from a youtube video: Tom Wright (bishop of Durham) speaking:

"(Unlike the other three gospels) John's gospel has not been shaped by the church telling the story so often that it fell into an anecdote form . . . I think John's gospel grows out of a memory of a man who has been praying over this stuff again and again and again. I can't prove that but it makes quite a lot of sense to me. Within that, of course, his life of prayer and preaching and devotion and holiness has coloured the way he says it but I think that John's gospel goes back to Source rather than to sources . . . . . ."

and in another video:
"and what is this trinity? It is the Jewish monotheism of the Exodus stories seen in the light of Jesus and the Spirit."

Clare Bryden, in her blog today, mentioned Woodbine Willy who is commemorated on 8th March in the Anglican church. He was a chaplain on the western front during the first war and wrote quite a bit of poetry. There were several which I really enjoyed. Here is just one:

SET YOUR AFFECTIONS
ON THINGS ABOVE

HOW far above the things of earth
      Is Christ at God's right hand?
How far above yon snowy peaks
      Do His white angels stand?

Must we fare forth to seek a world
      Beyond that silent star?
Forsake these dear familiar homes
      And climb the heights--How far?

As far as meaning is from speech,
      As beauty from a rose,
As far as music is from sound,
      As poetry from prose,

As far as art from cleverness,
      As painting is from paints,
As far as signs from sacraments,
      As Pharisees from Saints,

As far as love from friendship is,
      As reason is from Truth,
As far as laughter is from joy,
      And early years from youth,

As far as love from shining eyes,
      As passion from a kiss,
So far is God from God's green earth,
      So far that world from this.

puppet video

Bradley Manning

presently awaiting trial in solitary confinement in medieval conditions.

here is the video that he leaked.

I wasnt aware of this video until I received a link to the plight of Bradley Manning through moot today. Why wasnt this covered more seriously in the British press when it was first released?

Here is a recent news report on the conditions that Bradley is being kept in and the way in which his friends and colleagues are being harrassed when they try to visit him.

My immediate thought is that all this is happening on Obama´s watch. 
I followed another link at moot to the Guardian´s report on Bradley´s treatment which is even more shocking.
On the moot page about this are two pictures of Bradley - as he was and as he is now. 

I´ve just watched a video of an edition of a programme called 'Four Corners' (Australian ABC) entitled "The Forgotten Man:Bradley Manning". Towards the end of the second video is an interview with Daniel Ellsberg, himself a whistleblower during the Vietnam War, saying this about Bradley: 
 "In my case it was when I looked at the Pentagon Papers that I realised, late in the game, that the case for war in Vietnam was never legitimate.  . . .Then I began to see all that killing of Vietnamese as murder and murder, it seemed to me, was something that had to be stopped even if it put me in prison to do it. I would say that Bradley Manning has shown a willingness to give his life, his freedom,  . . . . . . for his country and you can't be more patriotic than that."

Abbot Stuart at Mucknell has this on his homepage at their website:

"Could it be that we have an image, a picture, however vague, of what it would be like to meet Christ, and when we don’t find that, we fail to recognise him – just as people failed to recognise Christ in the person of Jesus 2000 years ago?

On the whole the religious folk didn’t recognise Jesus as the Christ; it was the oddest selection of people who did, people discounted by the respectable Jews: shepherds –who had time to ponder and wonder, the Gentile ‘Wise Men’ –who gazed at the stars with open minds ~ people who had no preconceptions of the Christ. These were the ones who recognised him first, and then those who were mad or out-cast, like the lepers and the prostitutes, folk who were rejected, not wanted, by ‘society’ - people who were forced to wonder what life was all about.

In a sense they were starting with a clean slate in a way we can’t as far as ‘what we expect’ goes. We have been conditioned to assume we know what we are looking for, but both the New Testament and St Benedict suggest that Christ comes to us in the ordinariness of life, inviting us to embrace ‘life’ and whatever it brings with generosity, compassion and an open mind and heart."

It seems relevant tonight.