Saw Eclipse last night – a good film if you have been following the Twilight books and films … and I have!

I did not think the film was as face paced as the previous two, but this is kind of a ‘middle of the story’ film with happenings and information that needs to be set out as preparation for the last book and climax of the story.

Towards the end of the movie Bella is questioned over stuff by Edward and her response is interesting;

‘This isn’t a choice between you and me …. this is a choice between what I am supposed to be and who I am.’

Bella’s words make me think again of those people I have been listening to recently. People I have already mentioned in previous posts that have been prevented from exploring their spirituality because of expectations placed on them by others. These expectations are various but usually amount to how a person looks, behaves or thinks. There seem to be many who are happy to tell others what to think and how to behave – even if that means the person has to reject and deny who they happen to be.

I’m not sure that God needs people who are doing what others think they are supposed to be doing.
If that is God’s plan, we may as well all be clones, doing what each other thinks we should be doing, i.e. all copying each other!

I think God needs people whom God has created, in God’s image,  to be themselves. Surely by being ourselves we are being the people God created us to be …. no?

but … back to the film …. worth going to see, if you like vampires and stuff!

So yesterday was Pentecost.
The 50th and last day of the Easter celebrations.
As if to emphasise the point, we returned to ‘ordinary time’ in Morning Prayer today and seemingly the excitement of Pentecost is all forgotten.

But should it be?

I had the pleasure of preaching at the 1030 Eucharist in the cathedral yesterday morning. During that time we looked briefly at a number of the meanings that could be associated with Pentecost. For me, though, the major application of this occurrence is that we are living in new times. In the ‘old times’ the Holy Spirit was only available to prophets, priests and kings.

In these New Times, however, we can all be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we can join with God’s mission of transforming this world. In that case – 24 hours on, and actually for every day, we can continue to live in the excitement of Pentecost.

I read a great article towards the end of last week: ‘God Inside Out: notes towards a misionary theology of the Holy Spirit‘ which I picked up on from Jonny’s blog. It’s well worth a read and i have been contemplating bits of it over the last few days. 

Bevans basically challenges the way we have traditionally view the Trinity. Bevans says ‘we simply have to reverse the order in which we commonly think of the Son and the Spirit in the world. Commonly we think of God first sending the son, and of the spirit being sent in that context, to bring to completion the work of the son. … on the contrary, God first sent the Spirit, and then sent the Son in the context of the Spirit’s mission to bring to completion … the work of God.

It’s an interesting view and one that sits well in light of Genesis 1 and the article ends with a challenge to think more missiologically about the Holy Spirit.

I won’t say more – go read and come back here and talk!

my entry for this weeks Photo Friday
I like the way the sun gives the impression that it is burning a hole through the photograph.

Tuesday has been another full day at the Abbey and associated things.

I started the day meeting with Chris from COTA and Pete, a local Episcopalian priest, from Seattle. He wanted to meet tot alk about fresh expressions and how he is attempting to reach into his community. I hope to be able to visit his church on my last Sunday to share something about what I do in Rochester.

I returned to the Abbey for lunch before we visited the Mosaic Coffee Bar. This is run buy the local Nazarene church and is a resource for the community to show love. I loved the chalkboard pricelsit shown in the photo which asks for donations rather than charging for drinks. The thinking behind this is that a price list can exclude people. having a donation operation means that the rich really can help the poorer by paying extra for teir drinks, and that the poorer do not have to stay outside just because they cannot afford to buy a drink.

After Mosaic we met with Jon Myers and Jen Grabarczyk who are birthing a new style of church in Seattle. Jon was moving in to the neighbourhood yesterday and today. They are setting up the Beacon Hill Church. Jon and Jen have no real idea of what this may look like, but they are following the prompting of God and seeing what happens. They were really cool people! It was interesting to hear how they thought they should start.

Following this I caught up with Scott and Sue over some sushi before we headed downtown to the Lo-Fi Club which each Tuesday hold a breakdancing and rapping night. It was brilliant to be able to watch this community at work; how they welcomed and interacted with each other and then start to consider what church may look like with these people in this setting at this time. It was a great time and one immediate observation for me was the love and respect shown within the community to each other. Each known person was welcomed with a hug. People helped each othet to stretch before dancing. There was a lot of dignity and respect shown this evening. I took the Flip Video rather than my camera but it was quite dark so I will need to work on the clips before I can post them here.

WE left at 1am and I am now falling asleep!

Some reflections on the past few days which have been quite tiring and so hence the lack of blogging. Interaction with people is what makes me come alive, it also seems to result in being very tired and I have not been up to blogging over the last few days. The picture sums up the week for me in quite a few ways – I can sense that light is breaking through, and yet I can’t really see clearly quite yet and need to move or climb … just can’t decide which it is!

It has been a very active week in w/s with countless conversations. I was struck this week by the warmth of the welcome and interaction by so many people as well as the privilege of the depth of stuff that was being shared with me. I can’t quite believe the trust that is developing.

The last couple of days I received a message from someone from w/s to let me know they had been taken to hospital and so I visited today. This was a real privilege thing to be able to do, and I felt very chuffed to be asked to visit.

It does seem that this last week has been rich in conversation and action. I wonder what is going on here? Is God moving, or is this a natural stage of building relationships with people? Or maybe it is a bit of both! Actually I’m not sure at all, but that’s some of the excitement of all this trying to work with God stuff!

At Angelspace we hired the Party Photo Booth which was good fun.
Lots of had their photo taken and eventually they will be available online.
Jean said I wasn’t to put this photo on-line …. I might be sacked now.
The pics are funny tho and worth the risk!

A day for memories and for prayer for those still suffering.

I finished my sermon early and so was able to go for a cycle with Joe.
While we were cycling along the river we came across this scene.
Someone has a great sense of humour with the ‘For Sale’ sign.
Joe said – there you go … you can afford that one rather than the boat I saw back in Poole!

Today I acted like a real vicar for a little while as I was invited by the Royal Naval Association in Chatham to conduct an annual memorial service at the Drill Hall in the dockyard which is now the University Library.

The event we were remembering happened on this day, well in the evening actually, of 3rd September 1917 when over 130 RN ratings were killed while sleeping in the drill hall. The area was bombed and although the bomb itself did not kill many, the fact that the building had a glass roof meant that many died from horrific injuries from falling shards of quarter inch thick glass that tore into bodies and limbs.

The bombing was the first night time bombing raid from the Germans and took everyone by surprise. Ordinary Seaman Frederick W. Turpin went to the scene to help with the wounded. He recorded what happened in his notebook:

It was a gruesome task. Everywhere we found bodies in a terribly
mutilated condition. Some with arms and legs missing and some
headless. The gathering up of the dismembered limbs turned one
sick….It was a terrible affair and the old sailors, who had been in
several battles, said they would rather be in ten Jutlands or
Heliogolands than go through another raid such as this.

You can read more on the history here.

Today it was an honour to stand with the men and women of the Royal Navy. In some ways it may seem starange to remember an event from such a long time ago as this could not really have an effect on us today … could it? I believe it is good to remember but this morning I spoke to an old sailor. He told me his grandfather was due to sleep in the hall on that night. As it happened he had shore leave and was in a house in Chatham that night. A tear came in the mans eye as he said ‘and of course, if my grandfather had been there, the likelihood is I would not be here.’

The frailty of life is something to be remembered, not to be morose, but to spur us on to take opportunities that come our way because none of us know what is around the corner.