Category Archives: church

Integrate for integrity

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Sarah led the family service today and the theme was integrity. Sarah has this great talent for using simple but profound images that draw you in to the topic and then keep repeating on you – like a good pleasurable meal!

Today Sarah made bubble solution from water, washing up liquid and sugar. From this she drew that if we integrate all 3 of these useful things then they produce a new substance which is quite fun to have. She then went on the use the seprate ingredients symbolically to represent different parts of our lives concluding by asking if we live boxed lives which are seperate, or do we allow all parts of our lives to integrate allowing a certain transparancy. Integration then leads to integrity.

It had never really struck me before that if we allow integration of the different spheres of our lives then we may achive integrity in our lives. When we live separate little lives we don’t.

New beginnings

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It’s also been an emotional church weekend.
Today it was great to see 4 people confirmed by Bishop Brian this morning at St. Marks.
Yesterday we enjoyed a Hog Roast to say bye to Jim and mags and this morning we presented Jim with a farewell gift of a data projector.
Loads of us are going to miss Jim and Mags in so many different ways.
A series of new beginnings for a lot of people.
(for those of St Marks interested more photos of Hog Roast in the flickr album)

Using my senses

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I had a wonderfully enjoyable people day in London. A day when I used all my senses in a variety of enjoyable ways.
Met with some people at Premier Radio to look at Hope 08 in London and consider how we can encourage engagement with Hope08 across London. This was a focused 90 minute meeting which seemed to go well particularly as the plan from the meeting is sensible in using our networks that already exist rather than setting up some new infrastructure. The cooperation was a delight to see and hear.

Following the Hope meeting I shot across to the city to have lunch with good friend Terry. I rarely go the city part of the city and the atmosphere is definitely different from the other ares I usually hand around in. Catching up, chatting about our different worlds and eating together was a special and privileged time. The steak was fantastic to taste and smell too!

After lunch I walked to the Tate Modern (via Monmouth Coffee Company in Borough Market!)to pop in on the Dali and Film Exhibition. I lost myself in Dali;s films and ended up staying a lot longer that I had planned. I skipped fairly quickly through the paintings as I have seen a lot of Dali’s creative wonders, but really wanted to watch the films. Un Chien Andalou was my favourite – as the guide says it is ‘violent, funny, illogical and dynamic’. I actually sat, laughed, smirked and winced (particularly near the beginning of the film) through the film twice – magical! I was touched by the delicate portrayal of the characters within such short films.

The amusing part of the day on the way home was people sniffing the air and wondering where the lovely coffee smell was coming from – that would be my bag containing a kilo of freshly roasted beans then! The coffee was great when I got home!

breakfast and the race

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There was a great family feel about breakfast together as church this morning before wandering to see the Tour de France cyclists together. There was something quite different about meeting together to eat before going off and doing something. Loads of people wondered why we do not do this more often – but I’m not sure whether at was because we were experiencing an event we liked and saw God within, or whether we all like croissants, pane au chocolat, brioche and fresh coffee! Actually – either reason is good enough to do this more regularly. We have often done church BBQ’s – but this was so much easier to do.

The race itself was quick but fun to be at. The leader had a good few minutes on the rest before the main pack raced through. It was an amazing sight – not an event I would like to be part of and one that looked quite tight and dangerous to me.

It was a good experience to be there – and glad to be able to say that Medway did the tour proud with its support. Maybe we’ll do this again next year.

For those of you interested in the photos, I set up a flickr album.

Tour de … Gillingham?

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The Tour de France comes through Gillingham tomorrow which will be quite an exciting event.

We are going to meet up together in the church hall for ‘petit dejeuner’ before wandering off to watch the 200 float carnival and wait for the riders to sprint through our town.

It’s going to be cool to be part of France for the day!

Reel Questions

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Excited to say that Reel Questions kicked off last night at St. Marks.
It was good in that there was a number of people there – not as many as we would have liked but not as few as I feared! Reel Questions is a 5 week course that Jim and I wrote last year looking at Christianity through contemporary film. I led last nights session on Identity using I Robot, Collateral and Blade Runner.

We start by chatting in our table groups (covered with cheese and wine)about some statements made about the topic. Then we look at a few film clips and discuss each of these in the table groups. Finally someone present around 5/10 minutes of what Christianity and the Bible says about the topic and again discuss that in the table groups. Last night there was a lot of discussion going on which was cool to see.

Next week Jim will be looking at Love with Love Actually, Bridget Jones , Passion of Christ.

an eventful weekend .leading to thoughts on worship

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an eventful weekend:
Beth has her arm in plaster
Gills won the football
joined Sheena in the club for drinks before the game
I sorted new tyres on the ‘new’ caravan
We ate kebabs and hid behind the sofa during Dr Who
Tom did church parade with scouts
kicked a ball in the back garden with Joe
Sarah made 24 hours stretch to 30 in a day
church was quite good – (although I am currently struggling with songs written by young men whose lyrics make me think they have written them to their girlfriend rather than God!)

The highlight of the weekend was catching up, even if too briefly, with people I have not seen for a while. Most of these people were in church on Sunday morning. Seems to me that there is a good case on Sunday for our worship to also consist of catching up and laughing and maybe praying with each other rather than exclusively the standard worship of sing songs, pray and listen to sermon.

I left church this morning, unusually one of the last, but still finding myself wishing I had caught up more with more friends. I’m starting to feel strongly about this. If we say church should be about quality of relationship with God and each other then surely part of our worship needs to allow personal relationships with each other to develop. If we agree that people join ‘church’ due to the quality of authentic faith and genuine relationship that they see lived out, then we need to give space for this authentic, person to person, relationship to develop alongside our relationship with God.

I wonder if we have started to concentrate too much on God on a Sunday, and neglected each other?

funeral observation

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Today I assisted my vicar with a funeral at the Crematorium. ‘Assist’ is a grand name for ‘read the reading’ but it’s another box ticked on my ‘green form’!

Before the funeral, John took me for a tour behind the scenes which was quite fascinating and not something you get to see normally. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was efficient, clean, professional and real. It was interesting to see what happened next and he things are done carefully and respectfully.

It was weird being a a funeral of someone I had never known. Again – it’s not normally a thing you do as you really only go to the funerals of those you know! Talking to John afterwards it became clear that the opposite can be true of a vicar – it’s quite unusual to be at a funeral of someone you do know! I had not thought of that before.

After all the family funerals recently it was interesting to remain detached and observe and take part impartially. It did seem a lot easier to understand what was happening. Obviously it was still sad for the people there, and I would not want to disrespect the event in any way. All bereavement is shockingly hard for those who knew the person.

I’m unsure what funerals will be like for a pioneer minister. I wonder if they will be traditional, or if people will want to write or reframe stuff. It will be interesting to find out – although I’m not sure that I want to know too soon after I start!

remember, reflect, respond … but no sorry!

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I was disappointed with the content of the service at Westminster Abbey today.

It was a privilege to be there, it was great to see the Abbey being used to bring together people to mark the end of the worst atrocity this country, and indeed our church, has been involved in. But still, it was disappointing for a number of minor and one very major reason.

The minors –
1. style of music: very white, very classical with little bits of African input
2. processions: very white, very pomp and circumstance with little bits of African input
3. theatrical ceremony: standing for certain people and not for others; notably sitting as Archbishop John Sentamu, a man who has experienced oppression due to his belief and colour, while we needed to stand for the queen whose ancestors need to take responsibility for what we were remembering
4. singing of the national anthem at the end (which I did not take part in as I never have, nor ever intend to, sing the national anthem)- I think this could be seen insensitive at the end.

The service today had 3 parts: remember, reflect, respond.
The only response was to pray.
The response I was hoping for, a chance that we could apologise to our African brothers and sisters for the slave trade was missing.
A powerful opportunity to show the Christian ability of admitting mistakes was missed.
This is why Toyin Agbetu made his protest, and it was very understandable of him to do so.

I do not know if I am correct, but Toyin Agbetu seemed to start his protest at the start of the confession where the Dean said ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Let us therefore confess our sins….’

What the Dean said was correct, but I have to ask if anyone read through this service to see how it would be heard. I heard, and I am sure others did, by implication of these words that all of us have a part to play in this atrocity. I’m sure that is not what was meant, but it could be heard that way. I wonder if it was this that outraged Toyin Agbetu in particular this afternoon.

Archbishop Rowan, however, spoke excellently as we would expect. He said that there was still hope, and that the hope of Jesus was the only thing that could bring transformation to our country. There were a few ‘amens’ around the Abbey when those words were heard. You can see his sermon text here.

I feel the service was not complete wit such a major gap and believe strongly that Blair needs to make this stand and formally and fully apologise for the part we played in this.

I don’t understand the difficulty.
Why is it so hard to say sorry?

Women Bishops

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I received this today vi Kat fro the Moot Community.
If you agree then please write …

People have been invited to send in their views (to arrive before 30 March) to the Legislative Drafting Group appointed to prepare legislation for the Ordination of Women as Bishops. So we are asking for your support please, and to write (or email) your views to Jonathan Neil-Smith, House of Bishops, Church House, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3NZ. His e mail is womenbishopsgp@c-of-e.org.uk.

We suggest you include the following points – in your own words:

Women should be ordained bishops as soon as possible.
The legislation should be simple, clear, final and unconditional (or you may prefer to say you want a single enabling measure).
Provision for opponents in conscience should not be part of the legislation but should be dealt with separately by each bishop.
To restore and maintain trust in the integrity and authority of the episcopate and the unity of the church each Diocesan bishop should be responsible for everyone in the Diocese and should be responsible for making the arrangements he or she judges to be right, for the care of opponents.
The Act of Synod should be rescinded as proposed by the Diocese of Southwark motion, and a debate on this motion should be held as soon as possible.
Since the Church has accepted the orders of women as priests and bishops, then in future those being ordained should accept those orders as valid in accordance with Canon A4.