Contemporary Reading
William Livingstone Wallace (Bill) is a retired New Zealand Methodist Minister.
Bill says that his work springs from communicating with the fire in his gut and his
observation of both the internal and external aspects of the Cosmos. Since an
early age he has been both sympathetic to and critical of the church, announcing
at 13 his belief in evolution. In youth he struggled with the disconnection between
art and spirituality in his own and other denominations and with the way in which
all of the liturgy prior to the sermon was regarded as preliminaries and longer
sermons were viewed as superior to more concise ones.
During the worship service on 13 November, our Minister Chris Lockley chose
words from Wallace’s “Celebrating Mystery” collection to be used as a
contemporary reading:
The theology of the head can be heartless,
the theology of the heart can be gutless,
but the theology of the gut needs
the theology of the head to inform it
and the theology of the heart to warm it.
Reason is a mark of sanity.
Emotion is a mark of humanity.
Spirit is a mark of divinity.
Without reason there is no true sanity.
With reason alone there is no true humanity.
Love for other people never really occurs to any depth,
or with any lasting quality unless we first respect,
enjoy and love being ourselves.
These words are just a few of many worth reading and using as the basis for
reflection that can be found on the Website http://progressivechristianity.org
St Margaret's News
9
November 2016