a new era

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Mark Beach was installed as Dean of Rochester today … quite a lot of excitement after a very long wait. It was a privilege to be present today and to start to learn about where we may be going as a cathedral.

It’s a big job and a lot of change, not only for Mark but also for Annabel and Ellie … so if you are the praying type of reader of this blog, please join us in praying for the family to settle into a different life … and to experience the blessing of God in new and fresh, and maybe even unexpected, ways.

Welcome Mark, Annabel and Ellie … good to have you here!

prodding in the direction of God

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Yesterday I attended the diocesan gathering, Beyond the Big Society, which was an incredibly valuable day – not least for the input and challenge of Archbishop Rowan in the afternoon.

After hearing about some initiatives around the diocese which seek to transform community we heard from speakers of national, and international organisations (Stop the Traffik, Mothers Union, Housing Justice). I found much of what they presented to be a challenge and a reminder to what we are called to eb as church. All the organisations offer suport ans advice to groups of people who wish to make a difference in their community.

In the afternoon Archbishop Rowan got us thinking and asking ourselves what is different about the approach of the church. He started with a scene setting text from Revelation 3:8, ‘I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut‘.

He suggested we talk about the church being different to other groups involved in social action, and followed that with presenting a need to know what it actually is that is different, or distinctive, about us as we move towards the open door. He suggested that as church, what is distinctive about us, is that we take responsibility for each other. The church has a strong outlook of mutual nourishment where we give to each other because we have freely received.

In thinking about Big Society he suggested that a healthy and functional society enables small communities of mutual service to both be born and grow to sustainability. I was encouraged by the thought that, as church, we should be moving, luring and prodding society in this direction of mutual service … a fairly trinitarian concept … so prodding in the direction of God then!

attentive love

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RIchard Rohr continues his Maternal Face of God series today with these words:

Sara Ruddick, in her book Maternal Thinking: Toward a Politics of Peace, speaks of the attentive love of a mother. In summary, Ruddick says mothers are characterized by attentive love. They have to keep watching this new life; they have to keep listening and adjusting to the needs of the child. It is necessary to recognize a new agenda with the growth of the child. If the mother cannot transform herself into attentive love, she quite simply cannot be a mother. She has to learn early on that life is about change, not about “standing your ground,” which is not going to help a child. All growth is about changing and adjusting to what is needed at this moment, with these tears, and by this child. The mother cannot run to abstract truths. Philosophy and theology courses at that point would probably be boring to her.

I cannot help but think that the present persecution of the Religious Sisters by the Vatican reflects this difference. The Sisters, by and large, went toward human need and pain with “attentive love.” The clergy, I being one of them, can easily stay in abstract theories and theologies and never get to love at all.

The case of the Religious Sisters  came up in discussion recently and I was quite perturbed by the seemingly simplistic and insensitive attitude that all the Vatican were doing was ‘asking the sisters to follow Catholic teaching’. This implies the Sisters do not wish to follow teaching and their total dismissal, rather than consideration, is shocking. Surely as we learn more of God, teaching changes. We used to teach that the world was flat … that we learnt more and we change our teaching!

How can we ensure that we are carriers of that attentive love while not falling into what can often be the sad judgementalism of disconnected theories and theologies?

the maternal face of God

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During Lent I committed to adding Richard Rohr’s daily meditations to the start of my day. I have found them, on occasions,  to be so encouraging and challenging  that I have decided not to unsubscribe as was my intention.

This week’s series has ben entitled the Maternal face of God. This has been an interesting series and starts by stating that most of us actually experience unconditional love from our mothers rather than our fathers and so goes on to become the basis for many peoples eventual image of God. The images this week have challenged the reader to acknowledge that we all know and accept that God is beyond gender – and yet maternal language can raise an eye or two.

Personally I can relate to this. Recently I led prayers at Evensong during the sweeps festival and wrote a prayer that started Mother God …. but when I came to reading it in the cathedral evensong setting I dropped the maternal reference out of a concern for upsetting people during a major festival in the town and potentially giving the new dean an inbox of complaints. As I reflect I am concerned by my reluctance and wonder why the language concerns me so!

Rohr writes: ‘Whoever God “is,” is profoundly and essentially what it means to be male and female in perfect balance. We have to find and to trust the feminine face of God and the masculine face of God. Both are true and both are necessary for a full relationship with God. Up to now, we have strongly relied upon the presented masculine images while, in fact, our inner life was more drawn to our mother’s energy. That is much of our religious problem today.’

For some, catholics in particular, I wonder if this necessary maternal face of God has been represented by the person of Mary. It seems it is easier for some Christians to venerate another human being in the shape of Mary rather than it is to acknowledge the maternal within God. I believe in some parts of catholicism that venration of Mary has actually become worship resulting in the persons love for Mary being greater than the love for Jesus.

This may all be new and uncomfortable territory for many … but I am seeing that to understand more of the wonder and mystery of God, we need to pay more attention to the maternal symbolism of God as we take on the truth that God is indeed beyond gender.

God and weed!

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We’ve joked about the title of today’s post while wondering who such a title might attract and whether it was wise as I hope to continue to work in the diocese beyond September! The weeds refer, initially, to the weeds of the allotment while god refers to … well God!

Once a month chapter meets and on those mornings I stay at home and pray. A few years ago I went on retreat with the Northumbria Community for a week. They set me the task of weeding and planting potatoes as I prayed and listened to God. So … this week I have conducted my own mini retreat / quiet space on the allotment while weeding.

I have noticed in particular that having a fairly mindless and repetitive task to complete over an hour or two seems to free the mind from clutter and creates space to reflect. I felt a great symbolic sense that as I was clearing a patch of ground to reveal bare soil so I was clearing the weeds of thought and personal opinions that have allowed to develop and hide or disguise or prevent the development of new ideas.

While contemplating and weeding I developed a prayer:

As I clear this space
remove the clutter from my mind.
As I extract these weeds
unload those deep rooted thoughts and opinions
that are asphyxiating  growth and maturation.
As I expose fresh soil
return me to the naked space of creativity.
In this crisp original arena
propagate the unseasoned seeds of dreams.

I’m finding that weeding with God is a really valuable experience. if you’d like to try out a mini retreat in this space then get in touch – this could be easily arranged.

silence …. in a nutshell!

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Silence on this blog probably means a busy week … but a week of highlights which I will outline in a  nutshell…

I met up with Ian Mobsby, my mentor, last week. We chatted about a lot of stuff both gathering and Moot based. I find these times really encouraging and just love the opportunity to catch up with other Moot people. I hope to be able to get to their Rhythm of Life Service in a few weeks time. Moot has been a real encouragement to me over the years as well as being quite formational in my outlook and practice.

That afternoon I was excited to attend a governors meeting at Brompton Academy  particularly as we were having a tour of the new build. This is a school I have been connected with for over a decade now and a community I care quite a lot about. It was exciting to see all the planning coming together, but particularly exciting as these has been a long time coming and the young people of Gillingham deserve such a school! You can see the building progress on a live webcam feed on the school website.

On Saturday while Sarah and friends attended a training day at St. Marks I was looked after by 6 children. Some of us watched Tin Tin at the saturday Morning cinema, but i think most fun was had by the 7 of us as we spent the afternoon at the allotment mainly weeding with a little bit of bean and sweetcorn planting and a lot of squealing and running when worms, beetles and slow worms were discovered. We were planning on going for an hour but we were having ‘such fun’ that we stayed nearly 3. Tis was the most fun I’ve had on a Saturday for a little while.

This Sunday was one of those days when the move from traditional Anglican Christian worship to creativity was experienced in its extreme, starting the day at 8am behind the High Altar and ending it in the evening in a pub! I presided at the 8am Book of Common Prayer Eucharist service. The language of this service I find to be quite a challenge, but not as much as the structure with some bits, I think, jarring and seeming out of place where they are. I then presided at the 10.30am Eucharist service which is different in its tradition again (although I do think Common Worship has a more helpful structure.).

On Sunday afternoon the gathering met in Mote Park and we wandered together and chatted generally and chatted faith. It was brilliant to see some new people joining us and seeing our ideas and dreams crossing at certain points. The gathering seems to be slowly growing as a community, rather than just numerically, and I think we are in quite an interesting and key time.

Sunday evening I was speaking, albeit I turned up late (I ‘fess up as I’m sure someone will comment otherwise!) to a group of people from St Stephens meeting in the Huntsman. I spoke about ‘Life as a Pioneer Minister’ and the people had a number of questions. It was a fun experience and I hope I managed to help some people think about mission in a new way.

So … in a nutshell that is the cause of my silence this last week – well that and a lot of talking and listening while in the general Rochester High Street area … I shall be sad to move on from Rochester in September … but time to move on and think about this week in Rochester now!

the sweeps dream

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Sweeps came and went. The weather meant that the festival was a bit of a wash out with last minute cancellations and the accompanied lack of hoped for business for local traders. There was definitely a lot less visitors around than there have been in previous years which is a real shame as this is an excellent festival to come to.

The lack of numbers at the festival meant that there were less people walking past the Dekhomai stand but the positive flip side of this meant that we had more time to listen to people. I will remember this Sweeps festival as being marked by the sheer privilege I have experienced as I have been invited into personal lives alongside the great feeling of inadequacy I have felt as I have prayed, asking God to meet with these lives.

I personally wanted to push out and try something new at this years Sweeps and have been thinking and working a lot on dreams; in particular asking myself the question ‘could God still be talking to people through their dreams?” I have done some prayerful research of God speaking through dreams in scripture alongside psychologists interpretations of common dreams. Did you know, for example, that a common dream is being found naked in a public place; apparently the ‘common’ interpretation is that the person is living a lie and worried about being exposed. I have always found dreams quite fascinating.

To cut a long story short, I decided to offer ‘dream discussions’ at this years festival. I felt ‘dream interpretation’ was quite a major claim for a bunch of amateurs to be able to make… but I also have a real belief that, actually, if people are dreaming and that if there is a meaning from God then those people, really must be able to understand the dream for themselves and how it applies to them. If that were not true, then there would be little point God using this method of communication with people!

I have had a good number of dream discussions over this weekend. They were amazing. No two were the same but as we chatted together and I prayed remarkably people were able to focus on their dream and gain some understanding. I have started to wonder now whether those that do receive dreams simply need to take time out to think about them, and that is what we seemed to be doing over this weekend at the festival.

The team from all over the diocese worked brilliantly this year, and it was great working with you all … our visitors and guests were also a joy to work with  -thank you. Once again, Sweeps has been a highlight of my year.

 

sweeps … experience God ….

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It’s the start of the Sweeps Festival today. As I write the rain is continuing to fall outside … and I am so hoping that stops very very soon.

If you are around pay a visit to the Dekhomai stand in the cathedral, you can find us in the south transept, which is the space right next to the lady chapel. Visit and take the opportunity to express God in a different or new way through a variety of things we have on offer, from the dekhomai prayer cord to prayer for healing. Or … just pop by to say hello (and if you come via the coffee shop bringing great fresh coffee even better!)

Maybe see some of you there!

variety

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It’s been an interesting few days with a fairly big variety of things.
Wednesday morning I returned to St Stephens to preside at the the 10 am Eucharist. It was good to see some familiar faces.

Wednesday evening I led evening pryer in the crypt. 3 minutes before starting our ‘normal’ group of 3 or 4 was suddenly swelled to over 40 with a massive influx of visiting Dutch teachers who decided to join us for Evening Prayer, which made things a lot more interesting when we were praying for the unity of the church.

Thursday morning saw me visiting a local prison. chatting to the chaplain and walking around meeting some of the staff.  This was a very powerful and humbling experience which got me thinking on what freedom actually is.

Thursday afternoon I led the leavers service for a local girls grammar school.  This was a good service planned by the Head Girls and was creative in places. It was, actually, a real joy to be involved. The irony of coming from a prison where people were locked up partly as a result of lack of opportunity while overseeing a service developed with creative young people who have great opportunity ahed of them was particularly apparent.

Thursday evening I went to my normal film club and watched quite a harrowing film which I’m glad I went to see … but to say I enjoyed it would not be correct! I currently feel as if my day has gone full circle …from being trapped by lack of opportunity passing through great opportunity to returning to being trapped again.

The variety continues tomorrow as I meet up with my wetherspoons friends and then get ready for the Sweeps Festival. If you are a pray-er, please pray for us over tis weekend … thanks!

the death zone

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I found this video recently; regardless of political persuasion this is a very moving and beautifully filmed. This was filmed during the last two weeks of Philip Gould’s life and he talks of ‘excitement’, ‘joy’, and ‘approaching death’ while ’embracing life’. Most movingly he speaks of the time he understands that his life becomes death and only then did his life take on a quality that he felt it never had before.

This is simply a beautifully amazing and moving nine minutes.