Harare joy

Posted on December 14, 2010 by robryan65

Yesterday I had the privilege of having lunch and then spending some time chatting with Farai, who is the Dean of Harare Cathedral in Zimbabwe. Farai was invited for the Bishops service on Saturday as the Diocese of Rochester has a strong link with the Diocese of Harare. We had a great time talking about pioneering work and sharing stories of mission in our very different circumstances.

If you are a reader here who prays … please hold the church of Zimbabwe in your prayers … if you need help in knowing what to pray, the Church of England website has prayers you can use specifically.

A little while ago the Church Times printed an article from Bishop Brian who visited.

My time with Farai has caused me to think more about what is important. Farai is a man of great joy who is full of Christ filled enthusiasm. Sometimes I wonder whether we in thew west have allowed ourselves to lose that joy and enthusiasm as we get embroiled in unimportant pettiness.

a generous people

Posted on December 13, 2010 by robryan65

The service on Saturday to install Bishop james was a pretty special time. The symbolism was quite powerful … knocking on the door to be allowed in, being anointed in the nave by others in the diocese, picking up his crozier from the High Altar – all powerful moments in the service. There is a report from the BBC here.

During his sermon Bishop James said some interesting things. He spoke a little about the hard times and the temptation, or saying, ‘to help your own’ in such times. He outlined how it is easy to become ‘closed handed’ at such times while we hold on to what we have. Instead, Bishop James suggested that at times like this we really did need to be ‘open handed’ and enthusiastic in our generosity as God is enthusiastic is his generosity.

He ended by talking about statements that dioceses like to make about themselves in mission statements etc. He ended by saying:

‘The Diocese of Rochester; a generous people …. but only if we mean it!’

I like this thinking and look forward in hope and longing to being a part of a generous diocese that is exuberant in its generosity to those in our communities … so that people can really have life, and life to the full! (John 10:10)

advent gathering

Posted on December 12, 2010 by robryan65

We had our last gathering of 2010 this afternoon, looking at the theme of Advent. It’s both hard and amazing to think that we have now been gathering for around 18 months and have been using the crypt since April.

Tonight we tried to enter into some of the mystery of the Advent season by thinking about the characters of the Christmas story, and tried to imagine what their expectations were of ‘the messiah’ or the child, or king, that they were going to see. We chatted about this quite a lot before we tried to earth this asking ourselves how we can prepare for Christ’s arrival in our lives, and what our expectations were of Christ being born afresh.

I think someone shared a powerful image after visiting a family member who is expecting a baby soon. They are clearing a room out and decorating it in expectation fot he arrival of a new life. This has caused me to ask myself what, in my life, needs clearing out to allow the Christ child to be born afresh in my life. What else needs tidying up or decorating to be ready for this arrival?

In our Open Space, our time for reflection and space to allow God to work, one of the stations was in the form of a Christmas tree. It was decorated with presents that contained our individual words of commitment. Each person took 2 presents – one to hang on the tree and one to take away as a reminder. Mine is now sitting on my desk with the word ‘time’ …. for me to prepare, I felt I needed to give God time to speak, to work and to change me. Different people wrote different things.

We ended our time by sharing communion and singing O Come all Ye Faithful together (another first as none of us are that musical!)

It has been a good and interesting 18 or so months. Our next stage as a growing community is to get together to think about the way ahead … we want to be church in a different way, and I’m not sure whether people think we are doing that yet. We certainly have an interesting monthly gathering … but we want to be more than just an event and I wonder whether we are in danger of falling into tyhe trap of just putting on something, rather than living out something new. We meet in early January to talk so please hold the gathering in your prayers if you do such things!

welcome +James

Posted on December 11, 2010 by robryan65

The cathedral has been buzzing over the last two days and the building has been made ready for the service of inauguration and enthronement of Bishop James as the 107th Bishop of Rochester.

The service starts today at 11.30 in the cathedral and I have been watching from the sidelines as draft after draft has been put together. many would not believe the amount of massive hard work that people, particularly Neil, our precentor, and the vergers will have put into this to ensure that everything runs smoothly and to time.

in addition people like Darren have been working hard at installing large screens so people can see what is happening from different part of the cathedral. It really is a massive operation!

As a curate I am excited and intrigued as we welcome our new bishop. It will be exciting to see how the diocese changes and where Bishop James feels we should be heading as a diocese. On a personal note, I will be interested to hear his views on fresh expressions and pioneer ministry. But all that is for conversation over the next few months.

Today we celebrate with him and welcome him to Rochester ….

Posted on December 10, 2010 by robryan65

It’s been a good end to a busy week.

I have concluded my week with a mixture of traditional ‘vicary’ type stuff. One such thing was the leading of one of the Medway Primary Schools carol concerts. These three events had choirs from 10 local schools and their teachers and parents coming to watch and listen. One of the great things about the cathedral is the welcome and service we can offer to the local community. I love seeing the look of awe and winder of peoples faces as they come into the cathedral which for most of them is the very first time.

Many of these people are unaware that they can come to the cathedral at any time – we need somehow to get the message across that this place is here for all.

The week ended, though, in the way I love the week to be – with people. Over the last 2 days I have been in the wonderful position of being able to chat and hear the stories of some amazing people that make up the city of Rochester. Some of those conversations have been over dinner, some over beer, and others over coffee – it’s a hard life!

One of the amazing things about being attached to the cathedral. or seen as part of ‘the institution’ is that people have some form of trust. I’ve been in so many conversations with people over the last 48 hours which have left me in awe and wonder of the amazing life stories that people have. It really is an amazing privilege to be where I am at the moment.

I can look back over the week and think ‘I love my job’! but I really hope that I can maintain this people focus. It is so easy to become bogged down in activity and forget that I, as a Church of England priest, am ordained to serve people …. please if you know me, keep reminding me of that!

we are all guests

Posted on December 8, 2010 by robryan65

Yesterday I attended a day’s training out on be the diocese and The Weddings Project. The purpose of the day was to help us to make sure our weddings were as good for the couple as they possibly good be and that we, as churches, give a clear message that marriage is a good thing and that we want to help those who are considering this big step. The weddings projects has identified some particular good ways where we can help and work with the couple …. but I’m not going to go into them as you can read them on the weddings project website if you want to.

The day started with the video that I have posted above. We were asked to watch the video and chat about why this has been seen by nearly 59 million people and how we would feel, and how our church would feel, if we held a wedding like this. As the video progressed a tear was brought to my eye – just for the sheer joy this couple and their guests were expressing – it was amazing to see.

When we got to the discussion I think a majority of people were enthusiastic but there were a significant number of worried voices – people concerned with how it would make them look, people concerned that if we ‘allowed’ this then people would just be taking the mickey out of the seriousness of the ceremony. These people seemed to be trying to ‘protect’ something … but their concern worried me because I think they were in danger of falling into the trap of thinking that our ministry is all about us. It’s easy to think we have control and this, I think, is one of the reasons why church weddings are in decline.

As church, as Christians, we need to realise we are called to serve, to make a difference, to welcome. We are not called to maintain a status quo, we are called to exist for the benefit of others.

The Archbishop of York reminded us in his amazing poignant way yesterday via a video clip that we do not own the church:

‘We are guests, not hosts. As guests we bring gifts – our building, our faith, our truth. Christ is the host and we are invited a long’

We are all guests in Christ’s church. Christ loves it when we come and Christ loves it when others come. As guests we are asked to invite other guests …. but we can’t tell them how they should come, or how they should behave, or what they should do ….. we are not hosts …. we are guests. The host is Jesus and, as we now, Jesus is accepting of everyone … no matter how they look, sound, behave or what they believe.

During this Advent time of waiting I have been thinking, with little success, of some aspect of my faith to contemplate futher. I wonder whether I have had little success and have had to start late, or wait, this Advent because yesterday God shared with me something I need to re-learn, remember and re-contemplate ….

I am a guest in Christ’s church, not a host.

Giant Advent Calendar

Posted on December 7, 2010 by robryan65

I love this idea that my good friend Leesa of Central Baptist Church in Chelmsford is involved in.

The church are preparing for Christmas during Advent by creating a big Advent Calendar in its doorway with a giant image on show each day of Advent for an hour. This is an amazing idea and must be an enormous amount of work. The church have invited different people around the town to interpret carols on a big scale – a big gamble but pretty exciting!

The Big Advent calendar has a facebook page where you can see the image for each day if you live too far away to vist daily (as most of us!)

dickens spirituality?

Posted on December 6, 2010 by robryan65

So … another Dickens weekend has gone by!

This year things were not so busy as I think the mass of snow that we had put off a number of people. We still had a lot of people, however, who were coming into the cathedral and ‘searching’ for something.

I have spoken to a number of people over the last couple of days. I have massaged a few feet (although not as many as Rebecca!) and a few hands, done loads of Jesus Deck readings, prayed for (and seen) healing of people and generally just listened to people and talked about angels. Through all of these experiences a theme of a common search for some meaning seems to have been coming through.

This weekend I have been inspired by listening to the life stories of people and I have been amazed, yet again, to see how God chooses to work amongst normal everyday people. I find that beautifully exciting.

I ended the weekend with a massive sense of privilege. Privilege for the great team I had to work with and be part of, but even more so a sense of privilege for the things that people have chosen to share with us over the weekend. There have been many special moments which have included both laughter and tears.

I guess if I take anything away from the weekend it is something I seem to forget quite easily. Many people do not expect to see spirituality in the church. To me that seems bizarre … but it is clear that if people want healing or wish to investigate ‘spiritual things’ the last place many seem to think of going to help in that quest is a church. To me that is sadly bizarre:
– bizarre because Christianity is all about spirituality …. our God is a spiritual God who wishes to engage with people, all of whom are created and loved by God
– sad because these people have come to understand the church as a place of rules which hinder, rather than a place of loving acceptance which releases and enables.

I guess my question is, looking at the character of Jesus ….. how have we come to this?