Little Miss Sunshine

I watched this late last night to switch my brain off from sermon prep...

it gets five chubby stars from me.
brilliant!

very funny and very sad (it the true sense of the word) all at once.
I loved it.
brilliant road movie with a great mix of odd but totally believable characters.
just shows you that beneath what looks like a disfunctional family is all the love you need to get you through...
or something like that.

rent it now.

abandon blog

we've been working on our community website - made necessary because we have a slot at greenbelt and figured it would be good to have a summary of what we're about / our little journey etc etc in one tidy place.
at least for a bit.
anyway, the website will be live in a week or so and I think, with that, I am going to abandon this blog and start up somewhere else.
it'll be a bit like the Marie Celeste - all fully rigged and drifting calmly on a cyber sea, half finished entries and not a sign of anyone about.
it'll hardly be a great mystery though. unlike me, the marie celeste dudes didn't announce that they were going to go missing.

I like the idea of moving out and starting again.
I love to blog - in a cathatic sort of way - but now that this community has momentum and life of it's own, I don't feel like I should be an 'official' voice charting it's development.
not that i really have been, but whatever...

water...

the ongoing water shortage is still having a massive impact on Gloucester.
basically there isn't any.
these blue things are dotted around the city (this one is outside our house and yes, that is Bishop Hooper's monument you can see just behind it. well done!) but as soon as they are filled there are queues of people with buckets and they're empty in an hour or so.
and the water isn't coming on any time soon.
the BBC are live from Gloucester this lunchtime - it's funny to think good old Sophie is just round the corner sending her broadcast to the nation.

the sun's shining today, which is good.
at least we can all be outside with no water. so much better than being inside with no water...

not really...

that thing about being nominated for best blogger...

not true.

I ripped it off Andrew Jones' blog.

if you hadn't already realised.
I thought it was quite funny...

(morning Rach! and h and r. x)

new to us

A couple of days ago I flicked the tv on in the early hours and found myself watching something about a new development in mountain biking called North Shore.
Apparently it originated on the north shore of Vancouver.
It involves riding very expensive bikes along specially constructed narrow wooden trails.
The thing I was watching was a huge demo in Newcastle in the UK. A bunch of riders from around the world had come to showcase the sport to a massive crowd of lads (all ready to rush out and spend at least a grand on a similar bike, so I'm guessing the event was sponsored by Cannondale or some other manufacturer...) but anyway, it was good and got me thinking.
Although there were 'new' aspects to what these guys were doing, I was thinking that essentially we've seen it all before in Moto-X, BMX, and even skateboarding.
The only really 'new' thing was the riders - but that's the part that made me think.

A while back someone challenged me that the emerging church wasn't doing anything new and that they'd been involved in all the same stuff in the 60's.
The only reply I could come up with was that, although it might look similar in many ways to stuff that's gone before, what is different is that those of us involved in 2007 didn't do it already. It is new for us.
This is our time, and what we are doing might be drawing on what others have done before, but we're not them, so it's not the same. It's our adventure, our chance to make our own discoveries.

the view from beneath my umbrella

funny.
anyway,
I'm back in Gloucester and the rain is falling.
just checked on some elderly neighbours.
odd how difficult times actually make things better in real terms, as people spend more time together and that, afterall, is what most of us really want.
I took this picture five minutes ago, round the corner from my house.
out of shot is an empty water tank that someone has busted the tap off.
useful...

a plan

I found this somewhere and loved it:

'Children, everybody, here's what to do during war:
In a time of destruction, create something.
A poem.
A parade.
A community.
A school.
A vow.
A moral principle.
One peaceful moment.'

no way, who'd have imagined...?

yeah right...

rupert's ears

sorry to keep banging on about my mate rupert, but he's just mailed me to tell me to look out for the latest thing they've done.
an ad campaign for Capital radio that involves hand-drawn illustrations of ears (none of this computer nonsense).
the posters are all over the underground.
he said the ad-director kept calling him up and saying things like 'you see the fifteenth ear from the left, nine from the top? could you shade the lobe a bit more...?'

www.thisisrude.com

Holy Joes

whilst I was in London, Kathryn Flemming mailed me to remind me that she had been asked to speak to Holy Joes about whether traditional church had anything to offer.
I decided to jump on the tube and get myself over to Cheapside to partake.

Holy Joes have been meeting since 1990, which makes them living history in terms of the emerging church movement.
Dave Tomlinson's massively influential book: The Post Evangelical came out of this community.
Here's what they say about themselves at holyjoes.com:

'Holy Joes meets on Tuesdays at 8pm downstairs at St Mary Le Bow on Cheapside. The group exists to provide discussion and spirituality in a mainly (but not entirely) Christian context.
We seek to encourage honest and open debate in an atmosphere where everyone's views are respected. We also respect any individual's decision to opt out of a discussion or part of a discussion.'

I had a great evening.
Kathryn was excellent (and not just because she quoted stuff we'd written for one of our events...)
and it was good to spend time with Steve, their current leader. looking forward to more.

As an aside to the main point of the evening, I was reminded about something pretty important:
What it feels like to be 'new' and to go along to something for the first time and feel lost and unsure.
For starters, I was a bit late. I didn't really know where I was going, and I was on my own.
When I found the church, the entrance to the crypt where HJ's meet looked like this:

Very urban-cool (don;t think it's meant to be) but also a bit daunting.
I descended and entered a room in which people who all knew each other were sitting around a table.
They made me very welcome but I struggled for quite a while to feel settled.
As it happened, I had a great time and wouldn't have changed anything, but what it did was remind me again about how difficult it is for new people to come along to anything we do.
It's not impossible, but it is tough.
Loads of churches (our included) think they are welcoming, but what newcomers experience is often anxiety rather than peace.
This is natural - part of group dynamics - and I'm not sure what any group could really do, other than 'act normal'.
I guess newcomers have to want to make an effort too, and not let their anxiety be a distorting lense through which they see the group as unfriendly or a clique.

rupert, abi and east london

last saturday we were in east london for old-friend-rupert's birthday.
rupert and his partner Abi started Rude clothing years back and it's done really well.
whilst we were on our way to meet them, we passed this poster in Spitalfield's market.
later we spotted a banksy (the car not the wall) that hasn't been nicked yet.
and a decent record shop.

Lord's prayer

I am preaching at both morning services at the cathedral this Sunday.

this is always a big ask, but especially when the text is the Lord's prayer...

so, so, so much has been written about it, and it;s so familiar to everyone that it's hard to imagine I'll have anything worth saying that people haven't already heard.

I'm giving it some prayer and thought and more prayer and some notes, and a bit more prayer etc etc,
alongside writing four short articles (also on prayer) for the Church Times,
and thinking about what in all the earth we're going to do for our worship slot at Greenbelt in a few weeks time,
and next to wondering whether we'll get our website up and half coherent by the end of next week,
beside thinking about going back to Gloucester tomorrow but leaving my family in London (no water for at least a week apparently).

at least I'm not bored...

psalm 32

funny - I usually read at morning prayer in the cathedral on a Monday.
this week I was obviously not there - but, I have the lectionary (little booklet giving the daily set readings for morning / afternoon / evening prayer) and decided to spend a little time looking up the day's recommendations.

Psalm 32 was one of those set.

verse 6 goes like this:

'Therefore let all who are faithful offer prayer to you;
at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters shall not reach them.'

how very relevant...

mission...

As I write this, news 24 is saying that Gloucester, already without drinking water or power, is about to get deluged by flood water.
The severn has already broken its banks in loads of places and parts of Gloucester are 5 feet under water.
Our house, in the city centre, is right in the way of a serious river rise so we are a little concerned.
Fortunately for the children, we are not there.
We came to London last week and meant to go home on saturday evening.
It was only because of a call from Eloise and Gareth that we turned the news on and saw what was happening.
So we're refugees in London and have no intention of returning any time soon.

It was odd that yesterday, whilst London basked in a proper summer's day, our home city was preparing for life to take a turn for the worse.
Gareth called us in London at 10pm to say that the river was expected to break it's banks in Gloucester at 1am.
Although I was pleased that my family and I were safe in London, the thought of flood water filling our home (no insurance) and swamping all our furniture, photos, books etc etc was enought to send me on a mission.

I jumped in the car and made the trip from Putney to Gloucester in a record breaking 1 hour 50 minutes.
(that's very, very quick.)
There wasn't much on the roads. As I flew into the darkest parts of the M4 beyond Reading, I realised that there was nothing coming the other way and began to be afraid.
In my mind, the worst case scenario was to arrive to find roads into the city closed, my way back to London cut off, and rising water lapping around the car.
As it turned out, I dropped down the huge hill into an almost deserted city without any trouble. There was an odd sense of uneasy calm hanging over the empty roads. I pulled into our street at midnight and noted the sandbags piled against people's doors and gave an inner leap of joy that the water handn't yet flooded our house.
I abandoned the car on the drive and set to work shifting everything I could upstairs and putting everything i couldn't on top of tables. A sweaty hour later I had done all I could. I grabbed important paperwork and the pile of mail, said a brief prayer for the house (and Gloucester) and leapt back in the car.
As I drove away into the silent night I felt amazed and grateful at being able to get in and out in time to do a little something to prevent the worst of what might happen in the coming days.
(on the way out of the city at 1am, I passed at least 10 fire engines, lights on, steaming down the hill to pump the electricty station..)

The water is rising at the moment.
Our prayers are with everyone in the city - especially G and El, Lucy and the kids.

east london

Yesterday was one of the year's markers: the birthday of twins, and very old friends, Rupert and Oli.
We all go back a long way and, as they both live and work in funky east London, what better way to celebrate the big day than eating, drinking and checking out the vibe in a magical place (that is about to be spoilt by progress)?

I love, love, love east London (anywhere from Liverpool St. station eastward.
My mum grew up there so I sort of feel at home. I suppose.
Over the past nine or ten years, we've been going out over that way (including the legendary night the week before my wedding at the Cantalopue and the then derilict (now developed) Truman's brewery).

Yesterday we met Ru, Oli and other friends at Spitz bar on the edge of Spitalfields market. Mojo described Spitz as 'east London's coolest music venue.'
No music yesterday. it was lunch time.
But plenty of atmosphere.
We followed this with pints in the good old Golden Heart and then a wander round Brick Lane and over to Ru's new studio at the old chocolate factory.
I took lots of pics. will put them up when I return to Gloucester.
But when will that be?
We were supposed to be setting off in a minute but after a call from Gareth and a look at BBC News 24, and seeing that Twekesbury is under water, I think we might leave it a while...

out in Fulham

Last night we met up with our old mates Ash and Sibs - now doing their curacy at St. Paul's Hammersmith.
in spite of all the flooding, London carried on and we found ourselves at Sophie's Steakhouse.
what a blinder of a restuarant!
great atmosphere, good service, amazing food. very, very busy so a good vibe.
it's got a New York loft apartment feel to it.
well worth a visit if you find yourself on the Fulham road one Friday night...

it's Saturday morning now and I've heard that Gloucester was hit hard by the floods.
I'm hoping our place isn't knee deep in water.

rhythm

Moot are an emerging community in London who have recently committed themselves to a monastic-style rhythm of life.

It is encapsulated in 6 words - presence, acceptance, creativity, hospitality, accountability and balance.

I am inspired.
I think our values take us to a similar place, but I like the idea of deliberate, corporate committment to a rhythm of life that informs everything we each do together and apart.
like glue.

a Village of God

I just found this somewhere, lots of food for thought.
I think we know this stuff and I hope we are trying to become like this:

"Many seekers after authentic spirituality avoid 'one-shape fits all' Sunday-only churches. In a multi-choice society they need the freedom to choose from a range of good things that meet the need of people of different temperaments, cultures and ages. In a twenty four hour society they need places that are open most of the time. In a pressured, packaged society they want churches where they can be themselves.

The first churches in Britain and Ireland were seven days a week faith communities without walls - villages of God - which catered for all of life. Emerging Celtic- style churches today are seven day a week faith communities which have some or all of these features:

Daily corporate prayer
Eating places - e.g. cafes
Accommodation units - e.g. hostel, B and B, on site units for members
Learning courses - resource centre
Work and creative arts projects
Sacred space
Mentors and counsellors
Allotments, gardens or another earth-friendly link
Facilities for all or most ages
Social entertainment

These features make up a "Village of God". They may be on one site, or on different sites but linked through pilgrim or web site trails. As well as these features, a Celtic style "Village of God" faith community has living links with the social hubs in its area. These hubs are linked with the faith community, not just with a single minister or priest. The link takes the form of being a supportive presence within the cultural pattern of the hub.
If a cultural hub is directly anti God it is still related to but, the anti-God thing is confronted as something that will damage the well-being of those concerned."

good eh?
(I know I'm always writing 'good eh?', but if it is, why not say it...)
we're a whole long, long way off this - I don;'t know about accomodation units etc - we might get there one day I suppose, but I love the idea of villages of God and the principles behind them.

roundtable at Lambeth

yesterday's roundtable discussion at Lambeth Palace was good.
Because it was specifically an attempt to bring together thinkers and practitioners from catholic / contemplative contexts, a fair bit of stuff was new to me.
Good to listen and learn though - and to share a very little bit about what we are doing in Gloucester, even though I got carried away in a contribution about pioneer ministers needing to be humble, and needlessly mentioned 'the one who must not be named' (sort of like Voldemort). no clues other than the letters NOS.
I am still annoyed at myself.
anyway, I didn't mean it - nerves...
As always with these things, the best times were discussions over lunch and coffeee.
Once we'd wrapped up, I went for a drink with Ian Mobsby, who'd facilitated the day, Gareth Powell, and Sue Wallace (who leads 'Visions' in York). It was great to be able to share stuff about what we're all doing and to have a laugh.

Still in London. it is hacking down outside, there's even pretty serious thunder and lighting.
I'm off out in it in a minute.
if this is my last blog entry, you know what happened to me...

prayer

I just stumbled across a guy called Philip of Neri (catholic saint) who was born in Florence in 1515.

apparently he had a great sense of humour and was seriously into prayer.
When asked by others how to pray his answer was, "Be humble and obedient and the Holy Spirit will teach you."

I like.

roundtable

I'm off to Horsham this evening to a big service at which my old boss, Guy, will be inducted into his new role.
should be interesting...

Tomorrow I'm attending a 'roundtable' conference at Lambath palace.
It's on fresh expressions of church in catholic and contemplative contexts.
although this is not entirely what we're doing, I am based at the cathedral and it is a space we have a fair bit to do with.
It should be a fruitful discussion, although I think I'll be more of a listener than a contributer...

Ian Mobsby, who leads Moot community in London, is facilitating the roundtable.
I was just reading something he wrote about Moot and liked this:

'These dreams have not been realised yet, and Moot remains small and fragile, but it is attempting to do what it can with a faithful group of bright and broke people, with few resources concerning what it is trying to do.'

I find that encouraging.

Kathryn

I'd meant to leave a URL for Kathryn, who came to see me this week.
She blogs excellently at:
http://www.goodinparts.blogspot.com

once again, no link in text.
you must type.
I'll add a link to the sidebar in due course.

wisdom from Eamon

I've been dipping in and out of this book by Eamon Duffy.
it's pretty good.
I liked this, in a chapter titled: When Belief Fails:

'...I know that faith is a direction, not a state of mind; states of mind change and veer about, but we can hold a direction... It is a loving and grateful openness to the gift of being.'

He goes onto say:

'Every one of us, every human being, confronts at some time the collapse of meaning and direction in our lives - in anxiety, in illness, in unemployment or broken relationships, in all the forces that frustrate and diminish us as persons, and, at the last, in our own deaths. The Church has no pat answers to the dilemas of existence, only a witness to what she knows. That under the mercy of God our perplexities, our failures, our betrayals, our limitations, can open into new freedoms, if we follow the way of Jesus.'

Well said Eamon.

Quiet Spaces: Water

I wrote something for BRF a while back. it's just come out in this little journal titled Quiet Spaces.
This issue is on the theme of water. I wrote something about being a surfer and a Christian etc etc, blah, blah.
for me the best thing (and I didn't know this when I wrote my little bit) is that one of my lecturers from Ridley has also contributed a piece.
Jo Bailey Wells (married to Sam Wells) was my Old Testament lecturer.
I am honoured to appear in print beside my old Jedi master...

sorry, got that wrong. not a jedi...
don;'t want to give the wrong impression of theological college.

www.quietspaces.org.uk/

website and Kathryn

great to meet with Phil Webb this morning to discuss getting our community website up and out there.
i am excited.
hopefully, by the end of this month, the site should be live.
We've wanted to resist having a web presence because of the added attention it brings and the temptation in others to stick labels on this sappling community. But, we're hosting a couple of film nights at the Guild Hall arts cinema in the autumn, and their brouchure goes out with our details in in a couple of weeks so information needs to be accessible and time is of the essence.

After meeting Phil, I spent some time with Kathryn Flemming.
Kathryn is excellent:
a great encouragement, a deep thinker, a fellow priest, and a friend of many involved in the emerging church scene.
She's off to Holy Joes in London to speak with them about whether there is value in traditional church.
(which, of course, there is...)

Whilst Kathryn was here, Dan and Ruth arrived, fresh from NYC - or almost.
good to have you both back! and Ligia!

This evening we meet as church (wednesday doesn't work for us this week. Oh, the beauty of flexible church.) and Gareth (helped by Eloise?) is cooking for us.

wedding

two of my old friends got married on saturday.
we've known each other since university. it was a great occassion.
I was down to 'do the prayers' in the order of service. this was all cool - an honour in fact. Chaz (groom) and I have had an ongoing conversation about faith / God / life / the universe and everything.
it's been useful for both of us. To his credit, I sent, and he read, CS Lewis' 'Mere Christiantiy' and also Yancy's 'What's So Amazing About Grace?'
I was impressed. He also made it all the way over to Gloucester for my ordination as deacon last year.
So, when Chaz asked if I'd be involved in the wedding in my new capacity as a priest, I agreed.

It's fine being 'priestly', amongst friends who, over the years, have seen me in a variety of 'contexts' (not always on sparkling form...) It makes sense to me to be a warts-and-all kind of priest with my friends who aren't Christians.
The weird thing for me was meeting other people for the first time.
When a friend gets married you realise you're just part of one segment in their life, and that there are other groups of friends you've never met.

One guy called me 'Father'.

Another guy told me 'not to be embarrassed'.

I'm not.

Anyway, it was a great day, like I said. Just a little odd, which is to be expected I suppose - I'm still working out what it means to be a 'priest' with people I know and with people I don't etc etc.

I was beginning to wish I'd done some other great thing in my life that I could talk about because when you meet a new person at a wedding, one of the first things they ask is 'what do you do?'
It's simplest to say 'I'm a priest'. But the term is loaded with so much baggage that it requires shed loads of qualification, and people don't really want to hear all of that, so you have to leave it hanging, and then they assume they have to behave in a certain way, or make an excuse and wander off.

But it's not like if I hadn't been ordained there wouldn't be a problem.
If what you 'do' is facilitate / lead / enable (whatever) a Christian community, saying all that takes more qualification than saying you're a priest.
And, like I said before, your average friend-of-a-friend doesn't want to hear that anyway.

Maybe at the next wedding I'll do one of the following:
a) hide during the social bits.
b) smile and pretend I didn't hear the 'what do you do?' question each time it's asked.
c) lie and say I'm an accountant.
e) pretend I'm mute.

small missional communities

it was great to spend a bit of time with Chris Neal (CMS) at Redcliffe college on Wednesday.
Chris is working on gathering a group of practitioners to meet early in the new year to discuss 'small missional communities'.
I'm very excited, not least because some of the others involved have got lots of experience to share and are wise minds worth hearing from. Should be good for our little community as we evolve into whatever it is God has in mind for us to become.

I'm away now until Sunday night so no more blogging until then...

community

we gathered last night as we usually do - but this time minus three of our number, whom we missed! (2 abroad, 1 away. none lost)

after a very decent takeaway, eaten disciple style, gathered on the floor around our low coffee table, we shared a simple communion. it was more of an agape meal with a blessing over bread and wine and some silence for reflection.

after this we discussed the bible stuff we'd read since last meeting. we're coming close to the end of our whirlwind Old Testament tour. we looked at Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. Not all of each book obviously, but at parts that jumped out at us.
These books are such a relief - very human and very comforting.
Real people (albeit real ancient people) working out God's call in the middle of the messiness and richness of life.

Excellent.

feat...

after posting on our labyrinth, I had a look at Jonny Baker's blog and saw the flyer for the next 'Grace'.

how impressive is that Labyrinth?
I'm assuming this is real and not photoshop wizardry.
Jonny does go on to say he just finished mowing so I'm guessing that even if this is last years, the current one looks just as accurate.

Labyrinth

a date for your diary... (and I know it's a long way off)
each year, for a week at the end of August, the cathedral nave is cleared and a prayer labyrinth is laid out.
from 7.30pm on the 23 August there will be a chance to walk the labyrinth by candlelight.

I met with a group of priests on Tuesday morning and one of the things that came out of the conversation was the importance of creating SPACE for ourselves and with/for others to encounter God.
As we create space - through something like the labyrinth, or meeting together on a wednesday night, or any number of other things, it provides opportunity for God to meet us where we are.
obvious but still worth saying.

(I nicked the image above - it isn't Gloucester but you get the idea...)

growth

I was moving a couple of pots in the garden last week and as I did, my wife pointed out that these were the little baby plants from the yellow pots that we'd used in the worship at the emerging church gathering back in March.
wow.
they're getting big.
Rach had transfered them into these bigger pots without me knowing.
it's amazing how you don't notice things growing until all of a sudden you're looking at something way bigger than what you started out with.

on another note, I had my first meeting with my new incumbent yesterday.
David was true to his word and did not let me off lightly.
Instead of agreeable CofE style banter, I was asked to talk about what my priesthood meant to me.
It was a challenging conversation for which I am very grateful.
I'm not going to bother laying it out here, suffice to state something David said about priesthood:

The job of the priest is to gather people - to continually work with people on addressing 'how are we going to be Christlike together?'

The obvious question in response is 'do we need a priest for that?'
David's reply was to do with order - God's order, the order we read about in Genesis where God intervenes in chaos and seperates one thing from another. So the priest helps to bring order in the communities that make up the people of God.
Or something like that.

Like I've said before, it'll take a lifetime to work it out.

kim

it's almost 1am and I've just got back from A&E where I've been since 10ish.

earlier this evening I was walking back from a synod meeting at St. Catherines (in my dog collar) when I witnessed a horrible accident.
a girl stepped out in front of a car doing about 40.
at first my brain couldn't process what was going on. I was about 20 feet away.
the following minuets were full of people calling for ambulances and all the stuff you'd expect after something like that has happened.
the paramedic got their pretty quick and then ambulances and the police.
I think the only people who saw what happened were me and the girl's two friends.

Once the ambulance had taken the girl (Kim) away, I decided to go to casulty to see how she was.
I still don't know - they were putting her through a scanner and no one had been allowed in to see her.
I sat with her friends for a while - and will go back in the morning to see what's what.

if you're the praying kind, please think of Kim, her family and friends.

Chaplain

Gloscat, Gloucester's FE college, dealing with students aged 16+, has a new building down at the docks which opens in September.
This morning I met with the guy who co-ordinates the chaplains and signed up to be regularly involved from September.
I've met Colin, an ex-bank manager, plenty of times before and am seriously impressed with what he's been doing in the college recently: 20+ hours a week of effective and unpaid involvement with staff and students.
It'll be good to join him in the autumn in serving the college and in helping to create space for young people to consider how life and God might fit together in the twentyfirst century.

Dan in NYC

So, Dan has landed in NYC and will no doubt be watching a show on Broadway whilst eating hotdogs and checking his pockets for his ticket to the next Yankies game.

have a great time Dan!

apology..?

the radio interview seemed to go well this morning.
it's interesting how quickly you have to think in order not to say something in front of a few thousand listeners that you wish you could take back...
no feet in mouths this morning though.

In an hour or so, I'm off to run children's church up at the cathedral.
Amongst other things, we'll be looking at Robert Raikes - born in Gloucester in 1736, Christian, owner of the Citizen newspaper, and founder of the Sunday School movement.
The school room he began in is still here in the city centre, but in a bad state of repair, which is a bit of a shame because you'd think that'd be something worth capitalising on...?

For my part, I remember Sunday School well. I think I need to apologise to my teachers for making their Sundays extrememly stressful.
I wonder if they'd think their pain was worth it?

BBC boy

I've been summoned to BBC radio Gloucester at 7.50am tomorrow.
they want to talk to me about what we're doing with our fresh expression of community thingy.
I'm not going to say much.
I'll talk about Greenbelt and throw them off the scent.
I don't know who'll be listening at that ridiculous time of day anyhow...

Oh, Dan, have a great time in NYC. can you get me one of those I love NY t-shirts?
please.
medium.
cheers.

mobile friend?

is it possible to be a true friend, or even a real person in 2007 without a mobile phone?
the big question here is: 'are true friends able to send and receive a constant stream of texts and be interuptable at all times?'

I do own a phone. most of the time it's lost or off.

when I left uni in 1996, not one of my mates had a mobile...

Live Earth

I've just been watching the Red Hot Chilli Peppers on 'Live Earth' on TV.
(those guys have got to be at least sixty. I remember thinking they were pretty old-school when I started going to gigs back in 1992)
Anyhow, they're still good. but I've gotta say, the big music events - especially the 'save the planet' or 'remember a princess' type ones, always roll out far too many old pop stars. I don't want to see Status Quo, or even the Rolling Stones, rocking round the stage pretending it;s all OK.
it's not.
Go away and make some space for someone younger and more interesting.
Harsh, but I'm entitled to my opinion...

Also, I've noticed that there's always at least a couple of girls in the crowd perched on their poor, put-upon boyfriend's shoulders, waving their arms around, hoping to get spotted by a modelling agency, or the lead singer of whichever band they happen to be watching.
What a kick in the teeth that would be for the poor bloke holding them up - to spend the whole gig staring at the floor only to have their girlfriend disappear with mr frontman afterwards.

I know I sound cynical.
no apology.
I'm going to turn the TV off to save some energy...

support in the messiness

wow.
I feel the love.
lots of friends made me see things differently after yesterday's post.
I gained a deep sense of being part of something that God is in the middle of from a bunch of people letting me know that our emerging community is something we are all invested in and not something that needs to be fussed over and planned for.
ha.
new lessons every day, as well as old lessons re-learnt.

Whilst I was thinking this through yesterday, I was struck by the fact that God always takes the initiative - and can be trusted to nurture something to maturity in the way he sees fit.

None of the characters we've come across in our bible-overview were planning much (especially on the church-growth front) when God called them.

Abraham: a childless old man.
Moses: 80 years old, looking after someone elses sheep.
Samuel: a little boy who thought God was his boss calling.
Saul: out looking for his dad's donkeys.
David: watching his dad's sheep.

God calls unprepared people to be part of something that he already has in mind.
So I guess our job is to constantly make space to listen to what God has in mind in our neck of the woods.
We need to listen well, and often, because what God has in mind for us will be different / smaller / bigger / longer / shorter / completely opposite to what he has in mind to build with his people elsewhere.

wednesday

last night went really well.
(thanks for coming along to support me Dan, Ruth, Tom and Katherine!)
As we processed in, I decided to enjoy it. and I did.
It all rolled along well, I didn't fall over, fluff my words or do anything stupid. It was powerful but not the huge event some clergy had told me it would be.
Because the cathedral Eucharist is so formal and grand, it is easy to feel you are just acting a part rather than being amongst people you love, with Christ, sharing in the meal he left us as an ongoing reminder of what he was about.
At the very least, it would be good to do away with the whole kneeling at the rail thing, and gather everyone around the altar - more like a real meal.
Robes are fine - I think they remind the wearer what role they are in, and say something about the significance of celebrating communion.
Liturgy is also good. When it's entered into prayerfully it can be amazing (although it's taken me years to be able to think this).
I guess the main thing is that Jesus was eating with friends in a natural setting and it would be good to recapture some of that. But that's not easily possible when you're actually not sitting around with your best mates but an odd collection of people you would never have chosen to be with (which is the whole point I guess.)

anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing how we'll take this forward in our community.

On another note, I'm feeling a bit glum today.
My head is full of big questions to do with church, community, leadership, growth, vision, the future etc etc, that I'm not sure I have even the beginnings of any answers to.
I'm taking a bit of a risk putting that up in a public place like this but I figure you've got to be real.
I'm starting to realise that when I slagged off my past church leaders for not doing things in the way I thought they should have been done, I didn't know the half of it.
What church leader / church / community knows exactly where they're going and just how to be / act / come across?
none.
so I'm regretting all the judging I've done in the past.
it's coming back to haunt me.

First Eucharist

I am in the zone...
In fifteen minuets or so I am off, with my robes, to the cathedral, where I will preside at communion for the first time.

It is a pround experience, so I'm told.
I'm pretty nervous.
It'll be fine, I know, but still - the cathedral and all that.

if you read this between now and 6.30pm, I'd appreciate your prayers!

Retreat and Priesting

Last wednesday I headed off on my ordination retreat.
We went to Glenfall House - the diocesan retreat centre in the countryside outside Cheltenham. It was an amzing setting for spending time thinking, reading, praying and contemplating what was about to happen to me and also for reflecting hard on the past year in Gloucester.

The retreat was led by Revd. Paul Bayes, the Archbishop's adviser on evangelism.
he was excellent.
everyone being ordained either priest or deacon (23 in total) gathered four times a day for prayer / worship and Paul gave an address each time.
He went into some deep stuff and spoke humbly, profoundly and without notes.
The rest of the retreat (apart from lunch and dinner) was in silence. No chatting.
No TV, no internet, no shopping, no constant babble of background noise - just space to hear from God.

During the services, we also had the chance for some pretty deep symbolic liturgical stuff.
The bishop washed our feet, there was also the chance for prayer for wholeness and reconciliation (which iinvolved the bishop placing his hands on our heads and praying, and then using oil to make the sign of the cross on our foreheads).
We renewed our baptism vows - and also had the chance to 'make our confession' if needs be.

All stuff that is advocated in scripture, and all helpful external realities that signify a much deeper internal reality.

Anyway, the retreat was ace and I am grateful for the chance to have done it.
Saturday was the day of ordination and, although it didn't seem as powerful to me as last year's, it was a profoundly deep time.
It felt more real this year, in that everyone from our community was there. There was also the fact that I now know and respect the cathedral staff, who were able to gather round at the moment of ordination and prayerfully support me.

So, I am now a priest.
wow.
I guess I'm going to spend the rest of my life working out exactly what that means.
I know it is something God has called me to and that is a good start.
I know it means I have a hefty responsibilty for which I will one day have to give an account to God - as the ordination service states: ''Remember always with thanksgiving that the treasure now entrusted to you is Chirst's own flock, bought by the shedding of his blood on the cross. It is to him you will render an account for your stewardship of his people."

That's quite a big deal, and I take it seriously.
I'm happy that the liturgy goes on to say: "You cannot bear the weight of this calling in your own strength, but only by the grace and power of God."

too right.
"God... Help!"

So my first Eucharist is tomorrow evening in the cathedral (5.30pm). If you're in the area and want to come along, I'd love to see you. My outgoing boss, Guy, is preaching so it should be good.

It will be interesting to see how Eucharistic stuff develops in our community.
As one of the two sacraments that Christ himself gave to be an ongoing sign of his presence among us, it needs to be there for us to be able to say we are 'church'. How we do it in practice is another matter.
The fact that baptism is the traditional and accepted route to partaking in the Lord's supper is another matter on top of the already large matter.
lots of thinking / praying / discussing to be done...
all good though.
and exciting.

Bear

today Rach and I headed down to Wells cathedral to see our good Rildey mate Val being ordained 'deacon'.
I say 'see', in reality we couldn't see anything at all because we were stuffed in a corner in a standing-room-only cathedral.
I 'heard' Val being ordained, which sort of counts. And I was feeling the love - having shared a study with him for two years and even partnered in a naked run of the Ridley quad, but that's another story...
Apart from being there for my friend, the best part of the day was meeting Bear Grylls! (Bear and Val were at school together)
You may not be impressed, but trust me, I am.
I confess the 'survivor' series was not fantastic, but I loved his book on climbing Everest, and today I not only got to shake his hand, but to have a laugh over lunch.
excellent!
Not content with being the youngest British guy to climb the world's highest peak, he has just come back from being the first person to paraglide over its summit. watch out for the documentry apparently.

Fopp have flopped

nothing to do with ordination or retreat but the discovery of a great tragedy.
Fopp, the funky-New York style music stores are all closing down.
apparently they went bust a couple of days ago and the receivers were called in which meant stores were closed and staff sent home with no pay.
they;ve all been told that there's no money for their last months wages.
that's gotta suck.
I mean it's bad enough that the stores are closing - the one in Gloucester was a light in a dark square - but for the employees to be told that they've just worked a month of their lives for free is a serious, no food/no rent/no going out bummer.
Bring back Fopp.
If everyone gave a quid or something...
please.
help.
Fopp must not go.
It can't be true.

OK, I'm going over the top here.
so I'll stop.