As a teenager I was very clear that I wasn't in the church just to toe the line, but I saw there was a capacity within Christianity and the bible not to fall into line but to question the status quo, that's what kept me in the church. I was listening to the sort of music that did that questioning.

Alan Green

Categorized in : Fall Listening Teenager

In the time of Mrs Thatcher the church, to give it its due, spoke out and was an enemy of the Conservative government.

government giving enemy

I've bought QPP shares but unfortunately both times I bought it they immediately dropped by over 10p. Do you pay much attention to the dealing notes?

share pay attention

You don't score 64 goals in 86 games at the highest level without... by Alan Green

You don't score 64 goals in 86 games at the highest level without being able to score goals.

levels goal games

As a parish priest of the Church Of England I promise to look after everyone in the community, not just those who come to church, not just white people, not just the Christians.

christian white people

Here's Brian Flynn. His official height is five feet five and he... by Alan Green

Here's Brian Flynn. His official height is five feet five and he doesn't look much taller than that

feet soccer looks

I grew up in the church, with traditional hymns, but at the same time I was beginning to listen to pop music, the mid-60s, The Beatles, which had just as much influence on me as those hymns did. Then the hippy stuff like Pink Floyd started to raise questions about how I lived my life and the world in which I lived.

raises-questions hymns church

The [book of the bible] Song Of Songs is an amazing erotic love poem that the church has tried very hard not to notice. It is really beautiful, and musical in its poetry.

song beautiful book

That level of expectation that I'm going to be conservative is really disappointing, but it is how many people think about clergy and the church

expectations people thinking

The bible is not a blueprint for every day of your life, it is an inspiration not a blueprint. That requires that we listen to one another and get challenged and grow by living with difference within the body of the church.

differences church inspiration

Being a Christian does not mean that there is one way of living a Christian life, people do it differently in different cultures because they have different interpretations, that's how it should be. The disciples had arguments with Jesus! It is about listening to one another, and respecting one another with those differences.

christian mean jesus

I think what we're really bad at doing is recognising that it is possible to have lost of different views within the church.

church views thinking

Spirituality is a natural part of ourselves, as natural as emotions, but we've got all the language wrong and made this divide between secularism and spirituality, whereas instead it's about being human.

spirituality emotion language

I've never really separated out the spiritual and the secular. by Alan Green

I've never really separated out the spiritual and the secular.

secular spiritual

I'd signed up not just for Christianity but the established Church of England. That has a particular history and I think we rather lost it in the 19th Century, we became so much part of empire and colonialism, the language of the Church Of England still reflects that Victorian time. As the 20th Century developed, not surprisingly people left the church and I can see the church's role in losing people.

church people thinking

I want to be able to open up the really good treasures of the Church and Christianity to people, and that's not going to be achieved by shouting at them to convert or they'll go to hell. It's about giving them an opportunity to reimagine Christianity.

opportunity giving people

This will be their 19th consecutive game without a win unless the... by Alan Green

This will be their 19th consecutive game without a win unless they can get an equaliser.

winning football soccer

Ziege hits it high for Heskey who isn't playing by Alan Green

Ziege hits it high for Heskey who isn't playing

playing-football commentators football

Well, he had two stabs at the cherry by Alan Green

Well, he had two stabs at the cherry

cherries soccer two

Xavier, who looks just like Zeus, not that I have any idea what Z... by Alan Green

Xavier, who looks just like Zeus, not that I have any idea what Zeus looks like.

football looks ideas

John Arne Riise was deservedly blown up for that foul by Alan Green

John Arne Riise was deservedly blown up for that foul

foul commentators football