Christmas

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and a Happy New year! I hope 2010 brings you peace, happiness and an awareness of God's love for all of you.

Snow and Stealing

So Father Tim Jones has told people that stealing from large companies is now a valid way of existence. The thing is, you can see what he is getting at, that there are so many people on the breadline, that maybe stealing tins of food is the lesser of two evils. I am not agreeing with him, because stealing is stealing and it is wrong, but maybe the focus needs to be increased on those people who live so close to the breadline, they can all too easily be left in the background of the festive season. However, it was to these that the greatest gift of all was given, so how can we balance the message of good news with the poverty that people find themselves in. It is maybe too simplistic to draw parallels with our African brothers and sisters, who compared to us are considerably poorer, yet it could be argued considerably richer in many ways. We, however, live in a country where richness and comfort is plentiful and almost seen as a right for people, and when people, for many different reasons, cannot achieve that, is it then their right to steal? What response does the church make? I have had a bit of time to think about this today as I have been cut off! The roads around Nailsea are still quite icy and it snowed earlier this morning so I thought it best not to risk the 8 mile journey to get in.

See the full story at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/8425420.stm

Carols

Carols by Candlelight went well, there was a good atmosphere and the children stole the evening once again, but I hope that the deeper meaning got through as well. For me, this service is always the one where I sit at the back worrying about every little detail and what might go wrong or what is likely to cause the most issue and thought, and whether I forgot to give someone a reading or an order of service, very strange. So today was meant to be a slower day, but it has turned into another hectic one and there seems to be still so much to do before I can relax for Christmas (including taking the service on the 27th). It was lovely to see the snow this morning, but alas that even turned into taking up more time as I scrapped the snow (or ice as it had turned into) from the car. As I drove around the place looking around the beauty of the snowy scenery I suppose reminded me of the deeper beauty of the season, something to hold onto in all the madness.

Christmas

Christmas means tha usual mutli-tasking that a minister needs. Over this festive season I would have visited people; given home communion to people; written the service for the 25th and 27th; played Trumpet in another churches carol service; prepared the way for next years annual report with the letter being written and planning who needs to recieve it; redone the Pastoral Watchers list; put all the services on the projector for the 20th, 25th, 27th and 3rd; get frustrated by a candle background for the carol service that does not seem to fit; general day to day stuff like responding to emails and phone messages; and then prepare a thought for the carol service about how Christmas is busy and we need to stop...... oh the irony!

Normal Service resumed

Sorry it has been a while since I last blogged, holidays and moving church around and then having no internet or phones at church has been a real pain.
But anyway, we are back on track now, builders have moved in, new office location sorted and up and running and Christmas on the horizon, I am sure there is going to be plenty to blog about over these next weeks!

All new (02/11/09)

The other day Michelle (my wife) and I went to a well known children high street store to start looking at prams and how much it is actually going to cost us. It was a mind field, so many prices and all boasting different features, I really felt out of my depth and in a really alien place that had different languages and customs! I wonder if people feel like this when they come to church!

The One Show (26/10/09)

It's not often that you sit down to watch the One show (on BBC one by the way) and the opening story is about the Pope opening the way for Anglicans to 'come back' to Rome. Gyles Brandreth gave us a quick and brief history of the birth of the C of E and talked of Rome and it's desire to unite Christians. As a Baptist Minister married to an Anglican Priest I obviously have a distant and vetted interest in this, but my main interest in this story is first and foremost as a Christian. It pains me that the ecumenical work that is being done at the local church is being in some ways obliterated by what we read or see in the media, what must people think of Christians working together? Is it really that you are in your corner, I am in mine and if you want to join then ok! I am not too nieve to realise that ecumenical work has still along way to go, but this just seems to reek of power wielding. What does this mean when I next meet up with the ecumenical ministers of my area, how do we now relate knowing that there is a tension in the air between my catholic and anglican colleagues. The grass roots ecumenical movement once again has been set back by power struggles at the top (although I know we shall rise about it).
All of this, in my humble and uneducated opinion, is not about what people believe (theology) but about how things in the church are done (ecclesiology), does the kingdom of God really rest on it being a male minister not a female minister? are we really that narrow minded and box God that much? and the whole debate on sexuality is something that will not go away and will have to be addressed.
I may be bias as my wife is a ordained priest, the work I see her do is amazing and I would challenge anyone to challenge her calling and that God is not using her in an amazing way. Why is it so hard to stop fighting about all this and just get on with our calling, whether we are catholic, anglican, methodist or baptist we are all called to serve God, the same God, and this surely is our duty whether we belong to rome or not.

Sunday Morning (25/10/09)

This morning I invited people to respond and write down what they felt God was saying to us both individually and ans a community. I am yet to see what people have said and will have to wait till tomorrow morning. Lot's going on this morning and I am really quite shattered at the moment, but at the same time it is exciting and it is great to see what God is doing with people. We used a Cool Runnings clip this morning, always a bit unsure with clips how they will be recieved, people seemed to respond well and I think it got the point across well. So that is another week over and now to start thinking about next week and how the journey continues. On the way home was listening to Radio 2 and Michael Ball was interviewing Gareth from "The Choir" (really respect what he has done for singing), they were saying that the word journey is not a good one to use, mainly because everyone is using it, but I feel it is good and represents what christians and faith communities go one when they respond to God's call.

Saving Paper (24/10/09)

Saturday is always sermon prep for me, no matter how organised I have been or how much I have thought it through, today is the day when I have to have everything finalised, today is the deadline! Otherwise tomorrow is going to be a very short and uninspiring day, so that will be a good portion of the day taken up.
I have also been thinking through how we continue to reduce the amount of paper that we use on a Sunday morning, we have brought it down from 303 sheets of printed paper to 175 my goal is to get it down under 100. How do we do this? well here are some of my thoughts... let me know what you think!
1) Prayer list available to those who have internet as an email, so that they can see what is going on (admittedly only saving about 5 printed sheets) but it's a start
2) Reduce the amount of NFTP (weekly notice sheet) that are printed, again offering an the online download available from the website. My observations are that alot of people only use it as a notice sheet and not that bothered about the songs as they are on the screen. Maybe if people received it online for the notices and were happy to use the screen during the service we could reduce our printing of NFTP by 50.
The eagle eyed amongst you will realise that this is only down to 120 and there is still 20 sheets still to save..... well, one step at a time and hopefully those 20 will come from somewhere!
Just to put it into perspective though, with the old style we were printing over 15,500 sheets of paper a year (32 reams needed) for our sunday service, as it currently stands we would print just over 9000 sheets of paper a year (19 reams of paper needed) and if the above were to work it would be down to 6000 sheets of paper a year (13 reams of paper needed).
Please though, let me know what you think

New Beginnings (21/10/09)

Well hello everyone, sorry it's been a while since my last blog....
Well today is the morning after a historic day for the church, last night we agreed to go forward with the first phase of our 'Creating Space for all project' to start at the end of November. This is a real leap of faith and relying on where we feel God has led us.
So much has happened since my last post, Michelle (my wife) and I are expecting out first child in April, the church weekend was a great time and people really engaged with God and one another, there have been weddings, dedications, back to church sundays and a whole host of different things.
Church life is so varied and so many different things happening as well as in your own personal life, and it can be a really exciting and daunting time.
So now as we set on this new phase in the churches life there will be many changes ahead, some that we expect, some that will take us by surprise, however as John Smyth and his followers promised together that they would

“walk in all Christ’s ways made known, or to be made known unto them, according to their best endeavours, whatsoever it should cost them”

quite apt for us at this time I think.

Day of Prayer (15/09/09)

Prayer is going to be a big focus today as the church has it's day of prayer, as well as starting Sacred Space back up and then going onto our church meeting. It would be great if everything flowed one into the other so that our whole day is about seeking God's will, that we spend time in prayer with the same attitude that we come to church meeting with. Today should be about listening, about yearning, about reflection, about seeking and waiting. I hope that our church meeting is approached in a similar way to our day of prayer.
Yesterday's team day away was great, a real laugh and a time for talking, sharing and getting to know each other better, a good start to the year.

Finished Reading (14/09/09)

I have been trying to finish a book for sometime now. It is a book that was set for me to read for some studying I have to do, the book is called 'Promise and Presence, An Exploration of Sacramental Theology' by John Colwell. As you can tell by the title it is quite a deep book and has taken me far longer to read than I ever anticipated or hoped for, was it worth it though? Well yes, in one way it was interesting and brought some interesting ideas about how God meets us in communion, baptism, and other sacraments, not that I agreed with all of them! Onto my next book now which is all about worship, it looks like a far easier read and I probably will enjoy it more, rather than it being a chore!
Today Rachel, John, Cathy and I are going away to talk about ministry and to get to know one another better as we seek to serve Horfield and Bishopston Community. I hope it is going to be a good day and that we learn new things about each other, both good and bad!
Tomorrow is a busy day as we have the day of prayer, even if you cannot make it to church, please pray for all the things going on, especially 'Creating Space for all' and in the evening we have our first church meetig of the year, busy times but good times.

Sacred Space (12/09/09)

This morning I am off to play the piano for a wedding of a friends brother, after which I pick up my guitar which has been fixed :) I will be down at church around lunch time today as I begin to finalise some of the details for Sacred Space. Sacred Space is where the sanctuary is open for people to come in and spend some time in prayer and meditation. We ran it a while ago and it seemed to be well used by the community, so with a few alterations and changes we are trying for it once again to be a connection to the local community. Please pray that it goes well and that we are able to meet people and pray for them in all of lifes happenings.

9/11

This week is the 8th Anniversary of 9/11. I recorded a documentary and have watched it over the last two nights and in one sense re-lived the events of that terrible day. The documentary used t.v. recordings, radio and mostly home-made camcorder footage to tell of the 102 minutes in which the twin towers collapsed. In watching this I realised that my memory had sanitised the event and the time between had allowed me or made me forget some of the horrors. I suppose that something like this lives with us for a long time even if we were not there, and for those who were there and lost loved ones I just pray that they find some peace today.
We have Deacons tonight and this morning we are talking about pastoral visiting. I also today want to give some back to Church invites out to some people that I have met over the last few months.

Yesterday

Yesterday seem to go well, there was a good atmosphere as we started the new church year. The sermon seemed to be recieved well (and there were no awkward pauses or forgotten lines!) have a listen on the Head Space page. Today I have a meeting about safe guards around vulnerable adults and then at some point need to get my guitar fixed as it was getting very annoying yesterday as one of the strings kept slipping!

New Church Year

Well, tomorrow is the beginning of the new church year. Our new Children's and Family worker is starting and there is a church picnic in the afternoon (weather permitting). I am just sorting out tomorrows sermon, and it's going to be different, I am not using a script and will be just using bullett-points. I have to confess to being a little scared about it. You will be able to hear the results online on the head space page (which now includes the church worship overview for the year). I will let you know how it goes...

Holiday

Well I am back from my weeks holiday sitting by the pool, soaking in the sun. It was on one of the days when we were being slightly more adventurous that we went on a day trip to the Nou Camp, Barcelone. On the way we sopped off briefly at the Sagrada Familia Temple in the same city. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia I was slightly overwhelmed by this. The building was started in 1882 and currently stands at an estimated cost of £18 million Euros. It is unlikely to be finished (we were told) in the next 50 years and as we know, schedules usually are put back. So here I was standing at a building that started over a 100 years ago and maybe may not be finished in my lifetime, a sobering throught, but also one that brought back echoes of what it must have been like to see catherdrals built many years ago. So maybe the 'Creating Space for all' project is not on the same scale, but I did think what would happen if we took 150 years to build it!!!

Friends

It takes a little while to get into the habit of blogging reguarly. The build up to Sunday was quite busy with lots going on, but I felt the service went well and people seemed to engage well with the sermon.
So, I am leading a funeral tomorrow as well as a deacons meeting and meeting someone for a music session, a real varied day. I am really touched by the friends of the man I am doing the funeral tomorrow, it has made me think about how good friends are and how sometimes we forget that (even if sometimes friends can be annoying!) they are always there and supportive, maybe another gift that God gives us that sometimes we forget or ignore.

Got to start somewhere...

Well, this is my first official blog on the church website. It should be profound really.....
I have just said goodbye to Michelle's parents after her priesting this weekend. Being at different services always gets me thinking about our own way of doing things as a church, sometimes I like the way I warm to some things in different churches and find others hard, it is good to always ask the question of yourself why this is!

Testing

Hello Everyone,

This is just a test blog to see if it will go on the churches website!