Pentecostal, Music And Monastic Researches

My old friend Paul Hodgson has joined the staff of the International Bible Training Institute in Sussex. My brother trained at this Pentecostal college and met his wife Anita there. Paul invites me to place two papers on to their web site: First Introductions for Bible Christians to 1) Celtic Spirituality and 2) Desert Spirituality. You can download these from this site.

A Friend who is doing a Masters in Scottish church music at Glasgow university comes to lunch. What is Celtic music? What do we know about early monastic worship practices? What about revivals in Scotland? What is missing from evangelical worship books? What about the Iona, Norwegian and contemporary song influences? What about Glaswegian culture? What about bagpipes, justice songs, marching songs, pilgrimage songs, laments...? Any suggestions?

An international church leader hopes that a new monastic Order for lay people inspired by 24/7 prayer and Count Zinzendorff's 'one hundred year prayer meeting' might get off the ground. Jill Heber, of Hamilton House of Prayer, Ontario, which I visited a year or two back, is deputed to research what similar Orders do, and to draw up a year's training programme for a novitiate. We spent our first hour exploring this on Skype today.

A USA friend tells how her church is studying Simon Reed's book 'Creating Communities' , how one member is studying my books, and how they are getting excited about what might evolve.

Now I am off to London. See you and God bless you.