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.
Monday, 26 October 2009
Sunday, 25 October 2009
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.
Saturday, 24 October 2009
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
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
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
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
quite apt for us at this time I think.
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.
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