#Rohr
#Rohr