Mike's musings

Casting off

Yes, I've completed my first garment! Well, I _say_ garment, but it's a short scarf: there wasn't enough yarn. Oh, and it's got _lots_ of errors in it. But I'm enjoying it.

Wondering whether I should only be knitting in the current liturgical colour, but Moo says that only counts if I'm knitting _during_ a service, so I'm probably OK.

I was planning to take the girls to the 10am service at St Andrew's Halstead, but we set off, and the roads were just too bad: I headed back within half a mile. So, we went to the Great Yeldham lessons and carols service, and the girls did OK (apart from 3 wee trips between them).

They're both so, so tired, and Jojo really needs adult time, but Miri keeps wanting to know where she is, so it requires some careful juggling.

Before lunch, I had an Armagnac (Moo was on her 2nd cherry brandy...), and then we had bacon butties for lunch. A snowball fight finished off the afternoon.

I went to the Halstead lessons and carols in evening, and read the 8th lesson (the Magi). As well as the choir (who did well), we had a group called the Cavendish Consort, who were very comp. I really enjoyed hearing some good music (at Baroque pitch, on proper instruments).

Labels: church, knitting

Carols by torchlight

Tonight was Halstead's town carol service. We started at the top of town, and were marched down the town by the Salvation Army Band. We formed up at the park, and sang carols by torchlight in the park. It was great, and felt really Christmasy, so the the season's really started for me now.

Labels: Christmas, church, music

CME time

(backposting) We had a CME evening tonight, on diversity. It's very easy to make these sort of sessions very white, middle-class, and that's always a danger. I think we avoided that - it was helpful to have at least one non-white face in the room (!) - but also the person talking to us was very aware of their position. She talked about her parish - East Ham - which has an extremely diverse nature, and also about what it means to be Christian, Anglican and CofE in such a context.

It was interesting, and thought-provoking, and also great to see a few friends who I've not seen for a while.

The other major news? Server died. For real, this time, I think. Big hard disk issue, and I had real problems rebuilding it. We'll see what tomorrow looks like.

Labels: church, geekery

Will it get done?

Woke up at 0555. Told my body not to be silly. Went back to sleep. Woke up at 0825. Too late for the 0800, obviously. So, I got up, and was at work by 0905. Did some work, and then, after some deliberation, decided to go to church. I ended up at St Gregory's, Sudbury. They'd advertised a 1000 service, which was changed to 1030, natch. Given that I'd said that I wouldn't be around this week, I'd chosen this church as somewhere out-of-area, where I could go incognito, and noone would know me. And, of course, there were two people from Halstead there: Val and her husband. This is just typical, and quite amusing. They'd come here because they're looking at houses in the area.

There was a lovely welcome, and the church was pretty full. I liked the service, and they have two curates, too. I think we should arrange a social: the two churches/towns have lots in common, and Helen, the curate on placement who will later join the team, is at ERMC, as I was. Good folks, and it would be fun to compare notes.

Back home, and work, work, work. And around 1700, I managed to get the work finished, which means that the answer to the question in the header is "yes, it will."

Went round to Sam and John-Mark's for a drink, ended up staying for supper. And the girls just got back.

Labels: church, friends, girls, work

Good things, bad things

Good things, lots: church with the girls; moving the girls' beds around so that they're both in the same room, ready for decorating and the arrival of the bunkbed; taking the girls swimming; spending time with Moo; a lovely autumn day; cooking and eating pancakes.

Bad things, few: the main obvious one being tidying my office. I hate tidying.

Labels: church

An old friend

(backposting) Today I was taking two services in Earls Colne: a quiet 0800 Holy Communion, and a quite energetic Family Service at 1000 (note to self - I must check the words of a song before encouraging people to clap along when it says "I will clap, clap, clap", because the next verse might say "dance", which means that I have to dance..., and yes, I did, in the aisles, fully robed). At the end of the latter, Pamela, who was a chaplain (then a deaconess, since priested) at Bryanston when I was there, came up and introduced herself. We'd not seen each other for about 22 years, so it was a bit of a blast from the past, but great to see her. She had a strong impact on my faith at that time, and although we've recently got back in touch over email, she lives in New Zealand, so it was a real bonus to be able to catch up with her in person.

In order to give Moo a bit of a break in the afternoon, I took the girls swimming. Jo was back in the big pool, and Miri consented to spend a bit of time in there, too. Miri is now quite a strong swimmer, underwater at least, and we must look at getting her some swimming lessons.

Labels: church, friends, swimming

Words - and computer that talks

(backposting) There really was a party today, and after taking the girls to the 1000, Jo got to go to it. It was a family service, and there was lots of standing at the front, singing and doing actions. Much fun, particularly for the girls, but I enjoyed it, too.

Miri and I had fun, listening to music, watching a DVD, cuddling, having lunch, while Moo and Jo went to the party. Afterwards, I introduced Jo to festival, an application for Linux/Unix that talks - well, which can be made to speak. Jo had said, a few days before, that of course computers can't talk, and I enjoyed getting it to say things to her. She's also played with lots of words and letters, and I got the my machine to say the words that she was reading. This was very amusing, apparently, and kept people amused for quite a while.

I cooked a lovely roast shoulder of lamb, which we had as a family supper. Well, I say _we_, but the girls had very little of the roast potato or carrot or gravy - or even lamb, in Miri's case. Oh well, we tried.

Labels: church, food, school

Church (and work)

(backposting) Well, it's Sunday. I went back to the lovely St Anne's, Reston, for their fantastic 1000 service. Great welcome, fun music, lots of people, and a baptism to boot. One thing that I really enjoyed was that once Jim (who was presiding) had baptised the baby, he walked around the church, telling him how this was his new family, and showing him all the people. It felt like an excellent introduction, and I think I'll emulate the practice. A few of the congregation invited me out to brunch in a restaurant nearby, which was really kind and, well, Christian. What a lovely church.

I had an idea about how to sort a sort out a problem that we'd been having at work, so went round to try to sort it out quickly. Unluckily, there were emails from a senior person that I ended up responding to, and so he came out to the office and I spent rather more time their than I'd intended: 5 hours...

Labels: baptism, church, work

Swimming

(backposting) Went with Kate to a lovely simple BCP (Book of Common Prayer) service at 0800 in Overstrand Church, which was a good start to the day.

And we all went to the beach. I think there's going to be a lot of going to be the beach, even if it's 140 steps down (and then back up again, more relevantly). I went swimming, as did Jen and Turtle (with some support), and we saw a seal! It came to within about 7 metres of me, and surfaced a couple of times. A lovely start to the holiday.

Labels: church, family, holiday, swimming

A churchy day

Not entirely, but I had a 3+ hour team ministry meeting in the morning, a spiritual direction meeting in the afternoon, and a Mother's Union Communion service in the evening (with a very enjoyable performance by the gospel group afterwards). I've also done some good job bits and pieces as well, which is always cheering.

The other thing I did was listen several times to "Bleed to love her" by Fleetwood Mac. And found a different way to listen to it. Now, I'm sure that this wasn't the intention when it was written, but what if you hear it as being sung by our Lord, and the "her" is Mary Magdalene? It's a very powerful song anyway, and provides an interesting way of thinking about Christ, the man, and desire and sexuality. Please listen to the song (it's also available on the live album "The Dance"), but here are the lyrics:

Once again she steals away
Then she reaches out to kiss me
And how she takes my breath away
Pretending that she don't miss me

Ooh, I would bleed to love her
Ooh, bleed to love her
Ooh, I would bleed to love her

And once again she calls to me
Then she vanishes in thin air
And how she takes my breath away (breath away)
Pretending that she's not there

Ooh, I would bleed to love her
Ooh, bleed to love her
Ooh, I would bleed to love her

Somebody's got to see this through
All the world is laughing at you
And somebody's got to sacrifice
If this whole thing's gonna turn out right

Ooh, I would bleed to love her
Ooh, bleed to love her
Ooh, I would bleed to love her
Bleed to love her
Bleed to love her

Labels: church, job

Ordination and first Eucharist

(backposting) So much to blog about. So much. But I'm still processing it, so I'll put down what I can.

Ordination

We arrived at the church early, and it was lovely to greet people as they arrived. I had problems letting go, and not being the curate: there were other people to sort things out, and in the end, I just had to be an ordinand, get ready, and go with it. I robed up in cassock, surplice and white alb - a beautiful 18th century white alb that Dad had been given for his priesting, and which he passed on to me. We formed up in the St Andrew's Centre car park, and then walked over to the church. Moo was my lay sponsor, and I held her hand as we processed up the aisle together. There's a fair amount of preamble - all of it important - before the actual act of ordination, and I was the third of the 3 to be ordained, but in the end my time came. I knelt in front of the bishop, and the clergy clustered round and laid their hands on me. There were 10, I think: the bishop, the bishop's chaplain (Tim), the preacher (Chris), my father, my incumbent (John), Geoff (from the team), Viv (from the team), Mark and Ian's incumbents and James (a good friend, and previously from the team). Moo says it was a big of a scrum, but I couldn't tell. As the bishop said the words, it felt heavy, and I felt surrounded, and it was good. And then, I was a priest. The bishop anointed Ian's hands, then Mark's, and then mine, and we were done.

The service moved into a Eucharist, and we stood to either side of the bishop as he presided. After we'd taken communion from him, we got to sit down and just relax a bit. The service finished, the bishop took us three, new priests, down the aisle, and it was over, and time for some pictures.

First Eucharist

The parish put together a fabulous bring and share lunch: what lovely people. I had a chance to catch up with a few of them, but also friends and family. Leo, Rosie and Andy, Mark and Jenny, Mum and Dad, of course, Aunty Les and others, too. Si and D arrived in time for the 1500 Eucharist, as did Gary with his family, which I'd not expected. I walked the main players - Dad (serving for me), Sally (reading the Gospel) and Ian (preaching) - through the choreography first, and then it was time to start.

It was an immensely emotional experience for me. Mum later said that the first time she'd seen me cry in church was 31 years ago, and she thought she'd see it again, and it was close. Some of the liturgy, a couple of the hymns, and also parts of Byrd 4-part all had me close to tears. But when it came to the two parts which mattered the most to me - the Absolution and the Eucharistic prayer - it all worked. I'd been worried about the Absolution, but it felt right. Even more so for the Eucharistic prayer. I'd spent a lot of time preparing, and in particular thinking about the actions and gestures that I'd be using, before deciding to go with pretty much the bare minimum. I was boiling in a warm chasuble in a very warm church (Catherine had needed to call an ambulance for a member of the congregation at the ordination service - though I'd not noticed! - and the afternoon was hotter), we had a gospel procession, a Latin mass setting, and pretty "high" setting, but the theology is pretty low for me.

When it came to the prayer of institution, it just felt right to be saying it. And I was just aware that I was not the first person to be saying these words and celebrating this feast, but was part of a long tradition, made up of many, many others. It was just right. And Dad hadn't realised that he would be the first person to whom I administered communion, and that was very special indeed.

Our last hymn was "Jerusalem": a mission hymn. And, although not everyone enjoyed it, we had my favourite piece of organ music: "Dieu parmi nous" (God among us) by Olivier Messiaen. We sat, rather than processed, and it was the perfect end to my first communion.

Aftermath

We finished the day with friends coming back for a barbecue - during which it rained very, very hard. Si and D with Morgan and Boo, James and Ruth and Sally all came, and John and Mo arrived later as the others were departing, giving us a good chance for a chat with them. The girls pleaded tiredness around 1900 and we put them to bed without even a bath, and they were down so quickly that we had a good long time to chat. A good end to a long day, and we went to be tired.

Only for Jo to turn up with a temperature (I took her into the spare room with me) and Miri to go in with Moo, having been woken by Jo's perambulations. Such is life.

Labels: church, eucharist, family, friends, music, ordination

Church, swimming and a difficult decision

(backposting) Took the girls to church in Halstead today, which they enjoyed. It was a family service, and therefore pretty child-friendly, and also quite short, which helped them. In the afternoon, we all went swimming at the Freeport pool in Braintree. Jo learnt to tread water, which is a useful skill.

In the evening, I went for a good walk. I'm trying to work out what to do about my first Eucharist on the 28th. I really want to have parts of a Latin setting of the Mass (well, Greek, if you include the Kyrie), and to have a really serene service. But the more I think about it, the more I'm worried about not making the service child-friendly. I'd really like Jo and Miri to be able to be there, but there's a tension there with the style of service. This is something I need to decide pretty soon.

Labels: church, eucharist

Ordination practice

(backposting) I drove home today - Moo and the girls are staying with Kate and Mac for a while - and attended an afternoon-long RIM/Certicom integration webinar and teleconference.

In the evening, I had a meeting with the bishop and his assistant/chaplain, John (my incumbent) and a number of our local team (servers, churchwardens, sacristan) to make some decisions about exactly how the ordination service will go, and have walk-through. Of course, there will two other people who will also be ordained on that day, and everyone was expecting them to be there, too. Except for them, as nobody seemed to have told them... Oh well, we had a very useful session: it's all feeling a bit close now.

Labels: church, ordination

Deacons and gardens

Today, on the advice of curate colleague the other week, I went to a different church for a change, as I had a week off. Tilbury-juxta-Clare is in the benefice I live in, and which I was helping out in before my ordination, and it was good to worship there. Keith, the rector, preached a really enjoyable sermon on the importance of deaconhood - both for laity and clergy - which felt particularly apposite as I'm approaching my ordination to the priesthood. He talked about Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch (which isn't a Famous Five book, whatever it may sound like), and other Christians - ordained deacon and not - who've served God.

After that, we took to the garden. It was a lovely day, and we did lots and lots of clearing. We're beginning to be able to use the bottom half of the garden again, which is quite impressive after about 5 years of lack of attention. The girls helped - on and off - and had a great time. All-in-all, we've had a lovely weekend with the family: the sort you dream of when you start a family.

Labels: church, diaconate, family, garden

A problematic ontology of ministry: employment - and gender

I recently asked couple of questions on Twitter and Facebook:

• What is it to be clergy in non-church employ?
• Is our ministry ontologically different?

These are questions I've been interested in for a while, for obvious reasons: I'm what the Church of England calls a "Self-Supporting Minister" (and used to call a "Non-Stipendiary Minister"). In other words, I'm not employed by the church, but make my living elsewhere, giving time and ministry to the church. There are probably as many models for this as there are SSMs: some have a ministry firmly rooted within their secular employ; some work part-time and give lots of time to the church; some give what time they can, exercising some ministry within their secular job, some ministry within a typical church context, and some ministry in other contexts (this blog and various other online activities being examples from my life). But we all have in common that we neither receive a stipend from the church nor does it employ us full-time.

Before we go into any detail, I'd note that I've done little or no reading in this area, and that this brief essay is the result only of some thinking and discussions I've had. If you have some thoughts about further reading, I'd be interested to hear them.

How "part-timers" are seen

Yesterday we had a CME (Continuing Ministerial Education) seminar, just with some of the SSM curates in the diocese, and we had some interesting stories. We considered three constituencies: congregations, clergy and diocese. Some members of our congregation "get" it - some, indeed, welcome it, but the main questions (of a negative nature, at least) that arose within the congregational context seemed to relate to the amount of time that a non-full-time member of clergy can give to the church. From the stories we shared, there seemed to be little questioning of the legitimacy of the idea of self-supporting clergy. Indeed, some congregations seem to welcome the shared perspective which they may feel that "working" member of clergy can deliver in preaching and pastoral situations.

Although most of the interactions that we had experienced from clergy colleagues were positive, there were reports that some clergy colleagues see us as not committing ourselves to ministry to the extent that they do. Resentments that self-supporting clergy "cherry-pick" the best services and jobs within a team were backed up with one report of a member of clergy saying that "you lot haven't had to give up on a career like we have". Still, however, there seemed to be little suggestion over the legitimacy of self-supporting ministry, though suggestions of lack of commitment suggest lingering questions around a life which is defined by ministry.

In many ways, we, as group, didn't feel convinced that the diocese really knows how to deal with us in all contexts. The stories around how deanery and diocesan synods, chapter meetings, training events and the rest are routinely scheduled with little or no thought for those who work full or even part-time were greeted with resignation and recognition by all. Despite the growing reliance by all Church of England dioceses, self-supporting ministers don't seem to feature highly in the thoughts of many of them. This is, surely, partly because the needs and offerings of SSMs are - in some ways, at least - more diverse than those of the "typical" parish priest or curate.

None of this is new: my father has been an NSM for around 40 years, and I've heard similar stories from him over the years.What is it to be clergy in non-church employ? Is our ministry ontologically different? A word about that word: "ontologically". I'm using sense 2 of dictionary.com's definition of ontologically: Of or relating to essence or the nature of being. In other words, what I mean by the question "is our ministry ontologically different?" is "is there something about the nature of our ministry (that of clergy not employed by the church) that is different to that of those who are in the full-time employ of the church that exists because of that difference?"

A couple of clarifications here:

1. there's a big (and fascinating) question that's not unrelated about the nature of the ministry of those who are not ordained. I'm going to duck this question because I don't want to be diverted from this question, and not because I don't think it's important. Maybe another time.
2. although I've not been entirely clear above, what I'm really talking about is those who not "full-time" clergy: they have other responsibilities and activities which take up much of their time.

The Church of England has been part-addressing this question for over 40 years now, with NSMs and, more recently, the renamed SSMs. The view is that our ministry is equally valid as those who work full-time for the church. This doesn't mean that it's always easy to get this right, nor for everyone (lay or ordained) to appreciate it all the time, but that's the official story.

I think there's a problem with it, however - not with the answer, which I believe to be right - but in the theology that supports it. First let me note that I very much like the theory of ministry presented by Steven Croft in Ministry in Three Dimensions: A Theological Foundation for Local Church Leadership. The fundamental basis for his argument is that all ordained ministry is based on three qualities: diakonos (loosely: service), presbyteros (loosely: leadership) and episkope (loosely: oversight). That these three qualities provide the basis for the three generally accepted ordained orders (deacon, priest (or presbyters) and bishops (episcopals)) is no surprise, and acts as the starting point for his argument. But he is keen to point out that members of each order must possess each of the three qualities, though the amount to which they will be required will vary from person to person, from role to role, and from situation to situation - and through time. I don't think that this is particularly contentious theology, and I've certainly found it very helpful in my journey through discernment, to ordination, through my deacon's year, and in preparing for my ordination to the priesthood in June, God willing.

Being a bishop

But it raises a question: a big one, I think. "Is there something ontologically incompatible about being a bishop, and not full-time clergy?" Admittedly, as the role of bishop is currently figured, there is a great deal of time required for administration, visiting, etc. - and that's part of the oversight. But is that what oversight _needs_ to be about? And surely we should be figuring the bishop's role from first principles, rather than making the role fit what the job has become over the centuries? Why does this matter? Well, it doesn't matter to me - certainly at the moment! - in terms of preferment: I'm not even a priest yet, and thoughts of bishoprics are rather far off, and would be even if I were full-time. There are questions about how easy it is to become a bishop if one has not been a full-time priest, though: how can one "serve one's time" and move up the greasy pole? Well, _why_ should that be required? There are enough examples of brilliant bishops - and archbishops - who moved very quickly into their posts, without all the kerfuffle of parish incumbencies, becoming an archdeacon, a canon, a dean, etc.. And why do the diakonos, presbyteros and episkope exercised by those not in the church full-time not "count" towards the criteria required to become a bishop? Well, they're beginning to, I hope.

But there's something deeper going on here: something more ontological. If the church is not ready to accept that someone who is not full-time can enter the order whose defining characteristic is episkope - oversight - and become a bishop, then that casts grave doubts over the legitimacy of the episkope that is exercised by all those in the _other_ orders who are, likewise, not full-time. How can we figure a legitimate, and fully accepted diaconate and priesthood? To be clear, what I'm saying is that it is difficult to base an ontological understanding of the theology of the orders of the diaconate and the priesthood if there is no corresponding ontological understanding for the episcopal order.

Gender

So far, this entry - or essay - has been about the issue of employment, but the more I thought about the issues being discussed, the more I realised that we can't ignore the issue of gender. In the Church of England, we have not only no self-supporting ministers who are bishops - that is, no self-supporting bishops - but we also have no women ministers who are bishops: we have no woman bishops. Now, many self-supporting ministers - including me - maintain the option to move to full-time ministry. Although the nature of our role as ministers seems somewhat compromised by what comes down to our employment status - if you accept the argument presented above - we have the option to change that.

The same does not follow for women: the nature of the ontological problematic for them is more fundamental. For there is a corresponding problem about the legitimacy of woman deacons and woman priests if there are no woman bishops: the correspondence seems very close. Some members of the Church of England will accept that women can be priests and deacons, but cannot exercise "headship" (for which we can probably fairly safely substitute our word "episkope"), and therefore cannot become bishops. Others will not accept women and priests, but will accept them as deacons, whereas some will not accept them in any of the ordained orders. Given the argument above, I would argue that only the last set holds a consistent position, but a good deal of the work being done with regard to finding a settlement around the issue of woman bishops in the Church of England seems to centre around the group that will accept deacons and priests, but not bishops.

My view - and it's a strong one - is that the ministry of women is entirely legitimate, and I have no problems whatsoever with the ontological basis for it. More important, I don't believe that the lack of any woman bishops impacts on that legitimacy. However, the lack of the capability for there to be a woman bishop _does_ impact on the continued legitimacy of the ministry of women in the Church of England. Until we, as a church, can overcome this problem, ontological problems will remain, and will continue to allow doubts to remain about legitimacy.

A brief conclusion

I have no conclusion to offer, really, beyond to ask for more theological discussion around the ontology of ministry. We've avoided the question of non-ordained ministry, but even with a restricted scope, have identified what I believe to be two major - and growing - issues for ministry within the Church of England and the Anglican church as a whole. Part of the question, of course, revolves whether we accept in detail Croft's view of ministry in 3 dimensions, but whether we do or not, in the Anglican church we consider that there is a coherence between the 3 orders of ministry. This, then, casts concerns over how legitimate the church considers the ministry of self-supporting and woman ministers to be. I would stress that it does not matter whether this consideration is explicit or not: what matters is if the theology around which the ontology of ministry is based is coherent, and whether it introduces concerns over legitimacy.

Labels: church, ministry, theology, women

Mothering Sunday

Moo didn't have as good a Mothering Sunday as I'd have liked. There were cards and a pressie from the girls, but I had to do the 0800 and the 1000, and as Miri had been sick in the night, I didn't expect them to come. And in the afternoon, she spent 3 and a half hours at a dance rehearsal with Jo. She spent some nice time with the girls, though, and we're currently watching The Wire season four.

Also in the news:
Liverpool beat Aston Villa 5-0. This takes us to second in the Premiership behind Man. U., and ahead on goal difference.
Jade Goody died. I preached on this. She wasn't a perfect woman, by a long way, and many people had real issues with her, and fair enough. But she taught us something about facing death with honesty, and about how to make provision for your children. People are now talking about cancer - nasty cancers, in fact - and about baptism. And about how to die. These are all good things. I compared her with Mary, mother of our Lord. I think that's fair.

Labels: church, death, Moo

Yesterday revisited

I was lying in bed last night, tired but content, and I thought I'd just blog a bit about some of the things I did:

• I looked after Jo as she vomited, then slept, then vomited again
• I took Miri to church
• I took two Mexican visitors to our church under my wing, guiding them through some of the service and chatting afterwards
• I took Miri swimming
• I took Jo and Miri to the park (with three friends and their Mum)
• I prepared lovely scrambled egg and smoked salmon (with chipolatas on the side) for supper for Moo and me

It was a good, honest day.

Labels: church, girls

Spanish

Two Spanish-related stories today. The first is that at church this morning there was a Mexican couple who it turned out were visiting Essex for their daughter's graduation for her doctorate from Essex University (sociology). They spoke some English - particularly the wife - but not huge amounts. I speak a little Spanish (understanding more than I speak), and invited them to sit next to me and Miri (Jo was at home with Moo, having been sick this morning, though she was well enough to go to a dance rehearsal in the afternoon). I managed to feed them bits of information through the service, and was particularly pleased that I managed to use my phone and The Bible Gateway to allow them to follow the Gospel reading in Spanish. They were very friendly and we had a lovely chat in Spanglish after the service over coffee, and I hope they'll be in touch by email.

The second story revolves around the TV programme "Come Dine with Me" on Channel 4. One of the contestants was using chorizo sausage in a recipe. She mispronounced the word. And then the presenter mispronounced it. At least twice. I'm thinking of starting a campaign. Look, it's really, really simple. In Italian, the letters "ch" are pronounced "c" (as in "consonant"). And the letter "z" as "ts", as in "it's". In Spanish (Castillian, at least), the letters "ch" are pronounced "ch" as in "church", and the letter "z" as "th" as in "thin".

"Chorizo" is a Spanish word. It is pronounced "Ch-o-r-ee-th-o". And NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER "Ch-o-r-ee-ts-o". If it were Italian, it would be "C-o-r-ee-ts-o". It's not. It's Spanish. I've corrected my sister-in-law on this once, and it went very, very badly, but the truth is important. And I'm not going to let it lie. Oh, no.

Labels: church

Back to church

I didn't get to church last Sunday, as I was ill, so it was lovely to be back today. I deaconed at the 0800, at which James presided. We had 3 in the congregation, but "where 2 or 3 are gathered together in my name..." It makes no difference: Christ's there.

After that we took the girls swimming, and in the afternoon we all went to the Christingle service at St Andrew's, Halstead. It's come to my attention that not everyone knows what a Christingle service is, but you can find some resources from the Children's Society by following the link. Basically, there's a service which revolves round the children in the congregation having a lit candle each, with the candle (the Light of the World) placed in an orange (the World), surrounded by a red ribbon or tape (the Blood of Christ) and with four sticks stuck into the orange, with sweets and dried fruit stuck on them (God's gifts to the world/the 4 seasons).

I was preaching, and invited the children to the front: "Sometimes during family services like this we have people moving around. Now, I'm going to be _very_ cross indeed if there are any adults moving around at all. On the other hand, I'm going to need some help, so it would be great if the children could come to the front to do that." I had fun, and I think the kids did, too. And Jo came and sat with me at the front of the church for the end of the service for the first time. I was so happy.

Labels: church, Jo, preaching

Supervision

(backposting) Another good work day, and after that some church work. Jo joked that Daddy must be confused if he was going to do church work, because it's not a Sunday. Usually I manage to avoid my evening church commitments from impacting on the girls' bedtime, but tonight I had to leave before 1745. Oh, and it was _chucking_ it down.

So, we started off with some marriage preparation. A couple with a young daughter - and my first baptism, which is going to be on Sunday. Went well, and we got on well - they stayed for 10 minutes or so after James (who was running the session) had left - which was good.

There was a communion service at 1900: four of us there. John (presiding), me and two others. One of whom is only a few months old: her mother has been having a hard time, and fancied some church, which is cheering. I got to hold the bubba for a while during the service, which made me happy.

Then a supervision over supper with John. We talked about the links between the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and ordination. I'm really enjoying my curacy, and the diaconal aspects of it. It's great to be part of things, quietly helping. Just there.

Labels: church, curacy

Supervision, and back to work: and an anniversary

(backposting) Spent most of the morning going through emails and getting pretty much up-to-date again. The afternoon was taken up mainly writing up a report on an audit I've recently done. Or getting most of it done, anyway.

I also had a supervision with John. We worked on preparing for the confirmation on Sunday (I'll be the Bishop's Chaplain), then on my first baptism (my first sacrament!) next month. And also about the past two weeks, when I've been without Communion or any other church interaction. This is common for many, and rare for clergy, and it's been an interesting and useful experience. I've found the Daily Offices (morning and evening prayer) very important during this time, and have found it tough. Something I'll be reflecting on.

On another topic, Moo came up to my office around 0930, and mentioned the fact that today is our engagement anniversary. 16 years, we decided. Luckily, she'd forgotten, too. But we managed to get Mel to baby-sit, and arranged to go out for a curry in Clare. It was only around 1715 that we remembered that it wasn't our engagement anniversary (which as we both knew very well is on the 13th Feb., not October). But we went out anyway. We're rubbish.

Labels: church, Moo, work

Harvest - and no communion

(backposting) I was up at 0500 with Jo. Moo and Miri (I'd moved out around midnight when Miri came into our room) managed till around 0755. Bitter, table for one. That'll be me.

So, I took the girls to the 1000 at Halstead, hoping to receive Communion. I'd missed the last two Sundays, despite trying, but Harvest Festival is the only week in the entire year that we don't have communion, so I missed out. I was still very tired, and not really into it.

Labels: church

Places and spaces

(Fairly) recently, Sally sent Mark and me an email:

One of my MA modules focuses on Christian Community and Worship, I am currently reading about place and identity, the need for community and rootedness, I was wondering how you see the Cathedral in Second Life in the context of this Walter Brueggeman quote:

“Place is a space which has historical meanings, where some things have happened that are now remembered and which provide continuity and identity across the generations. Place is a space in which important words have been spoken which have established identity, defined vocation and envisioned destiny. Place is a space in which vows have been exchanged, promises have been made and demands have been issued. Place is indeed a protest against an uncompromising pursuit of space. It is a declaration that our humanness cannot be found in escape, detatchment, absence of commitment, and undefined freedom…Whereas pursuit of space may be a flight from history, a yearning for place is a decision to enter history with an identifiable people in an identifiable pilgrimage …”

…and this line of thought:

Philip Sheldarke points to the way that the world has effectively “shrunk” for many of us due to technological advances – but notes that space is an objective thing that is subjectively perceived and experienced differently depending on perspective.

It struck me that the Brueggeman quote could be used to both defend or to critique the Second Life Cathedral depending on your perspective.

Sally ran the question in her blog, along with Mark's response, in her blog. I've added a comment, which I thought I'd post here, as I think it's relevant.

So, I was one of the original people on the "To:" line, and I've yet to respond. Here's my attempt. I think I'm going to try to do so at two levels. The first is a response to Tim. I wrote a paper a while ago, which you can find as a post on my blog. I, too, struggle with the issue of sharing communion: and that's not the only sacrament which I find important, but which I struggle to situate in SecondLife. I hope you find the paper interesting: it attempts to deal with a number of the questions that I think you're alluding to, including, I think, the issue of sect-dom (if you will). Maybe it's not explicit, but I think the attempts we've gone to maintain an authentic Anglican voice, and to take all comers, mitigate against the (real) danger of a descent in the sect.

(15 minute hiatus while I take over putting one of the kids to bed)

The other part of my response is really to reject Brueggeman's view. I kind of see his distinction, and by his definitions, I'd say that the Anglican Cathedral in SecondLife fulfills both of them. But I think that a place - if it is separate from a space, and I think it's a useful distinction, then I think that a place is negotiated, and personal. That negotiation may be internal and personal, but as I take a postmodern view of "truth" and "experience", then whether a space is a (Brueggmannian) place is always already up for negotiation. Obvious examples are whether you find Stone Henge a "spiritual place" (and is that enough to people - even Christians - meeting there as a "church"?) or whether King's College Chapel, Winscombe parish church, a chapel in Iona, a mega-church in Orange County of the front room or your house is what leads you to "being church". In short, Brueggeman's definition - at least as presented above - is too modernist for my taste, and I think that if we insist on engaging with SecondLife with a modernist agenda, then we're sunk before we've begun.

Labels: church, secondlife

Ska-ed for (everlasting) life

I couldn't resist the pun. Or the addition. I'm sorry.

I'm not much of a devotee of Christian pop/rock at the best of times, but this has opened my eyes. There's a whole new subgenre that I'm suddenly interested in exploring. I'm wondering if we can book them for our next Family Eucharist. Or whether I can do a stealth booking for Gary's church.

Labels: church, humour, music

OCD

Moo: "Given that you've got OCD, I'm amazed that you can't unpack a dishwasher properly."

I do, though not badly: and one of the things about OCD, as I understand it, is that it's not about rationality: I have ways of doing things, and I'm happiest if they stay that way.

Church

We started off our "Come & See" week of mission today at the 1000 Eucharist. I really enjoyed the service, and had to do lots of deaconing things. Not just reading the Gospel, preparing the altar and clearing after Communion, but also coordinating two stations for communion, both of which ran out of separate elements (bread and wine) and had to have movement between them. I enjoyed it a lot, and actually had a great time during the service, too. I've been enjoying the services more and more in Halstead. In the afternoon we went to a "Jeux sans Frontières" team thingy at Gosfield. It wasn't really J sans F's, but we had fun and there was a service afterwards which we all stayed for, followed by a barbecue.

While Miri had a sleep before lunch, Jo and I played. She wanted me to a little sister, and her to be Mummy. Which meant that I was basically Miri. She wanted to put me to bed, and I played at being Miri while she was patient and loving. When she thought I was "asleep", she went out of the room (as we do), and then came back a little later to give me a kiss and put a teddy in my arms. It was just beautiful.

Labels: church, Jo, mission, play

God on Trial

(backposting) At 2100 today, BBC2 showed God on Trial. It was astonishing. The acting, script and cinematography were astounding, and it was extremely moving. I'm still trying to process it, but it's the sort of programme that I'd like to show the girls when they're old enough. That'll be a while. I wept.

I came across a stubble fire today, called the fire brigade and told someone who might know the farmer. It's a while since I saw a stubble fire. They spread quickly, they really do.

We had a "ministers fraternal" meeting today, where the clergy from Halstead - Baptist, CofE, Methodist, Roman Catholic and URC (notice how I sorted them alphabetically?) get together. The Baptist guy didn't make it, which was a pity, but it was good to meet the other clergy. We do a number of services together, and there's a "Churches together in Halstead" group (also including lay people) which meets to arrange other events, etc.. I also called someone from the town of Haubourdin, near Lille, which is near Halstead's twin town, and got them to agree that we might try to have some coordinated prayer events with them during the Week for Christian Unity next January. Did that in French. I was quite chuffed with myself.

Labels: church, ecumenism, god, television

Getting upset at the Peace

I took Jo and Miri to the 10am at St Andrew's Halstead this morning, and Jo got really upset. At first, I couldn't work out why, but it turned out that it was because one of the other children there had refused to pass the Peace with her. I was surprised that she was so affected by it, but she was very sad. In the end, we found the relevant child, who, it turned out, was happy to oblige. I guess there had been a misunderstanding, but all was well afterwards. As it happens, John had preached on the importance of loving each other - even if we don't agree with each other or even like each other all the time - and had given the example of the dangers of discriminating over who we pass the Peace with. Maybe Jo was paying attention. Though I'm not convinced.

Great swimming from her later on, and both girls went to sleep very quickly at bedtime, which was a considerable bonus.

In 4 years, the Olympics will be in London. Yay!

Labels: church, love, sport

Supervision and iptables

(backposting) I meant to mention that yesterday began just fantastically: I saw a kingfisher in the little stream near our house. It's right in the middle of the village, and right on the road, but it's the second time I've seen one there. Just this beautiful flash of colour as I walked up to the 0800 service in Great Yeldham.

Had a supervision at lunchtime with John, which went well. He had good things to say about my sermon and some useful feedback. We sorted out lots of bits and pieces as well, and I'm doing some good reading about death and funerals.

And I've been learning to grok iptables. They're not as complicated as I'd feared, but more powerful than I'd realised.

Labels: church, geekery

Many things

First, did anyone notice how I managed to avoid the obvious "primates" gag yesterday, which would have revolved around the trips to the zoo and the Lambeth conference? I was quite proud of myself.

What else? Jo, Miri and Moo headed off to Kate and Mac's around 1330, and arrived around 1600. Dad and I had a good meal at the White Hart this evening. We'd taken Jo and Miri to the 1000 at St Andrew's, Halstead, and they did very well.

And after I'd failed miserably to record Top Gear this evening (not only the wrong times, but also the wrong channel...), I watched it on iPlayer. Very, very funny.

Labels: church, family

Showing the Methodists how it's done

I have some extremely good friends who are Methodists (particularly Sally and Sarah), and it occurred to me last night that we've really shown them how it's done, now that the Church of England has approved women bishops. Think about it: the Methodists don't even have _male_ bishops, let alone female ones, so they're well behind in the equality stakes.

Go Anglicanism...

Labels: church, ecumenism, women

Women bishops: yay! Maybe another 13 years of marriage, too

Rowan Williams said: "I am deeply unhappy with any scheme or any solution to this which ends up, as it were, structurally humiliating women who might be nominated to the episcopate." The General Synod voted "for". This means that we're going to have women bishops in the Church of England. And no "super-bishops", as the BBC puts it. A Code of Practice for people who won't accept this.

Given Moo's views on this, this means that there's a decent chance that we'll manage another 13 years of marriage: we were married in King's College Chapel on the 8th July 1995. She's pleased, as am I. Oh - I meant about women bishops, though I think we're both pleased about 13 years of marriage.

This particular entry isn't going very well, but that's mainly because we're watching Series 1 of Peep Show, which I got Moo as a present. And I've been laughing too much.

Labels: church, humour, marriage, Moo, women

Church Times

Oh - one last thing. My mate Neil-Allan Walsh is depicted in the Church Times giving the Bishop of Chelmsford bunny ears in a photo. I think the bishop will find it funny. I _hope_ the bishop will find it funny...

Labels: church, humour

Gays, women and evolution

Drove into Cambridge today to buy a book about Windows 2003. Very big, very heavy book. Looks useful, though. Lots of work in the afternoon on Windows stuff and Xen, which I've decided to try out.

During the day, had a discussion on a mailing list I'm part of (hi, guys) about the Church. Why does everyone believe that the Church is backward-looking, reactionary and bigoted? That seems to be the set of messages that everyone picks up. So, questions ranged from whether women should be priests, to my views on homosexuality (I'm for it ;-)), to the virgin birth, to whether I believe in evolution (well, of course I do - d'oh!). It's good to have the opportunity to talk about this stuff with people, and I firmly believe that it's an important part of my calling. When I first felt the vocation, part of it was the question "if you were you, but not part of this Church, would you want to be part of it?" The obvious answer is, "no". And the obvious second part of that is, "well, go and do something about it then." That's what I'm trying to do.

Labels: church, friends, geekery, homosexuality, women

Serving

(backposting) Today was my first church engagement since ordination: a Area Team Meeting, held in Halstead. I went to a service of Holy Communion in the church first, with just me, James (the other curate, presiding) and one of the people going to the meeting. So, "when two or three are gathered in my name", indeed. A lovely, intimate service: it made me think about how I'll be taking communion services in a year's time.

The meeting went on till 2115, and then I drove up to Loughborough. This is service. My mother-in-law's ADSL router had died, and she really needs to have Internet access for some work she does. Moo and I looked at possible dates to go up, but decided that just doing it might make most sense. So, I left the Halstead around 2130, and got to East Leake around 2345: a good, fast trip. Said the evening office, had a glass and a half of wine, and went to bed.

Labels: church, communion, diaconate, family, service

Daddy's squidgy ordination cake

Moo insisted that I take this picture and show it on my blog, simply because it looks like a cowpat. Things went wrong (separately) with not only the sponge, but also the icing. It tastes lovely, and meant that I had some fun Daddy-Jojo time, but it really looks pretty darn awful.

Things are taking off with SecondLife: more information to come, because nothing's official, but please keep an eye out.

Moo and I both took the day off today, which was lovely. We spent most of the morning together while Jo was at school and Mel looked after Miri, and after lunch at a pub we sent Mel home (with a bottle of wine which she probably _shouldn't_ have finished on her own this afternoon) to spend time together with the girls. It was a real holiday, and what we all needed, I think.

Although I get pretty upset at some of the Gafcon and anti-women bishops stuff, this is nothing compared to how riled Moo gets about it, so I've taken the step of inviting her to write piece for this blog. I'm not sure if she will, but I'm going to keep prodding. I've said she can write whatever she wants...

Lots of contact over the past 24 hours from friends around the ordination, which is great. Some good pictures up on Chris Newlands' pages on Facebook, if you can see them.

Oh, yes: this morning, Jo had asked if I'd take her to pre-school in my "priest's clothes", to which I'd agreed. It turned out that she meant my cassock, but I did consent to clerical shirt and collar. With it I wore what I'd have worn anyway: sandals, cut-off jeans, and mirror shades. "TV Comedy vicar" is how Moo labelled the look, somewhat hurtfully, I thought. I had to dash to the kennels to pick Buster up immediately after, and got accosted by someone there: "Ah, a vicar!" he said. I explained that I'm but a deacon, and it turns out that he's the vicar of Balsham, across the border in the Ely diocese. I'm going to have to get used to being stopped in odd places when I'm collared-up.

Last, but not least, my good friend Sally published a lovely post for me yesterday, to which I promised to link. Thank you, my friend.

Labels: church, food, ordination, secondlife, women

Church at Ottery St Mary

(backposting) Kate and I made it to the 0800 BCP Holy Communion service at the beautiful Ottery St Mary parish church. Fascinating place, modelled on Exeter Cathedral. After we got back, we all headed off to Sidmouth beach. Even better than Exmouth, for my money. Random Morris Dancers (female, though they would have been equally random if male, IMHO) on the promenade, then down to the rock pools. Great stuff, and I felt that I did my fatherly duty by finding a hermit crab. Rock pools are fun, they really are.

We wandered into town to grab fish and chips and started eating them on the promenade (morris dancers gone) until the rain really started to come down, when we headed to the car.

Played in the garden in the afternoon, after a trip to the Donkey Sanctuary (which Miri loved, as it had lots of donkeys in it - d'oh- and she loves donkeys, as they are animals, and she loves all animals...), had a good barbecue.

In two weeks I'll be ordained...

Labels: beach, church, holiday

A busy day

Muffins for breakfast (freshly made by Moo), Disney princesses game (Wii - Jo and (mainly) me), hoovering, church (girls and me), scootering (Jo), lunch, bottle runs (recycling - me and Jo), drive to Braintree Freeport swimming pool (closed for a gala), drive to Halstead swimming pool - fantastic jumping in and even swimming by Jo, and swimming underwater, completely unfazed, by Miri - home, walk to the chippy for supper, only to discover that it's closed, drive with Jo to Sible Hedingham, fill up Moo's car with diesel, get some cash out, go to kebab/chicken takeaway, home, supper (chicken and chips and scampi for Moo), a few minutes of Mama Mirabelle's home movies (gotta love Floella Benjamin), bath (girls and Moo), bed.

Since then, I've put my phone back together (software, that it: it crashed and I had to hard boot it), and done an hour and a half of ironing. Now sitting down, watching Midsommer Murders.

Labels: church, girls

Mother's day

Got Moo to church today, for a Mother's Day service at Kedington Church. This is in the benefice which Si and D have just joined, and where they were going for a Mother's Day service, so we joined them. A truly family-focused service, with lots of families there: mothers, children and fathers. The priest took an informal but reverent communion service, told the story of Moses in the bulrushes to a bunch of children (and me!) sitting on the floor in the nave (with adult participation). Jo, Miri and I went up for communion (Si was very impressed that the priest blessed Charlotte, their youngest, as "Boo"!), and Jo managed to get herself blessed twice: she moved from one side of me to the other as Miri was being blessed.

Moo really liked the informality of it, and how everyone was involved, which I'm very pleased about.

Fry-up for brunch, some tidying and then a walk with Victoria, Grenville, Charles and Sennen. Back to theirs for tea and drop scones. Yum. They're good friends, and it's always good to see them.

And interesting blog entry from Sally. which is definitely worth a read.

Labels: church, family, friends

Church, walk, ironing, scrabulous

Took Mum, Jo and Miri to Halstead, where James was celebrating and preaching. Jo's tiredness showed through, and her attention span was much shorter than usual, but she did OK: Miri was a star. At communion, James very kindly gave me a portion of the priest's wafer, which I was very touched by.

After lunch, we met Si, D, Morgs, Boo and Murphy (their dog) for a lovely walk near them, and had tea and chats before heading home to put the girls to bed. I cooked a chicken, and Mum did the ironing. Lots and lots of it. We're _very_ grateful! Then Mum and I played scrabulous, trying to get some decent scores against the people with whom I've got games going. She's _vicious_!

Labels: church, family, walk

Zoo

Sent Moo to bed early last night and did lots of ironing. Felt pretty pleased with myself, if tired. Not that I don't usually do the ironing - I do - but well, I did.

This morning I was leading discussion and a service at Great Yeldham. Keith chose the topic for me this time: "What does it mean to live by the Bible?". Fits in rather well with the ethics module I'm doing, so I had quite a lot to say. Keith managed to come - it's always clashed with services that he's been taking before - and seemed to feel it went quite well. I've been tweaking the format of both the discussion and the service afterwards (now 3 hymns...), and it all seems to work pretty well now, thought there's still work to do.

When I got back, I took the girls to the zoo. Not that Jo's not off there again tomorrow (or maybe Tuesday), but we had a great time. Moo really needed some downtime, and although she's getting her voice back, she's still not well.

Labels: church, illness, zoo

Title post time

Today I took Miri and Jo to Halstead for the 1000 communion service. It was the day that they were due to announce to the congregation that I'm going to be serving my title there - God willing, obviously - and I thought it would be good to be there. Added to that, Moo wanted to do some cleaning, and that's a lot easier without the girls around. A good service - great hymns - and I sat next to the kids area. Jo found a 6 year-old girl to boss around, and played with her, while Miri cuddled me for most of the service and crawled around for a bit. John, my training incumbent-to-be invited me to the front, and I did a little introduction. I enjoyed the service, and although it would be good to see a few more young people there, it appears that the team is doing lots of work with younger people, most of which takes place outside standard Sunday worship, which is probably the way things work best. So, I'm looking forward to being involved in some of that, too.

Walk with Buster, Moo, Jo and Miri. Then swimming with Jo.

Finished watching If.... Great film. I'd not seen it in ages - 20 years plus, I guess - and had forgotten most of it.

Did the ironing in front of the TV.

Jo continues to be lovely.

Labels: church, films, Jo, miri, title

Psalm 78

(backposting) Not sure why I mention it particularly, but it's my very favourite psalm, despite being the longest one set for a single morning or evening in the old BCP. We used to sing some great chants to it at both Christ Church and King's, and it's lots of fun. It's set for the evening of the 15th, so I had it for evening prayer tonight. I also did quite a lot of reading about sin - particularly the original type - for the "Christian Belief" module that I'm doing for ERMC at the moment. That and the nature of grace.

Today I also met the churchwardens for the church at which I may spend my title post. A good meeting: we got on well, and I think it's important to have the sanity-check of a non-clergy view in these cases.

Girls to bed even quicker tonight, and Moo was back by 2130, so not too bad. Had a really nice long chat as we went to bed about her day away - she's doing a course - and what's going on with the girls. We don't often get the chance, as Miri's requiring attention, but she managed to stay in her own bed until 0400, which is almost a record at the moment.

Labels: church, ERMC, Moo, sin

3/4 birthday, and the Bible. And fundamentalism

Miri turned 50:50 today: 9 months old. I'm not going into that. Anyway, she's doing very well at the moment, and is in a very social phase at the moment.

I led another "coffee and worship" this morning, and we used the new area in the back of Great Yeldham church. We didn't sit in pews: we sat in a circle. And had coffee and tea while we discussed things. No, really! This is the Church of England. Rural church of England. And 22 people came. TWENTY-TWO! We had to put new chairs out. And there were 2 children I didn't count.

So, we had a greeting, I read Acts 10:34-43, then John 11:25-27. Then we had coffee and tea (and biscuits) and I talked about "What does it mean to believe in the Bible"? I talked about Eusebius saying in the early 4th century that everyone knew that Genesis wasn't a literal description of the creation, but allegorical, and how fundamentalism, in Christianity, is generally a 19th century phenomenon, about translation (how many people read both Hebrew and New Testament Greek - oh, and Jesus spoke in Aramaic, anyway). And lots of related stuff. Only had 10 minutes or so, and then we had some discussion. I moved between the groups.

In the second group, I discovered two people who are, frankly, creationists. They're cool about it, and just feel it's the easiest reading.

I spent quite a lot of my summing up and intercessions in the following worship talking about respecting people with viewpoints different to our own.

Labels: belief, church, faith, miri, theology

Title post

I had my first exploratory meeting with the person who may be my training incumbent. We both need to agree that we want to proceed, and before we do that, I need to meet with the rest of the team - it's a team ministry. Actually, I think I've met them all briefly before, so that's a good start. That said, it was a great meeting and we got on very well. We had a lot more in common than I think either of us had expected, liturgically and theologically. I'm very hopeful that it'll work out, for which thanks be to God.

Labels: church, title

Canons B1-B43

(backposting) I read all the Church of England's "B" canons today, in preparation for a weekend at London Colney with ERMC. They are all about what services should - and must - be celebrated within the Church of England, what's allowed, and what's not. My Dad's Liturgy, Order and the Law is pretty much the definitive guide, it seems, and I've inherited something of an interest. There is certainly relevance to what we can and can't do within the Anglican Cathedral in SecondLife, although part of the question we're looking at is exactly which of the canons are relevant, and which aren't: these are the Canons of the Church of England, remember, and SecondLife is international, as is the group that comprises the Anglicans on it. Insisting, for instance, that all services are conducted in English might be inappropriate: but what languages _should_ be allowed? The doctrine behind this insistence is that all attending should be able to understand (hence Welsh is allowed in Wales in certain circumstances). Most of the members of the Anglican group in SL have English as their first language, but not all: and would we want to restrict ourselves? So, these are the sorts of questions we need to tackle.

Did all the ironing, watched Samuel L. Jackson's fantastic performance in The Negotiator, went to bed around midnight.

Labels: church, ERMC, films, secondlife

Church

I took Miri to church, which she enjoyed very, very much. She's such a social little baby, and there were lots of people to smile at, and she clapped along to "Shine, Jesus, Shine", which pleased some of the more evangelical members of the congregation (I'm assuming that they were more evangelical - they were clapping along themselves, which is often a good clue).

In the afternoon, we all went to see Kirsty and Matt up in Cambourne. Had a lovely time with them, and then headed back, just in time for me to take Jo to a party at Sam, who lives just down the road, and got engaged on Christmas Day. Her fiancé is French and seems very nice. In fact, I spent quite a lot of time speaking French, as there were some Belgians there, too. Jo had a lovely time with a bunch of other girls there, mainly watching DVDs and trying to infiltrate the boys' room.

Jo is being hard work at the moment, she really, really is. She seems to be on the cusp of something developmentally, and keeps being nearly able to do things, and then losing it. We need to let her try, but then she pushes, and pushes, and pushes... Aargh.

Labels: church

Christmas Day!

(backposting) Not up too late, and not up too early, to be honest. But Jo just had a lovely Christmas. Mainly because she got to open pretty much every present, whether it was for her or not. She's not desperately well, but thanks to sleeping through half of the service that we attended at Cheddar church this morning, managed the day OK.

Presents included:

• 20 balls of wool (me, from Moo): so that she can knit me a jersey
• a scooter (Jo, from my parents): something she decided a couple of weeks ago that she wanted from Father Christmas (my Dad had a quick word with him)
• a spa day (Moo, from me): she really needs a pampering day
• The Scouting for Girls CD (me, from Moo): marvellous
• multifarious small presents for Jo, which kept her happy opening things through the day

Labels: Christmas, church, family

Title post

Yesterday, I had a letter from the DDO (the Diocesan Director of Ordinands) inviting me to explore whether I'd like to go forward with a title post in a parish. This is an immensely big deal. For reasons too legion to indulge in here, this letter has turned up rather late in the process, but it's a real relief. We had our yearly meeting of ordinands, those considering ordination, and their spouses this evening, and I spoke to the DDO about it. We agreed that I should follow up, and I told him that was very positive about the parish.

I can't, at this stage, say where the parish is, though I've talked about it with those involved in my training, and with family. It's entirely possible that I, or the incumbent in the parish, might decide that it won't work, and for that reason, it's not fair to discuss it at this stage.

What, however, is a title post, and why's it important? Well, assuming that I am ordained deacon in June (oh, we got the date, too, it's the 29th June) - and this is not a foregone conclusion - then I will be attached as a curate to a parish. I'll stay there for 3-4 years, first as a deacon, and then (again, God willing) as a priest (usually deacons in the Church of England are ordained to the priesthood a year after they are deaconed). So, it's where I move into the next stage of training after ordination, and "learn my craft", as it were. It's possible, but frowned upon, to move away from a title post to a different one, but generally, you want to stay where you are. So, a lot of thought goes into selecting a title post from everyone's point of view, and I hope to be meeting the incumbent - who I've actually met a few times before - after Christmas. I've got an overview of the parish and related matters already, and this is where the careful reflection and prayer takes over.

Labels: church, curacy, ERMC

Two services

First, I went to Little Yeldham and talked, then discussed, then had a short service. Talked about Matthew 3:1-12, and did a little hermeneutics: talking about what John's challenge meant at the time, to the Gospel writer and to us now. Then about Kingdom Values. Interesting and lively discussion, and lots of friendly feedback. Next time: "What does it mean to believe in the Bible?"

Christingle in the evening, with Si, D, Morgan, Boo, Victoria and Sennon. We couldn't really hear what was going on, and ended up running a little creche in the corner, where there were a bunch of kids who were rather too old to be there. Good carol-singing, and Jo seemed to enjoy the candle (which, interestingly, she didn't want to hold).

Ah - meant to say: we were trying to find an updated analogy for Matthew 3:12: "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." The NRSV has "winnowing fork" for "fan". I was wondering about "the Lord will come with his spam filter, and all spam will be deleted for all time"?

Labels: church

Miri's baptism

We started late. Only six minutes, but it does help to have the relevant person there to be baptised. Same goes for funerals, although there's old precedent for marriages by proxies. Dad celebrated, James P., Kirsty, Victoria and Si were the godparents. I preached on potential and belonging to the family of the church, and Miri only cried briefly, which was a surprise, given that she wasn't on very good form.

Then we all went back to our house for lunch and drinks. Lots of adults, and lots of children underfoot. We were a little worried that Jemma might get left out when Turtle turned up, as she and Jo get on so well, but not at all. Oh - it turns out that the rules for "What's the time Mr Nudey Wolf?" are pretty similar to "What's the time Mr Wolf?" as played by (naked) children with little grasp of the standard rules.

Some people stayed late, some didn't. We had a great time. James, Alex, Jemma and Alice, Kate and Mac all stayed overnight again.

Labels: church, friends

Money and the Church: why the big fuss?

Well, I really set myself up for this one, didn't I? I chose a sparky little title and thought "well, this shouldn't be too difficult to write about, should it?"

So, I started to think about it. What could Jesus have had to say about money? Well, there's the bit about not serving God and Mammon. That's a bit negative. And he mentioned giving unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. That's not too helpful, either. Oh, and giving up all you have to follow him. And there's the very confusing bit about the woman who'd spent all the money on perfume which the disciples thought she'd wasted on him. Or the parable about the woman quietly putting a small amount of money into the collection when the hypocrites made a huge deal about putting in lots. And the whole overturning the stalls of the money-changers in the Temple episode.

Oh dear. Jesus had lots to say about money. And it's, well, not all very positive, is it? My excuse is that I want to look after my family as best as I can. Make sure that they're safe, and happy, and well educated and the rest. And I think that that's quite a good excuse, as they go. I'm intending to be a priest, and not to cost the church much, beyond training. That's good, too, isn't it? So, it should be OK to carry on in a highly paid job whilst other people aren't, as long as I give myself (well, bits of Sundays, and the odd evening a week - not _too_ much, obviously) to God. Well, the church, anyway.

It's actually very difficult, and I struggle with this. These things aren't always easy. There, it's said.

Synchroblog

Today is a "synchroblog" on the subject of "Money and the Church". If you've liked what you read here, or, more particularly, if you didn't, and you'd like to read some other opinions, please visit one of the other participating blogs:

• The Check That Controls at Igneous Quill
• Pushing The Camel: Why there might be more rich people in Heaven than in your local Church at Fernando's desk
• Sally Coleman at Eternal Echoes
• Lord, Won't You Buy Me a Mercedes Benz at Hello Said Jenelle
• Zaque at Johnny Beloved
• Walking with the Camels at Calacirian
• Greed and Bitterness: Why Nobody's Got it Right About Money and The Church at Phil Wyman's Square No More
• Kirk Bartha at Theocity
• Money and the Church: A Fulltime Story at The Pursuit
• But I Gave at Church at The Assembling of the Church
• Moving Out of Jesus Neighborhood at Be the Revolution
• Money and the Church: why the big fuss? at Mike's Musings
• Coffee Hour Morality at One Hand Clapping
• Bling Bling in the Holy of Holies at In Reba's World
• Magazinial Outreach at Decompressing Faith
• Money's too tight to mention at Out of the Cocoon
• Bullshit at The Agent B Files
• The Bourgeois Elephant in the Missional/Emergent Living Room at Headspace
• When the Church Gives at Payneful Memories
• Who, or What, Do You Worship at at Charis Shalom
• Greed at Hollow Again

Labels: church, money, synchroblog

Remembrance Sunday

A terrible night's sleep - Jo was coughing so badly that I was beginning to get worried. She ended up in the spare room with me, and actually slept quite well. We went to the Remembrance Sunday service at Great Yeldham, and I played the organ. The church was as full as I'd ever seen, and Jo, Miri and Moo came along, too. Although we don't have it as a hymn, I've finished the service for the past few years with "I vow to thee my country" on the organ, as it's a fantastic and stirring tune.

I made it clear on my Facebook profile yesterday that I wasn't in a good way, and I've really appreciated the love and prayers that people have sent my way. I've had a bit of a knock sideways, and prayers, in particular, are much appreciated.

Oh - I'm off to Canada tomorrow.

Labels: church, ERMC, work

Church

(backposting) Went to Gosfield church this morning with Jo, to their Harvest Festival family service. Around 100 people there, lots of kids, and Jo was up for lots of participation. It didn't matter that she didn't know the actions (or, indeed, the words) to the song that was sung at the front, we had to go up there anyway. And we might not have brought any food with us (I hadn't realised that it was their Harvest Festival), but she was definitely going to go to the back and take a pack of biscuits up to the altar. We had a good time, and she stuck with it very well.

Walk with Moo, Jo, Miri and Buster in the afternoon, and then swimming with Jo. I made a shepherd's pie for supper, and we watched some TV to finish the day.

Labels: church, Jo, walk

Watching the footie

For those of you who don't know, I married into a Scouse family, and it was made clear well before we even became engaged that if I was serious about Catherine, then I'd be supporting Liverpool from then on. Given that my only (slight) allegiance was to the (oft-relegated, ever hopeful) Wolves, this wasn't a big ask, but these days I really enjoy following them. They're playing Oporto away from home tonight, and so I settled down with a beer. I'll have some wine in a moment, but it's best to start off with a beer, isn't it?

Moo had some problems with her Palm recently and it's not been syncing. She needs it to work for her job, and we were dreading having to buy a new one, but in the end, we got away with buying her a bluetooh dongle (her laptop's _supposed_ to have bluetooth on it, but it's Windoze XP, and therefore has never worked).

I'm coming to the end of my placement at Long Melford, and need to arrange an end supervision. I've really enjoyed the time, and look forward to going there in the future. Next challenge is that I've agreed to take over the service for the second Sunday of the month at Great Yeldham. I really want to do something really rather different, and I'm looking forward to spending some time with Keith (the incumbent and my supervisor) discussing my ideas.

Labels: church, computers, football

Meeting old friends

(backposting) It's been years since we saw James ("JP") and Alex, but we'd decided to ask him to be one of Miri's godparents (or at least a sponsor if he wasn't baptised - though it turns out that he has been). JP (again, it appears that we're the only people who call him that) and Alex live near Geneva, and we went on a very ill-fated skiing trip with them at least four years ago. JP was head of the student union when Jo was woman's officer at college, and we've always got on well. I spent a lot of time with JP, and Moo with Alex, and we got straight back in the groove, which was fantastic. They're both divers, and we're already thinking about arranging some sort of diving holiday (and no, Moo won't have to look after both of ours _and_ both of theirs while we're diving: we'll sort something out).

We met at Polzeath beach (well, obviously), and one of the best moments was when Gemma was following me and JP to the surf, and came out with the immortal "you're my two favourite daddies". Whoa...

So, we borrowed from body boards, and James taught me how. Not much surf, but fun nevertheless.

Popped up to Tubestation: impressive. A Methodist-Anglican initiative, cafe, skating area, Internet access, looks like a good place.

Labels: church, diving, friends, holiday

Church (twice)

Jo came into our room in the middle of the night. There's a surprise: we must fix this, though. Slept quite late for us, though: past 0730. So, took Jo to Eucharist at Long Melford, where, before the service, Ian asked me if I was planning to sing tonight. He meant whether I was planning to intone the responses at the evensong that I'd forgotten I'd be taking.

Jo did very well at the service, but I was dreading telling Moo about evensong, because it meant that she'd have to put Jo to bed on her own. In the end, she was very good about it, but I did feel very bad.

Jo had her paddling pool out, I mowed the lawn (a major undertaking) and cut back one of the buddleia bushes (not a minor undertaking either). Simon from Castle Hedingham came round, mended a puncture on the push chair, and we went to Clare Country Park with Jo's bike. Not that she'd ride it, of course.

Came back, played a little (Jo in paddling pool), and I went off to evensong. Enjoyed singing in a choir - not very challenging music, but still - but best of all was intoning the collects. In a good acoustic. Fantastic. "The day thou gavest" as the last hymn: one of my favourites.

Got home, discovered that Jo hadn't been too bad, cooked supper, watched a Harry Potter DVD (... & the Prisoner of Azkaban), went through my work emails to clear the decks for tomorrow, wrote this blog entry.

Labels: church, family, play, work

Turning over a new...

... baby. Miri's three months and 2 days old today, and turned over from her back onto her front today for the first time. She's been close to it for a while, but this was the first actual event.

Church in the morning (Long Melford), Clare craft fair (where I had a pint of Nethergate's Augustinian while eating some lunch in the grounds of the Augustinian priory. Very fitting.

Up for over an hour during the night trying to get Jo back to sleep. She was adamant that she wanted to sleep in my bed (she'd assumed that I'd moved into the spare room, though I hadn't by that stage), and I was adamant that she wasn't going to. I prevailed, but, as I said, it took an hour.

We'll be holding our first service in the Anglican Cathedral in SecondLife at 8pm UK time, 12noon SecondLife time (PST). You're very welcome to join us.

Labels: church, Jo, miriam, secondlife

Maybe TV will calm me down

We _all_ went to church today. There's an 0930 family service on the first Sunday of every month at Long Melford, and as it was Trinity Sunday, and it's Holy Trinity Long Melford, well, the theme was the Trinity. Ian did a great address, using the three hares window as the exemplar. And three cuddly rabbit toys. It was great to have the whole family in church, and it was a really friendly service and congregation, too.

In the afternoon, I took Jo with her bike to Clare Country Park, where she cycled all the way round with very little help before playing on the swings, etc. Of course, she didn't want to go back to the car at the end, so there were tears and mild hysterics (we've had quite a lot of those recently, as she's very tired), and so out came the line "maybe TV would calm me down". It made me laugh so much that she caught it, too, and her hysterics turned to laughter. Then we had "I want some ice-cream". "We're about to have lunch." "Maybe after lunch. We'll see. Probably after lunch." Indeed: we'll see.

Lovely walk with Miriam and Buster while Moo put Jo to bed.

Labels: church, Jo

Church x 2

First time, with Jo to Long Melford. Walk with Jo and Buster, swimming with Jo after that. Second time to this evensong I mentioned yesterday. Bedtime apparently went pretty well, but Miri just keeps and keeps feeding.

Meg seems a little bit more lively.

Labels: church

Church at Stambourne

Took Jo to Stambourne for Communion, and she was good. She really enjoys church, and is beginning to understand when she should be a bit quieter. None of the churches in the benefice have a Sunday School or equivalent, and it's not fair to expect her to be quieter all the time, but for short periods, like the intercessions, she can manage it. She also enjoys the hymns. After church we played in the playground across the way, and when we got home, I was very pleased to find that Moo had had good sleep.

We went to the lovely Bell Inn. I'm now on "being able to drive Moo at any time, in case she goes into labour and has to be taken to the hospital quickly" watch. So one pint only. There's New Orleans jazz at the Bell on the last Sunday of each month, and we'd hoped to catch some of that. We forced Simon, Jo's godfather, to leave his teaching preparation (he works far too much, don't you, Simon) to come, and invited Jason and Joanne and their kids (Ruby, George and the new baby, Kitty) and Vivien, Joanne's mum along too. The kids weren't really up for the jazz, but we had a good time with them.

Labels: church, Jo, Moo

A great weekend - and a difficult question

Yesterday we had a fantastic day out in Aldeburgh, and today a lovely day, too. Moo's engrossed in baby stuff putting together, baby stuff sorting, baby stuff washing, baby stuff ... You get the idea.

In Aldeburgh, we ate at Regatta (terrible site, great restaurant) - very impressed to see that over half of the tables had children at them. The staff were friendly, helpful, and rushed off ther feet. We spent lots of time sitting on the beach, where for me mainly meant being handed stones by Jo, which I had to throw into the sea. I couldn't have been happier.

Today, we got up, did some tidying/hoovering, and then I took Jo to Holy Trinity, Long Melford. Apart from knocking down a portable display of books during the sermon (by a visiting preacher), she behaved very well, and I found that I had enough voice to sing "Guide me, O thou great Redeemer" lustily at the end. Ian, the incumbent, has pretty much agreed to supervise me for a placement, which is a relief and a joy.

Jo fell asleep in the car, so I left her there while Moo and I started our lunch outside - it was that warm today - and she joined us when she woke up. I then took her for a walk in the backpack we have for her, and we had a joyful 50 minutes chatting about pretty much everything, and to some horses we met. A cup of tea, then all three of us went swimming. Home, for a family supper, and then Jo to bed. I wrapped Moo's presents, wrote her cards (one from me (and the bump, codename "Fluffy"), one from Jo), and Moo's just gone up to bed. I'll probably log into SecondLife in a bit.

The difficult question is what to do about the dog we met on Friday. The RSPCA rescue kennel left us a message while we were out swimming asking us to come back if we're still interested. We're trying to work out if we still are. It'll make for a very complicated summer, but if the time is right, the time is right. We've decided to got back to see him again, to see how Jo takes to him in the open, to see how obedient he is, to ask how he is with kennels, and to try to get our heads round the whole thing. We'd like a dog again. Is now the time? Is he the dog? God knows (and I mean that).

Labels: church, dog, Jo, Moo, sea, walk

"So poorly based" - reflections on Christianity and homosexuality

Adam commented on my post the other day on Dar Es Salaam, saying:

I'm not Anglican, but it troubles me deeply that the Episcopal Church in the U.S. is taking this stand against the entire Communion on a matter so poorly based in Scripture and tradition.

I take a different view, as I think is probably clear from other posts. I think there are a few points here. All of this post is, of course, my opinion. I could be wrong on points of fact, and you may disagree with my theology.

First of all, I believe that one of the interesting things about the Episcopal Church in the U.S. is that it is run along much more democratic lines than most of the other provinces of the Anglican Communion. For instance, it is committees who choose bishops, rather than other bishops, and so it's difficult to "impose" solutions on a set of people who are not all ordained, and not "under the discipline" of the church. There are arguments here that lay people may be more prone to being over-influenced by secular society. But the other side of the coin is that if the Holy Spirit _is_ moving through society, then people who are more free of the strictures of a fairly rigid hierarchy (the church), and will be better able to reflect God's revelation as expressed through the wider world.

The second point is that I disagree that they are taking a stand against the entire Communion. There are other provinces - the Church of England, for instance - where the issue of homosexual priests, bishops and lay people is becoming an vexed one.

Third, I don't agree with the suggestion that this is an issue "poorly based in Scripture and tradition". I would say that the view _against_ homosexuality is much less strongly based in Scripture than has generally been presented. And the tradition is fairly modern - there was a much greater acceptance of a variety of homosexual expressions certainly up to the Reformation than there has been until very recently.

Fourth, we should bear in mind that the church is splitting largely down what we could call "interpretational" lines. Those who are of a fundamentalist - or at least literalist - bent tend to interpret the Bible in one way, and those of a more liberal theological background (broadly of the "historical-critical" school) tend to be less literal. Of course, there are issues around tradition, as well: some of those who take a view which foregrounds tradition will tend to take an "anti-homosexual" view. That's the standard Roman Catholic view. But we should be aware that a number of the fundamentalist parties - often evangelical - are seeking to use the homosexual (which tends to be very emotive) debate as a point of contention. It's sometimes less about this particular issue, but more about how the Bible is read. We should remember that there is a broader political agenda (sometimes) at work here.

Last of all, one thing that ECUSA are doing is treating homosexuals with respect and love. Not just clergy, but laity as well. The rest of the Anglican Communion (with a few exceptions) have agreed that they should listen to homosexuals and treat them with love and respect. I don't see that happening. With rare (but heroic) exceptions, the message to gay people - lay and clergy - is that they are _not_ listened to, not respected, and not loved.

And I _know_ what Jesus Christ would have said about the last point, if nothing else.

A declaration

I'm fairly safe. Maybe I should keep my mouth shut until I'm ordained - I've certainly been counselled to do that - but I'm from a "safe" church background, I've got an solid, safe academic theological background, I'm (very happily) married with a child (and one on the way), and I don't even have a family axe to grind. But I care about this, and I hate the fact that Christ's love is not being shown. And I need to stand up.

And there are more important issues. Violence against women, povery, global warming, persecution of Christians, persecution of non-Christians, despair, mental illness - where do you start? Not, for Christ's sake, with what people do in bed.

Labels: church, sexuality, theology

Baby Tommy

We heard today that baby Tommy died on Thursday. We know now more than that he was tired, and an inspiration to his parents. Please pray for them.

The fact that I'm still feeling ill rather pales into insignificance.

Labels: church, death, illness