Category Archives: church

a beautiful film

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I watched Lars and the Real Girl last night; which I can best describe as a simply beautiful film.

Without giving too much of the plot away, the film is about Lars who develops a relationship with Bianca, a doll that he orders from the internet. Lars takes Bianca to parties and to church. The film outlines how the relationship develops between Lars and Bianca, but more crucially, it shows how the people of the town react and relate to the relationship.

It is the way the people of the town act towards this delusional and awkwardly shy character of Lars that I thought made this film particularly beautiful to watch. It is a great and challenging example of genuine loving community, and more than once throughout the film I wondered what would the world be like if people really could, and did, act like this.

This is not just an example of what honest loving community could look like, it is also an example of what real church could be …. actually is there a difference?

(Thanks Meghan for drawing my attention to this film … if you had not guessed, I enjoyed!)

60 years!!!

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Today was a pretty special day in the cathedral and one that I don’t think I will ever repeat again. Today we celebrated the 60th anniversary of John Prior’s ordination. I have never heard of anyone celebrating 60 years of ordination before. I can’t believe it is a very common occurrence.

John is an amazingly gracious man who simply loves the cathedral, and loves people more. In my mere 3 years here John has consistently been a great support and encouragement to me. That’s nothing to do with me – he is a great support and encourager of lots of people. I think what is pretty amazing is that John does not really ‘get’ what I am about but …. he is still one of the most supportive characters I know, who is always excited just to hear stories. John loves God and loves people. John is one of those few people who you will find no-one to say a bad work against.

Today I had the privilege of being John’s deacon as he presided and preached to mark this 60th year. A gracious man, a loved man …. and a man who us young ones would do well to look up to as we wonder how to move forward. I clearly did not know John 60 years ago – but today he is a man who still loves what he is called to do. I so pray that I can still have that attitude in just 10 years time, let alone 60!

Thanks John for being gracious to allow me to share such an exciting time in your life.

Larger churches and fx

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The Church Army’s latest research bulletin has some interesting articles and helps with an ongoing discussion. The bulletin is particularly asking:

Are larger churches a help or a hindrance in our mission to reach the non-churched?
Are they a relic from the past, or a vision of the future?
Do they limit maturity or create the right environment for growth?
If we look closely at the numbers, is the numerical growth we see actually hiding the number of people leaving through the back door?
Are there ways they could better cater for those who are struggling?
Is their theology too rigid for people searching for deeper answers?
How does one decide what maturity looks like for church communities; is it individual or relational?

Steve Hollinghurst kicks the paper off by asking, intriguingly, whether we can learn anything from larger retailers and how they have operated in a  changing world. He ends  by suggesting, rightly in my opinion, that ‘a greater diversity of churches is needed, but not a greater commercialisation of them.’

Go have a read here

an exciting day …

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It’s been a bit of a while since I last blogged. There has been a lot going on but one of the highlights was the consecration of Adrian as Bishop of Stepney in St. Pauls Cathedral on Friday.

The day was brilliant and it was a real privilege to see our friend consecrated as a bishop is such amazing surroundings by the the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The sadness and loss still hurt but they are no longer the focus. Our prayers go with Adrian and we share in the excitement that the church has appointed a bishop of the calibre of someone like Adrian.

We shall all be watching with interest to see the great things that will continue with this mans ministry. An exciting day for Adrian and Gill, and exciting day for the London Diocese … but surely an exciting day for the whole church!

letter to a 6 year old

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During the run up to Easter and throughout it I fell behind in keeping up to date through boththe blog world and the news … so I missed this story from the Telegraph publishing a letter from Archbishop Rowan to a six year old girl who wrote a letter to God:

Dear God
How did you get invented?
Love Lulu.

Lulu’s dad sent the letter to various heads of churches … seems only Archbishop Rowan has the time to answer:

Archbishop Rowan’s response:

Dear Lulu,
Your dad has sent on your letter and asked if I have any answers. It’s a difficult one! But I think God might reply a bit like this –
‘Dear Lulu – Nobody invented me – but lots of people discovered me and were quite surprised. They discovered me when they looked round at the world and thought it was really beautiful or really mysterious and wondered where it came from. They discovered me when they were very very quiet on their own and felt a sort of peace and love they hadn’t expected.
Then they invented ideas about me – some of them sensible and some of them not very sensible. From time to time I sent them some hints – specially in the life of Jesus – to help them get closer to what I’m really like.
But there was nothing and nobody around before me to invent me. Rather like somebody who writes a story in a book, I started making up the story of the world and eventually invented human beings like you who could ask me awkward questions!’
And then he’d send you lots of love and sign off.
I know he doesn’t usually write letters, so I have to do the best I can on his behalf. Lots of love from me too.
+Archbishop Rowan


This along with his Maundy Thursday challenge illustrates what a toop bloke we have as Archbishop with a great ability to explain theology to a variety of audiences … thank you Archbishop Rowan!

an excellent appointment

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Today it has been announced that Adrian will be the next Bishop of Stepney.
This is excellent news for the Church of England, and the Diocese of London in particular – although sad news for both Rochester Cathedral and Diocese.

In the short time I have spent with Adrian I have learned a lot and could not have asked for a better training incumbent. It was always clear to many that he would become a bishop – and be an excellent one.

There will be sadness in a few months when we say farewell. Today, however,  is a day to celebrate a fantastic church appointment. Congratulations Mr Dean!

London Diocese press release here.

what’s ludicrous today ….

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This tweet from Roy (re-tweeted from ship of fools) made me smile thoughtfully today:


‘Galileo was born today, 1564. He championed the ludicrous idea that the earth goes round the sun. Thankfully, the Church put him right!!’


It is quite scary that those in authority in the church thought they were so so right in condemning Galileo. His idea seemed madness to the extent that he was tried by the Inquisition and found guilty of heresy and placed under house arrest.

I find it interesting that we look at that now and wonder how the church could have been so wrong. Were they missing the big picture? Were they scared of the new? Were they just closed to a new idea that they themselves had not had? Was it simply because the bible did not say  ‘the sun is at the centre of the universe’ that it could not, therefore, be right!

The comment made me smile; but it also concerns me. What is the church condemning today which future people will look back at in disbelief?

racing around

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The weekend, well Saturday, has been a hectic one with me racing to different parts of the diocese.

It started with speaking about my role at a prayer breakfast at St. Augustines Bromley Common. It was a great breakfast and the conversations I had with people before I spoke were excellent as well. The people there seemed very interested and had some very good questions. (Thanks Kev for the opportunity)

I then hopped in the car to join Diocesan Synod which was being held in St. John’s Tunbridge Wells to again talk about my role as part of the Mission and Unity report. This was a good opportunity for me to share the reality of my role and what I have been doing for the last 2 years. I think that one of the downside of the Fresh Expressions marketing is that pioneer ministry is seen by some as exciting and full of fun … it’s ‘sexy’ ministry as someone in the diocese said to me not that long ago. I ended my report by sharing that this is the hardest thing I have ever had to do (even harder than working with knife carrying gangs when we did detached youth work!) and that most of the time I felt vulnerable, isolated, tired …. in other words pioneer ministry is just hard work like any other ministry and work. But … this is what I am called to and I love it! (Thanks Jean and Paul for the opportunity)

I think the people there ‘got’ what I was trying to share and I was certainly encouraged by comments afterwards.

After synod I jumped back in the car to race (well …. as far as you can race in a Citroen C1!!) back to GIllingham and arrived in time to watch Gills unluckily score a 0-0 draw against Oxford before then heading for the cathedral to be quiz master at the cathedral quiz …. which was a good way to end a long day with lots of laughter and banter! (So … finally thanks for the opportunity there Lynn and Colin!

Jesus believes in us

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Today I preached in the cathedral and tried to look at todays gospel reading by asking ‘why?’ Why did these people, who had work to do and businesses to run, just get up and go with Jesus, leaving everything behind to follow him.

We looked a bit at First Century life, taking in how disciples were trained and how rabbi’s selected their followers. Essentially, rabbis didn’t ask people to follow them, they relied on their reputation while expecting people to ask to follow them. Each rabbi would only be interested in taking the best and would grill them with questions looking to be impressed by them before allowing them to become  a disciple. Many aspired to be disciples but few attained it, failing at a number of hurdles and so leaving school and returning to the family business … which is where we find these early disciples.

Todays reading shows Jesus turning that whole thing upside down. Jesus the rabbi calls people who are not expecting it. As a rabbi he wants the best. He looks at these men and says ‘I want you’ … i.e. you are the best! These guys had already failed in their quest to become disciples and yet now, Jesus calls them … no wonder they respond immediately!

I ended my talk today by remember ing that since becoming a Christian at the age of 17 I have heard over and over again that I need to have faith, that I need to believe in Jesus and so on and so on. I do. But, here, in this reading, today though we discover something different:

Jesus believes in us!
Jesus calls us because he believes in us.

These early disciples left because they heard the rabbi say ‘I believe in you’ … and Jesus says the same today!

I find that pretty cool!

(just found this from Abbotsford which takes the follow me theme in a different and interesting way)

available to serve

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Today was another day of privileges in this role I have in Rochester.
I got to spend time with some great people and chat.

At around 3.00pm today we had a call from the vergers saying there was a young man in the cathedral that wanted someone to pray with him. I went over to meet the guy, of about 30, who shared his whole life and ‘stuff’ he was struggling with before he asked me to pray for him. We prayed together … and I hope things work out for him.

In all of this as I reflet upon my role and ask ‘what am I here for?’ it still amazes me the level of trust that total strangers will place upon me simply because I am a priest in the Church of England. What amazes me more is that people still come into a church building, such as Rochester Cathedral, seeking help. People argue that many see the cathedral as ‘just’ a historical building … well that may be so but today shows that people also see it as a place where spirituality is still very much alive.

As I seek to create something new with those from the gathering, I guess a question we need to ask is how do we make ourselves available to support those like that young man today who wanted someone to pray with him. There are many that will not come to a church building …. so how do we let them know we are available to serve?