I met up with Jen, Paul and Barbara today in Rochester for a little while for a pre-graduation celebration. It was great to see these people and we are all massively proud of Jen. I don’t think I know many other people who have worked so hard to achieve something.
2:1 in Applied Theology …. good on you Jen. You massively deserve this and hope you have had a wonderful day. Proud’s too small a word …. but proud and more we all are!
The weekend has been a great one for being with friends and spending time with the family.
The weekend got off to a great start with a ‘blokes’ curry night at the best curry house in the world where we ate and drank well. It’s been a while since we have done this and all agreed we need to do it more regularly!
On Saturday we watched Despicable Me at the cinema. A good and funny film if somewhat predictable … there are only so may different ways to spin the same sort of story of person presenting an evil persona in order to protect themselves from their past. It’s worth a watch.
This morning at the cathedral was tinged with sadness as Dan conducted the girls choir for the last time in the 1030 Eucharist. Dan goes on to new things and I will miss his skill and passion around the place. God’s speed matey!
Watching the football this afternoon was good, even though the result was rubbish! Spending time with other friends later this afternoon was good and mad as well.
What makes a good weekend? Time with God, laughter and chilling with friends and family ….. this weekend had all of that so it was a top weekend!
Yesterday, Sarah and I had the pleasure of joining with others and celebrating the marriage of Chris and Annie in the cathedral.
It was a wonderful ceremony and the reception afterward was a great time to continue the celebrations. There was a lot of joy and unanimous agreement that we had witnessed something both special and significant as these two people, who clearly are madly in love with each other, start this new phase of their life journey together.
Congratulations Annie and Chris!
We have had a brilliant week away with good friends in Cornwall.
We had a wonderfully relaxing time with special people and outstanding views – one such typical sunset in the picture with people silhouettes chatting as we watch.
It’s always great to go away with people you can just switch off and relax with – talk when you need to and sit quietly when you want to.
I have returned again, as we did in January, feeling really blessed and relaxed along with being very conscious of the special people we have around us.
The space has again enabled me to see members of my family and friends in a different way. It has enabled me to gain perspective once again on a lot of things. The space has allowed God to do some stuff in my head too – something there about ideas needing spaces etc etc.
I am back now – and I’ll have to wait and see if the space-idea formula causes anything to emerge!
It was odd this morning, though, waking up and hearing nothing after a week of waking to the beautiful sound of the waves. I realised how much I miss that from my Weymouth days and how I had got to take it for granted and now, more worryingly, how much I’d forgotten I loved the sound.
The bad thing about holidays, though, has got to be the coming back – it is hard getting into the work mode again … but it will come quickly – after all how much does it take to get into my sort of coffee and chat work mode!
It’s been a pretty amazing weekend with quite a lot packed in.
Saw Beth dance at the Hazlitt theatre and I was amazed, as were her brothers, with how excellent a dancer she has become. She was obviously thoroughly enjoying herself and we were all so proud to be part of this.
Sunday I preached and presided at the communion service at St. Mark’s in Gillingham. It was nice to be back and be in the very informal setting of St Mark’s with friends that I have known for years. It was an interesting time – I never thought I’d see the day when St mark’s used wafers in communion, and nor did I ever think I would be the person consecrating and administering them! There’s always surprises to be had.
The weekend had a sad tinge to it in that we visited Ben (cool photo of Ben the BBQ-er don’t you think!!) and Zoe for a BBQ and said goodbye as Ben is leaving to head up what seems an incredibly exciting project in Norfolk. He will be youth working and setting up a fresh expression of church – a job I’d love to be involved with and I look forward to hearing how this pans out in the future. But, I guess all good weekends need to have a sad tinge – so bye B,Z and E – lots of us are going to miss you!
Today has been a great day.
It’s been great due to other people and their encouragements – although apart from one person the others of the last 24 hours would probably not see themselves as being encouragers but they are.
The day started yesterday really when after reading my post about working with different groups in the pub someone took the time to phone me, offer reflection and pray with me. I was moved to tears as I realised outside of the cathedral staff team this is the first person that has done that. Not only was it humbling but it was so powerful to hear the words of a friend praying down the phone line for me. To the person that took the time … thank you – you are great!
Yestrday evening I went out for a curry and a few drinks with a friend. We chatted about lots of stuff and, again, this was a real encouragement to me. It was great just to meet up with someone who knows me and chill. The action of chilling together, although small in their eyes, was a massive boost to me. To the person that took the time … thank you – you are great!
Today I was leaving ‘spoons and had a text from a friend asking to meet up for coffee. We did just that and chatted, just by chance another friend joined us – and again, just being able to hang out, chat and enjoy drinking a coffee together was a real privilege and a real encouragement, or boost if you like! To the person that took the time … thank you – you are great!
Tonight a friend visited and we chatted over old times of working together. This person has some exciting news as well as it was a joy to hear what was happening. Just the fact of having a friendship of some 6/7 years from the simple act of working together is amazing. This person has been great at staying in touch and I thank God she has To the person that took the time … thank you – you are great!
My little point as I disappear to bed is – don’t under-estimate how powerful the simple things like communication can be – for me the day has been amazing thanks to the actions of others.
Today was quite a special and emotional day at St Marks. I popped into the end of the service, which was John’s last service, to share in the good will celebrations.
It will be strange to think that John is no longer at St marks. This is a man I have respected, been infuriated by, been loved by, loved, encouraged by and been a friend of. I have learnt from him many things – in partiular how to take things with grace. We have many different views, which possibly goes with being from different eras, but we have always maintained a care and respect for each other.
I will miss this encouraging man being around the place. The amount of tears running around the place this morning showed how much of a difference this man has made in peoples lives – as did the massive collection that wa staken up for his gifts over the last few weeks.
After the service we joined others at our local curry house for a goodbye meal.
During the service John was called St John, married to St. Judith. Enjoy retirement together – you deserve it.
I met up with the London Cluster for the last time today. This is the group of YFC Directors that run centres in and around London.
We did our business ‘bit’ in Covent Garden before retiring to the Chandos (which is still my favourite London pub)for lunch.
After lunch I was presented with some wonderful gifts – something to wear under my cassock (I’m not telling?!) a pack of Drinking Games cards which will come in handy when I am sitting in Wetherspoons in Rochester with my dog collar on, a very generous gift of money and a fantastic card.
I was entirely surprised and lost for words – not a common or comfortable place for me to be in!
These great friends told me how much they appreciated what I had been doing but I sincerely believe that all I have been doing is encouraging and supporting friends – the job has been fairly easy because the people I work with, my friends, have made work very easy.
I am touched by the generosity of gifts, but more so by the generosity of friendship of this group of people that have become a large part of my life.
Thanks again guys and girls – you’ve been great and I really hope we manage to stay in touch.
I went up to this great pub last night in Farnborough to see my friend Jen who now has shares in the place and as well as being part tenant is the pub padre with t-shirt n all!
It was brilliant to be able to catch up there with Jen, Mouldy and Jezza and have a little laugh.
This is such a great place to be a pioneer minister and from talking to Jen conversations are already happening because the village is small and people know who she is and what she is about. It’s amazing the things that happen when you decide to put yourself in the real world instead of hiding in a church building.
Jen – I love the pub, I’m jealous you have one and I don’t (!) but I will be visiting again and look forward to hearing exciting stories of the Kingdom of God growing in The Woodman.
Oh the pic … that’s evidence of a genuine ontological change in The Greenwich Pilgrim who is in a pub supping on a cup of tea!
Although not being able to drive a massive distance, or sit at the computer screen for any length of time, at the moment is quite a frustration there are advantages as it ‘frees’ me to do other things.
Yesterday I was able to drop in on a good friend who is currently off work for not dis-similar reasons and being able to chat and discuss stuff that matters to us was a joy. It was also quite unique to be able to catch up a friend in a relaxed setting during the day as both of us rarely have the time to do that in the reality of our normal situations.
It was great to drink coffee and just talk – a privileged time for me. I came away incredibly energised and fulfilled as I think God was bouncing around in our conversation.
It strikes me that as I think about the future I need to consider how to preserve this attitude to time. If I allow it to be squeezed with too much in my program then surely that will cramp any pioneering spirit that I may be able to follow? Time to allow people space and to allow the unexpected is surely something I need to be dwelling on at the moment.
The Shiny Headed Prophet 