The Slipstream podcast for July is now online. In it we’re talking to Mike Pilavachi, founder of Soul Survivor, Hope 08 and Soul in the City.

Go here to listen.

The July ‘Seize the Day’ podcast is now online.

In it I’m talking to Chris Wright, the International Director of the Langham Partnership International, about his magnum opus ‘The Mission of God.’

And John Ayrton and I are continuing our discussion of contemporary spirituality by asking how Christians can respond to the outpourings of grief expressed at public tragedies like the death of Princess Diana, and private disasters like road accidents.

Go here to listen

This is (more or less) what I said on Saturday:

On the wall over my desk, there’s one of those frames that holds twenty or so different pictures.

It’s filled with photographs of the three people who matter most to me. So obviously, there are quite a few photos of Judy, and then there are pictures of Hannah and Esther.

There’s one picture of Hannah when she was about two years old. She’s perched at the top of a slide, and is about to launch off down it, on a big adventure, and she has a big smile on her face. Not so different from today, then.

There are school photos of the girls, together and separately, at various stages through their junior school and secondary school life.

There are photos from family holidays in different places…

And the most recent photo of them together was taken a couple of years ago at John-Mark and Brittney’s wedding.

It’s a record of our life together as a family over the past twenty years.

As I look at it, it all seems to have flown by much too quickly, and this day has come round suddenly and unexpectedly.

It feels like it was only a few weeks ago that we were seeing Hannah off to university for the first time, and we found that quite difficult.

Not long after that, we started to see pictures on Hannah’s Facebook page of this tall blonde guy she’d met through the Christian Union, and we began to suspect that something was afoot. Still, we weren’t ready for things to move as quickly or as decisively as they did.

When Hannah came to me last year and said that she was hoping to get married, my first reaction was that I’m not old enough to have a daughter who’s getting married. I’m not ready for this.

A year later, and I’m still not ready for it!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve asked several people what I’m supposed to say in a father-of-the-bride speech, and the answer seems to be ‘nothing in particular.’

Judy tells me not to try to be funny when I speak, and I always do what she tells me. (Jon – I’m sure there’s a lesson for you in there somewhere!) So that rules out jokes.

The one thing that people did say was to tell some stories about Hannah when she was growing up.

When Hannah was very small, if thing weren’t going well, she’s say in a very sombre voice, ‘I’m not having a good day.’ Well – we hope you are having a good day today, Hannah.

Perhaps I should mention the time we were on a family holiday together in Weymouth, and Hannah fell badly in a kids’ play area. We thought she might have damaged her neck badly. She was rushed into Dorchester hospital in an ambulance with its blues and twos going. When we got there, the doctor sat her up, grabbed hold of the sides of her head, yanked this way and that, and said, ‘No, she’s fine. Next, please.’

Or I could mention the time she had been in Holland visiting the family, and phoned us from Amsterdam airport, having just missed her plane for a flight back to the UK. At least today she didn’t miss the car, or the boat. However, there is a flight in the offing, so that’s something to look out for, Jon.

There are other stories, which might be quite embarrassing. But even though I’m giving Hannah away today, I’d like to stay on speaking terms with her for the future, so those stories will have to remain untold.

This doesn’t leave a lot more to say. This means that I can get on to a couple of important things that I really do want to say:

First, this is a great day for Jon and Hannah. It’s also an important day for the families they represent.

Speaking for Judy and myself, and – I’m sure – for Ivor and Liz too – we would like to thank every one of you for being with us today, as we celebrate Jon and Hannah’s marriage.

If I’m honest, over the past few months, at times it has felt more like we’re losing a daughter than we’re gaining a son.

However, as we’ve got to know Jon better over the months, Judy and I would like to say to you, Jon, how pleased we are that Hannah is marrying you, and we’re very confident that you’ll take good care of her.

Hannah – mum and I want to say to you that we’re delighted that you’re marrying Jon, and we’re tremendously proud of you. You take good care of him, too.

In a few days, I shall be adding a new photo to the frame over my desk – a picture of Jon and Hannah together today.

For Jon and Hannah, this is a new beginning – the first step in their life together as a new family.

Our prayer as parents is that Jon and Hannah will continue to put God at the centre of their life together, wherever he takes them.

I’m sure that all of us here today want to join in wishing Jon and Hannah success and happiness in the future, whatever they do and wherever they go.

So please can I invite you all to stand with me, for a toast to the bride and groom.

Christian street preacher Andy Robertson apparently said nothing about homosexuality. (And even if he had done so, it would specifically not have been an offence per se under present law, unless he was inciting violence or abuse.) Yet the police still harrassed him.

Police officers told an open-air preacher in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, that it is a criminal offence to identify homosexuality as a sin. They said this to Andy Robertson, even though he had not mentioned anything to do with homosexuality in his preaching.

He was recording his preaching because the local council had been making allegations about the content of his message. The conversation with police officers was caught on tape. It is revealing.

The offence, of course, is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet now it seems that preachers can be silenced merely on the strength of a false accusation.

- ‘Archbishop Cranmer‘

For more on this, visit the Christian Institute web site, and see especially their information about the government’s efforts to remove the free speech protection from the laws that govern us. See also what they are saying about the new equality legislation.

Before anyone leaps to flame me, this is not an issue about homosexuality, or homophobia. Even Peter Tatchell recognises that. It is an issue about justice, freedom of speech, and equality.

Coraline is a young girl who moves with her parents to an old house. Strange neighbors live on the floors above and below. Her parents love their daughter, but they are too busy to spend any time with her. So she has to find ways to amuse herself. Eventually she makes her way through a small door and a tunnel into an alternate world. The purpose of everything in the other world seems to be to make her life more enjoyable. But not everything is as it seems.

Read our latest review by Richard Blakely.

Ron Howard’s take on the prequel to ‘The Da Vinci Code’ resurrects the old ’science vs. religion’ debate, but doesn’t have much new to say.

A container of anti-matter has been stolen by an ancient sect of scientists persecuted by the Catholic Church for their beliefs. With it, they aim to destroy the Vatican. Only Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) can avert disaster by following a trail of clues across Rome.

Read more…

Go here to listen.

The ‘Seize the Day’ podcast for June is now online.

This programme includes the third and final part of our conversation with Bryan Knell, Church Relations director for Global Connections. In it, he’s talking about how mission agencies need to change.

John Ayrton and I are also talking about the whole ’spiritual but not religious’ thing, and reviewing a book called ‘The Spiritual Revolution: why religion is giving way to spirituality,’ by Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead.

Go here to listen.

The new Star Trek moves at warp speed, packing in more action than ever, with a new fresh faced cast (Chris Pine as Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock) and state-of-the-art special effects. And – most importantly – for the first time in decades Star Trek is cool again.

Read our full review.

If you didn’t see it last time round, do try to catch ‘The Narnia Code’ at 7.30 this evening on BBC4. It is a genuinely wonderful programme.