I don't think it's because I still haven't got used to the change of day off, but today is proving rather hard. In fact I think there are two much more obvious reasons.
The first is the curious practice (in my experience) for LM's school to have an INSET day today. For all I know it might well make a lot of sense on the ground. Since the idea of punctuality, or even attendance, down there seems a slightly alien concept to some families, it might well be a case of making the most of a bad job. After all when HM Inspectors judge attendance figures why not cut you cloth to suit? Why have another bad day's figures when you can turn it to your advantage?
It might be good for the school (and LM seems to be enjoying herself) but it's not quite such good news when you work from home. Instead of the sounds of family and one toddler I have instead the sounds of family, one toddler and the addition of a (rather loud, exuberant and stroppy) school-daughter. I can barely contain my enthusiasm...
On top of that, although I feel I'm beginning to get into the swing of things parochial, I have two sets of sermons to prepare this week. The invitation to preach in the neighbouring parish in the middle of the week makes a lot of sense, as St Z's has good links in place, and I'm all in favour of sharing where possible. The only downside is that All Souls isn't really my cup of tea. As is so often the case the Lectionary readings are intended to bring comfort to the faithful, laced with challenge too; an issue multiplied by the perennial problem of the Church of England being "everyone's church" (whether they like it or not!)
This makes at least one of the readings uncomfortable, full as it is of the assurances of salvation and new birth as well as the readers rejoicing in their sufferings. Er.. yes. Right. Exactly. A perfect text for the recently bereaved parishioners. It's all an uncomfortable reminder that much scripture pre-supposes a given degree of faith among those it addresses - unless it's the judgements of doom from a certain constituency of a prophetic persuasion!
Time to be reminded about the wonderful definition of "priest" in the witty "Church-English Dictionary" - someone who gives God ten out of ten and humanity the benefit of the doubt.
If Jesus can do that for us, then I must, of course, do that for him. Just sometimes, well, it's a bit of a stretch, trying to pull the punches which are already there in the text...
Enough. Back to the task in hand, and maybe a cup of tea!
Monday, 29 October 2007
Tuesday, 23 October 2007
A word in season?
Words. Sometimes they're very useful things. Sometimes they're very powerful things. Sometimes they are best said, not written. Sometimes they won't come at all.
That's the problem with words. Without visual cues the written word can appear far sharper, un-blunted by the smile or the tone of delivery.
So, thank you, you know who you are, for a quiet word. In person, visible. I shall continue with these words, they are the sea I swim in, but I will remember a little more that I am being read close to home as well as far from it.
No offence is ever meant. I wouldn't deliberately be like that. But humour does have a sharp edge, and like any knife must be wielded with care. (Or maybe reserved for the truly anonymous blog - the one I rarely ever write in... )
All I need now are some decent, useful, observations to make!
That's the problem with words. Without visual cues the written word can appear far sharper, un-blunted by the smile or the tone of delivery.
So, thank you, you know who you are, for a quiet word. In person, visible. I shall continue with these words, they are the sea I swim in, but I will remember a little more that I am being read close to home as well as far from it.
No offence is ever meant. I wouldn't deliberately be like that. But humour does have a sharp edge, and like any knife must be wielded with care. (Or maybe reserved for the truly anonymous blog - the one I rarely ever write in... )
All I need now are some decent, useful, observations to make!
Monday, 15 October 2007
Swine time!
Not a reflection on anybody or anything, just something I found.
Me want (but not if I have to give up pork and cider!)
:)
Me want (but not if I have to give up pork and cider!)
:)
Saturday, 13 October 2007
Happy Birthday, St. Z's
Just back from a hugely enjoyable evening at St Z's, namely a Jazz Concert with the rather good "Swing Museum" - 2 guitars, double bass and violin, so shades of Django Reinhardt and Stefan Grapelli. An evening of popular music (of a certain era) in a full-ish church. Not a bad way to draw the 800th birthday celebrations towards a close.
I suppose the key observation is that people don't really change. Much of the audience tonight was the Youth Fellowship.... of 60 years ago. Not good for the future of the church, but I wonder what the folks of an equivalent youth group age of today would have thought to see them mucking around, despite grey hair and all the encumbrances of age? Maybe rather how I felt at 18 to have the privilege of an evening with Dad's old uni friends and discovering to my surprise and delight that they were no different to me and my friends.
If we can find a way for those "outside" to see something of the love of the people at St. Z's we'd be half way there. I don't know where the faith of the folks is, but who apart from God really does? All I know is that I'm called to love them, to spiritually lead them, and to learn from them. The Festival Week they've put on has been excellent (with slight reservations about the scope of the publicity). They have done everything without a vicar to hold their hands, and done it very well. I'm trying very hard to not take the credit, although I'm beginning to wonder whether they think I'm just trying to be humble. But the truth is I've actually had very little to do, other than show up and show love. To tell them they matter.
And having one of the younger members (read 60-something) announce during the interval that we'd won the rugby.... well, a good evening was had by one and all! :)
I suppose the key observation is that people don't really change. Much of the audience tonight was the Youth Fellowship.... of 60 years ago. Not good for the future of the church, but I wonder what the folks of an equivalent youth group age of today would have thought to see them mucking around, despite grey hair and all the encumbrances of age? Maybe rather how I felt at 18 to have the privilege of an evening with Dad's old uni friends and discovering to my surprise and delight that they were no different to me and my friends.
If we can find a way for those "outside" to see something of the love of the people at St. Z's we'd be half way there. I don't know where the faith of the folks is, but who apart from God really does? All I know is that I'm called to love them, to spiritually lead them, and to learn from them. The Festival Week they've put on has been excellent (with slight reservations about the scope of the publicity). They have done everything without a vicar to hold their hands, and done it very well. I'm trying very hard to not take the credit, although I'm beginning to wonder whether they think I'm just trying to be humble. But the truth is I've actually had very little to do, other than show up and show love. To tell them they matter.
And having one of the younger members (read 60-something) announce during the interval that we'd won the rugby.... well, a good evening was had by one and all! :)
Tuesday, 9 October 2007
Lead Astray
Given the recent epidemic in which enterprising individuals have taken it upon themselves to emulate Henry VIII and "mine" ecclesiastical buildings for their valuable base metals, I was unsurprised to be informed that St. Z's had received their attentions in the last few months.
I knew that the you could see daylight through the roof of the South Porch, but since it isn't used didn't think it was much of a problem at this juncture. I'd also been told that the situation elsewhere was in hand.
Guess what?
It rained this morning.
It rained a lot this morning.
I discovered not just that the roof of the South Aisle missed lead, but that I'd been mislead too.
You can guess what's coming, can't you?
I had presumed in my naivety that someone had at least laid some temporary sheeting! What a silly Priest-in-Charge I am! Instead Morning Prayer (for one) was conducted accompanied by the sound of many waters....
Laugh? I nearly (got) wet myself!
I knew that the you could see daylight through the roof of the South Porch, but since it isn't used didn't think it was much of a problem at this juncture. I'd also been told that the situation elsewhere was in hand.
Guess what?
It rained this morning.
It rained a lot this morning.
I discovered not just that the roof of the South Aisle missed lead, but that I'd been mislead too.
You can guess what's coming, can't you?
I had presumed in my naivety that someone had at least laid some temporary sheeting! What a silly Priest-in-Charge I am! Instead Morning Prayer (for one) was conducted accompanied by the sound of many waters....
Laugh? I nearly (got) wet myself!
Monday, 8 October 2007
Monday Musings
It's one of those days.
You know, when the sermon that you know you wrote some years back for this Sunday's readings can't be found on your computer.
When someone asks to be your friend on Facebook, and although you know the mutual friend, and a lot of their friends besides, you can't quite work out who it is, because teenagers look so different when you've not seen them for 4 years.
So I ambled down to look around my new Vestry. It's like a time-warp in there! Minute books from 30 years ago agreeing to the purchase of "Sound of Living Waters" while at the same time asking for the re-instatement of Matins because it disappeared after the last inter-regnum. Little booklets of Series 2 Evening Prayer. Sheet music that looks positively Antediluvian (before the flood, for non-Latin scholars!). A cupboard full of ASBs, which I suspect everyone's forgotten about. (And that's not mentioning the 2 manual electronic organ, the random pieces of masonry, service registers for the last 30 years and the stubs of a book of Marriage Certificates with no entries)!
Which means that the headline in the Diocesan email I just received was all the more amusing:
Sponsored BCP PalmReading
Well, it's one approach to getting into the Mind, Body and Spirit Fair, I suppose. I'll have to recommend it Steve Hollingshurst!
You know, when the sermon that you know you wrote some years back for this Sunday's readings can't be found on your computer.
When someone asks to be your friend on Facebook, and although you know the mutual friend, and a lot of their friends besides, you can't quite work out who it is, because teenagers look so different when you've not seen them for 4 years.
So I ambled down to look around my new Vestry. It's like a time-warp in there! Minute books from 30 years ago agreeing to the purchase of "Sound of Living Waters" while at the same time asking for the re-instatement of Matins because it disappeared after the last inter-regnum. Little booklets of Series 2 Evening Prayer. Sheet music that looks positively Antediluvian (before the flood, for non-Latin scholars!). A cupboard full of ASBs, which I suspect everyone's forgotten about. (And that's not mentioning the 2 manual electronic organ, the random pieces of masonry, service registers for the last 30 years and the stubs of a book of Marriage Certificates with no entries)!
Which means that the headline in the Diocesan email I just received was all the more amusing:
Sponsored BCP Palm
Well, it's one approach to getting into the Mind, Body and Spirit Fair, I suppose. I'll have to recommend it Steve Hollingshurst!
Thursday, 4 October 2007
Back in the frame
Well, here I am in the Chaplaincy Office on Park Campus of EMUT (East Midlands University Town), and thoroughly enjoying the delights of dual-role ministry. There's denying that it will get busier, but it's just so good to be back in the Uni environment!
Yesterday was the Freshers' Fair, traditionally the time when student organisations tout for business - and often with a bewildering range of societies available for the (in)discriminating student. This turned out to be a little different. While there was a marquee, broadcasting music that everyone but me seemed to know, which was hosting the sporting societies (including Cheerleading!) and information on nightclubs, the Sports Hall seemed to be more a case of business organisations touting for students - which struck me as a little bizarre.
The Christian Union had a presence, with a natty line in blue on blue sweatshirts (or were they hoddies?), as did the LGBT Society and the Afro-Carribean Students, but it felt far more like everyone else was trying to advise, recruit or sell their services. I'm still not quite sure what the Casino was doing there! I hope they were simply recruiting potential employees, but I didn't have the nous to follow that up at the time...
In retrospect it was all, I don't know, rather worthy: health and fitness, sexual health, teachers' unions trying to recruit, the local pizza delivery franchise, a little polite political activism, and a spattering of Green issues. Which raises the question - don't students actually have fun any more, beyond the sports field, the bar and the bed?
Maybe not. Especially as a news story caught my eye recently over the BBC website about how UK students work fewer hours per week than their European counterparts. Given that, you might expect there to be more of a social life, but with the Uni running a Part-Time Jobs Fair today, which recommends that students work up to 20 hours a week in part-time emplyment (thats right - 20 hours!) and coupled with the pressure to pay for tuition fees...
Then again, it might have a lot to do with the changing nature of universities. This isn't a high profile national institution, although I'm sure they'd be delighted if it was. Talking to folks suggests very strongly that a lot of students have come from little more than an hour away in any direction, not forgetting the increasing numbers of mature students and those living at home.
Well, I'd been told that EMUT is different!
Unfortunately, not all that different, though. Our Chaplaincy Centre is in an excellent location on the gournd floor of a hall of residence, very close to the Student Union. Which is good. Except that one of the residents directly above is playing rap at an aggressively high volume and it's beginning to get annoying... It might soon just be time to go walkabout and engage in random conversations and a ministry of presence - which in itself is wonderful - and certainly better than the nascent headache!
(Of course, as soon as I wrote that, God be praised, the "music" stopped! - and I found an interesting article to complement this rambling over on the good old Beeb.)
As to where faith fits into these ruminations, well I'll leave the theological refelctions till after lunch. If that is, I get no visitors wanting hospitality.
Yesterday was the Freshers' Fair, traditionally the time when student organisations tout for business - and often with a bewildering range of societies available for the (in)discriminating student. This turned out to be a little different. While there was a marquee, broadcasting music that everyone but me seemed to know, which was hosting the sporting societies (including Cheerleading!) and information on nightclubs, the Sports Hall seemed to be more a case of business organisations touting for students - which struck me as a little bizarre.
The Christian Union had a presence, with a natty line in blue on blue sweatshirts (or were they hoddies?), as did the LGBT Society and the Afro-Carribean Students, but it felt far more like everyone else was trying to advise, recruit or sell their services. I'm still not quite sure what the Casino was doing there! I hope they were simply recruiting potential employees, but I didn't have the nous to follow that up at the time...
In retrospect it was all, I don't know, rather worthy: health and fitness, sexual health, teachers' unions trying to recruit, the local pizza delivery franchise, a little polite political activism, and a spattering of Green issues. Which raises the question - don't students actually have fun any more, beyond the sports field, the bar and the bed?
Maybe not. Especially as a news story caught my eye recently over the BBC website about how UK students work fewer hours per week than their European counterparts. Given that, you might expect there to be more of a social life, but with the Uni running a Part-Time Jobs Fair today, which recommends that students work up to 20 hours a week in part-time emplyment (thats right - 20 hours!) and coupled with the pressure to pay for tuition fees...
Then again, it might have a lot to do with the changing nature of universities. This isn't a high profile national institution, although I'm sure they'd be delighted if it was. Talking to folks suggests very strongly that a lot of students have come from little more than an hour away in any direction, not forgetting the increasing numbers of mature students and those living at home.
Well, I'd been told that EMUT is different!
Unfortunately, not all that different, though. Our Chaplaincy Centre is in an excellent location on the gournd floor of a hall of residence, very close to the Student Union. Which is good. Except that one of the residents directly above is playing rap at an aggressively high volume and it's beginning to get annoying... It might soon just be time to go walkabout and engage in random conversations and a ministry of presence - which in itself is wonderful - and certainly better than the nascent headache!
(Of course, as soon as I wrote that, God be praised, the "music" stopped! - and I found an interesting article to complement this rambling over on the good old Beeb.)
As to where faith fits into these ruminations, well I'll leave the theological refelctions till after lunch. If that is, I get no visitors wanting hospitality.
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