Being Disciples with Rowan Williams 

What a gift this man is to God's Church.

The voice is something else. 😁❤️⛪💯

Best advert for Christianity.

Such a lovely voice. You can listen to Dr Williams all day. Richard Burton, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Dr Rowan Williams, all from the same area of South Wales. There must be something in the water!

What a wonderful man.

Thank you very much for sharing this!

First of all, my front yard has about twenty tress of Oak and Pine; needless to say, since I have two feeders suspended, my yard is filled daily with the songs of many different birds. I also Have a front porch where I sit and study and write as often as weather permits.. This morning is rather chilly and so I am inside listening to this presentation and as soon as Rev. Williams mentions bird watching, the first chorus of the morning fills the trees outside. Insignificant I know, but had to share this "coincidence."

Being a disciple is at the heart of every human being, and not only that of religious people. On looking back at most religious sermons and preachings, one seems to conclude that a religious disciple is always talking about and considering a crisis in the material world, and one needs to learn to uplift the human spirit out of a desperate situation. Most philosophers and religions have been existing for a few thousand years, but it seems that they did not do much for the tangible comforts of the family, and always talked in a manner where there were no tangible entities exchanged, but only vociferous spiritual comforts. When I meet people in a church, a hall, or a theatre, rather than meeting them in a practical tooled workshop or a scientific laboratory, I am always looking for any clues, as when one is visiting an old English pub having a drink with the mates. As time goes by, the sing-song gets better as the beer and the spirits flow in larger quantities, whereby, near closing time, the people are semi-drunk or drunk to a higher level, and the spirit will start showing its effect in various forms. Many people love this type of occasional spiritual sing-song and drink and get intoxicated with the social atmosphere, and never take home with them any tangible, guaranteed entity for their material comfort to use when they go back home. I believe that when religious people speak to their audience and disciples, they should start hinting at the importance of giving value to having enough material food, shelter, and protection for themselves and their children. They should treat the audience as being in an apprenticeship. The indentured apprenticeship is an ancient system of on-the-job training going back to the guilds of the Middle Ages. Apprentices - often children as young as 12 and 13 - signed a contract known as an "indenture," binding them to serve a master for seven years, as described in London Lives, in exchange for learning his or her trade. The religious disciple is thus not always given a sermon on how to avoid the crises of existing and living in a poor material world, but learning how to get out of it. More than 75% of Indian families still have no toilets and no running sewers outside their homes and even Britain up to 150 years ago had its sewers running in the middle of the road, and as far as 80 years ago, I remember many homes in Britain not having an indoor toilet and one had to go to the garden shed to meet this natural human requirement. Religions all over the world had a habit of building Splendid Cathedral Churches and Temples but did not care much for the family's tangible guaranteed comforts, yet the religious rituals were all very splendid and so colorful and they still are. It seems in addition to the vociferous services, the musical and singing entertainment was part of the service for those who had, poverty, sickness, and no home comforts. Some Higher members of any church, talk about relations, trying to explain the God/ Man relations in Jesus, and they pontificate for such a long time. They seem to love depicting God as a Powerful. Divine, Spiritual, Poetic, Perfect, Sonata God, who was pretty good to cater for the psychological mental soothing of the human problem but for thousands of years did not do much to provide sewers and toilets and health and a minimum degree of comfort for the disciples. One may still depict an old British film showing the poverty in Britain at the time of Oliver Twist and now there are many videos showing the miserable toilet facilities in India. The Poetic God seems to love living in a domain outside our universe and in people's minds, never bothering to move out and join us. It is interesting to follow and find out who supports the religious institutions these days, is it the state which provides a salary and a pension to the clergy, or is it the collected alms that are donated by the disciples? Because of this difference, there was always that area where even the spiritual aid to the people was lacking, and disciples cannot live on prayers alone. Perhaps Jesus, as a joint effort by God and man should be depicted and explained by Albert's Einstein relation E= mc^2 where an entity may be regarded as, part energy and part matter. Rather than preach and postulate and depict God as, a Powerful. Divine, Spiritual, Poetic, Perfect, Sonata God, who loves to live outside our universal space and time, perhaps we should compromise, and present God as Albert Einstein's God, who can exist on both sides of the equation E= mc^2. If we call God the Father Energy (E) which can be transformed into matter, then that would not only explain that Jesus was God and man, but it would also explain that" We all are made in the image of God", and what is more, every tangible item in our home in the form of an engineered item, including a washing machine, a chair, a pair of shoes a comfortable bed and a toilet is, in fact, Energy/matter relations which could be termed as God himself entering our homes to be with us and to assist us in a tangible, guaranteed manner and not only in a spiritual manner as most Bishops like to talk about. What is more when we die we can say that our mass resurrects back into an Energy form. After all, a mass of coal, oil, or gas can be transformed and resurrected in an electrical power station to feed an electronic oscillator to radiate energy through an antenna for electromagnetic energy to roam the universe after the " death " of coal, oil or gas! That is what our own death is all about, we shall resurrect back to being the Energy God! This would introduce a very useful aspect of Energy/ mass relation E=mc^2 as God, and so in any workshop, the indentured apprenticeship which was an ancient system of on-the-job training going back to the guilds of the Middle Ages would accentuate that God is with us in workshops and at home assisting us with materialistic home comforts. . Apprentices and Disciples can often start as children as young as 12 and 13 - signing a contract known as an "indenture," binding them to learn from a master for seven years, about the Energy God coming into our homes in various tangible and guaranteed shapes. Perhaps Churches and Cathedrals and Video inspirational speeches should think about the material aspect of God's existence, not in the flesh/body/blood part of Christ, but also in all the tangible home comforts we have at home, all as a result of processing matter and Energy in the total silence of a workshop rather than a magnificently decorated cathedral, equipped with a high pulpit, and noisy bells at the spire, to call in the sheep, to just listen to inspirational words, hinting that God is always Poetic and Spiritual and loves live outside out universe! where he is there not to be explained by us mortals! I believe we should see God as Energy and matter who loves to visit us in our homes, where he presents himself to us on the shelves of supermarkets and in petrol pumps and aircraft shapes, where we can cater to the human body and mind, as practical engineers in silent workshops produce better home products. It seems that most people now prefer to deal with the Engineering God who lives in the Universe and in our own homes rather than depicting God as a Powerful. Divine, Spiritual, Poetic, Perfect, Sonata God, who many Bishops and Popes say that God does not exist to be explained but as a gift to treasure and appreciate!

Being a disciple is your relationship to the whole counsel of God. The message. The ethos. The doctrine. Cumulatively the way of life under Jesus Christ.

Jesus is my mate and if anything goes wrong or difficult I just engage with him and am immediately in his company although after one still has to deal with the problems ,but one hasnt wasted time worrying,and expect it goes easier.

A very enriching talk and thoughtful questions and answers from Dr Williams. I certainly will share with our home study group here in NZ. Thank you very much.

God, may your will be done not mine

That should read perhaps you can teach him gods true word god bless you

Why can't the church understand the most important thing for Christians to do is ACT like jesus. If on judgment day you tell god you learnt all about him and read everybook written and know everything He will say you wicked servant, and cast you out,and the person who gives one cup of Water exalted to heaven.

The archbishop of Canterbury needs to read the bible as he has destroyed the church of England he has made it very difficult for anyone else going c of e ministry he should go. Gods word stands for ever. Perhaps you can go and teach me god bless you.

Any communion with the heavenly host is spirit .the only thing at all that is of any importance is that wr believe, God does the rest ,the church and its ministers need to teach and for that they have to believe themselves, and to do that they need to be in communion whenever they can ,and stop getting involved in useless distractions.

No we have to believe in God, to believe in God is everything, it's about belief in god, believe in god .if people want to speculate, that destroys belief, have faith believe and trust in god .throw the intellectual crap ,theology, philosophy, mystics ,wiseacre vain imagination in the furnace. And believe in god

Easter is how we justify ourselves. But the scripture foretold many times our treatment of God's son, we are not justified until the whole world Acts ad the ninevites .i think you're making stuff up.

Unfortunately being a disciple today means to be a disciple of our denomination, the learning Jesus made accessible to children in the form of parables, and the root of the disciples witness, should be our faith ,but what the church has always done is to change it to suit themselves. But once we believe, God takes over we trust him the church has done its job although we may chose to return to praise God on Sunday. The church thereafter have no monopoly on God we are all gods and he teaches us personally, and the bible tells us so,but the church has always tried to grasp power for itself mostly by frightening the laity ,and now they have to because they created a huge industry and institution, which needs loads of money, so the laity are forced to followa human creature and not god through the holy spirit. The church has become secular and dosnt know it .the truth is once people believe God is our Father the churches jobis done and it is now very much just a job with the majority of employees non believers just doing ajob this is nothing like what God intended. He wants us all to show our trust in him by giving up our ow n will and doing his.not the priests will ..Jesus did his father's will only he was not a person in his own right there is nothing to learn about, replace learn with trust as Jesus did.

That had better not be a MAGA cap on the bookcase!!!

The other letters he speaks about are not inspired by God, 2 Tim 3:16. Does this man even believe that God created us, I think he accepts that God started evolution. No wonder Churches are emptying!