WHY "ALL SOULS PUB"?

“The public house (later shortened to ‘pub’) was designed as a place where the common man could enjoy the local community and get a drink… Publicans [pub owners] were respected members of the community and barmen worked as apprentices under them with the hopes of one day owning their own pub. Barmen were required to be mediators for debates, sports and political commentators, confidants, and above all else, hospitable… A great pub has a ‘come as you are’ attitude with a culture of hospitality and a dedication to quality… designed for conversation.” Mike Reardon, A Brief History of the Public House

 We all have worldviews, the way we receive information and experiences and then interpret and act upon them. “We look for meaning and purpose in every event, activity, and relationship in our lives. We never stop trying to figure life out. What is the point? What does it all mean? The answers we give ourselves, the meanings we give to our thoughts, circumstances, relationships, and actions, move us in specific directions.”* But those worldviews are not static. The more we interact with other people, cultures, and ideas, the more our worldview evolves, changes, adapts. This blog rests upon the foundation of my faith – the worldview taught from Genesis to Revelation.

As Father Greg Boyle so aptly said in his first book, “...it would not be possible for me to present these stories apart from God, Jesus, compassion, kinship, redemption, mercy, and our common call to delight in one another. If there is a fundamental challenge within these stories, it is simply to change our lurking suspicion that some lives matter less than other lives.”** You, however, do not need to be a Christian in order to benefit from the principles contained in these pages – though that is obviously my hope and prayer for all who take and read. May you see through these stories that you and everyone you interact are loved and valued. May you look into the eyes of your neighbors, listen with humility as they voice their concerns, speak with love into their lives, and serve them out of that love, remembering that “There are no ordinary people. You have never met a mere mortal” (C.S. Lewis).

*Timothy S. Lane, How People Change, Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2008

** Father Greg Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart, Detroit, MI: Free Press, 2011, Kindle – location 81 (italics added)

  


 

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