Rock Mass 2023

Last night I was delighted and moved to be the guest president and preacher for the relaunch of Rock Mass. Is it a fresh expression? Is it a youth thing? No (well maybe/could be/yes-ish). But mostly it's a rock mass. Ronseal all the way. 

There was prayer and incense and God's invitation to all to come to God's banquet. And rock. Lots and lots of rock.  If you like rock, and prayer, and incense, and sacramental worship, and rock - it happens once a month and they have interesting guest preachers ;-) 

For those of you who were there and have been kind enough to ask for a copy of my sermon - here it is.  I'm less funny on paper - you don't get the terrible Les Dawson impressions - but glad to be asked and glad to share. If you want to read the sermon - please click the link and read the scripture reading first - it will make more sense.

Matthew 22.1-14 Rock Mass  

Abundance is offered – co-operation is needed. The Kingdom is like……..

So we’re back – Rock Mass is back – the thing that was happening – or one of the things that was happening (whispers 'pandemic') – is mostly over and we are getting forward to the Kingdom. Or up to the Kingdom.  I haven’t decided yet – I like forward –  but I absolutely love the idea that our life with God is something we are getting up to together.

Whatever we’re doing – we’re not getting back to normal.

For two reasons.

1.  One because there’s no such thing as normal and there never was – and this really shouldn’t come as a surprise to followers of Jesus. Sometimes I think the whole purpose of Jesus ministry was to combat the delusion of normal.  The fantasy that there is some place where all our defensive, closing down, restrictive, safety seeking, excluding, scarcity focussed human instincts put us in the right place.  I think Jesus showed us a way of being where with our trust in him, creator, saviour and spirit, we might just dare to breathe in and out and know that we are not the same as we were before we took that breath.  That change is the only constant and we do not need to be afraid for God is with us.

     The second reason we’re not going back to the thing that doesn’t exist? The trajectory of the planet the good God sent spinning into space is unidirectional – by which I mean it’s going one way – only one way, and that’s forward.  There is no going back – just ask Don Henley and the Boys of Summer. (80s reference).

So what we’re doing, as a community, as Christians, as the church here in Mixenden and Illingworth, as the church wherever each of you happens to be the savoury flavour or the head torch of truth – as the body of Christ - what we’re doing is getting forward  - re-orientating ourselves to Christ’s way. We're checking to see how the ground beneath our feet feels – and what we’re getting forward to – or maybe getting up to – what we’re getting up to is the Kingdom. The Kingdom that wasn’t what people thought was normal when Jesus first told this parable – and the Kingdom that doesn’t feel like what the world around us now calls normal. The Kingdom that is breaking through.

I think we’re spending this year hearing from lots of lovely guest preachers like me about what the Kingdom we pray is coming might be like – and there are so many places this reading could have taken us tonight – but I’d like us to focus on three things – adulting (sorry!) - invitation and abundance.

So this isn’t a parable for the faint hearted – it does not say that whatever you do everything is going to be absolutely fine cos God’s just lovely. It’s more like God is lovely AND just. This life is more than a game.  I am a parent of teenagers – and the bit of info I keep trying to crowbar into my kids heads – is that our actions have consequences – and we have to deal with those consequences. It’s not so much that you make your bed and you have to lie in it.  More that once you’ve made it, you might have to unmake it, repent of it, respond to your invitation, and try again.

You can choose to ignore your invitation. You can even turn up and then change your mind and walk away. But you can’t really blame God for that decision. We have been given the freedom to make the choice, a huge risk that our God takes out of love for us -  and we have to take responsibility – we are not playing good daddy bad daddy games with God.

Wisdom has set her table. The God of all time and space has sent us gold-plated invitations.  We need to adult on up there to the banquet and join in with what God is doing.

And let’s think about that gold plated invitation. I think this has a particular kick for us post-pandemic.  I know this parable is telling us a story about God and God’s people through history – that those to whom Jesus was sent would not recognise him – the people you might have expected to be the a-list invitations would not come to the party table.  But it feels, as parable so often do, that it’s telling us a story of now too.  You are invited.  The challenges of the last three years have left us I think desperately needing to respond to God’s invitation, needing in faith to step out and offer God’s invitation in turn to others, but feeling like we want to curl up in a corner and sleep too. 

But we’re the ones who know God is good, we’re the ones who have come to baptism, who have chosen to be here, who have glimpsed the coming kingdom in our friendship, in what we can do for the communities around us, in the goodness that flows from being together like the father, son and holy spirit are together.

God has sent you a gold plated invitation to come to the banquet and join in with what God is doing.

Has God done that Rachel? - you might well ask - really?  I don’t remember getting that invitation, you might be thinking. But you’re standing in it, next to it, listening to it, dancing to it.  Your gold-plated invitation tonight is played by a rock band and crafted with love to help you connect with God. 

Your gold plated invitation is at the lunch club, at the community pantry, at the scouts, in the creating, making and being real community which exists here and is growing.  Your gold-plated invitation is people being who they are, throwing their gifts and skills into the pot together to do things God’s way. An invitation to be just like you, the best, transformed in Christ’s image you, being in God’s service.

Come, all you vagabonds,

Come all you ‘don’t belongs’

Winners and losers,

Come, people like me.

Come all you travellers

Tired from the journey,

Come wait a while, stay a while,

Welcomed you’ll be.[1]

And what you are welcomed to is abundance.  Rather marvellously the idea of abundance came up in the midweek zoom bible study at my church this week – we were reading the Isaiah reading from the Feast of Epiphany which says

the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you,
   the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
A multitude of camels shall cover you,[2]

I know – weird right? We got briefly caught up in the weird – but then realised that when those bible guys tried to communicate what God was saying about abundance, they had to use ideas that our imaginations could reach for.  Wealth, seafood, camels, - exotic, unfamiliar, next level. The wedding banquet – probably the most sumptuous, delicious, wonderful feast anyone would experience in a lifetime – and even then not that often. 

Wisdom has set her table, she has poured her wine[3], and we are invited to the banquet. 

We have to choose whether to go. God will not force us, we are not playing games here – we are given the choice whether to respond and we are given fair warning that our choices have consequences that we must take responsibility for.

But if we choose to go to the feast we will find that the banquet we are invited to is beyond our imagining because the abundance which flows from God isn’t stuff that God gives us – the abundance is God.  God is the banquet.  The things that overflow from the baskets and bowls on the table are the things we really need to be whole in our humanity and transformed in it too. They are the abundance of the Kingdom.  For the banquet table of the Lord overflows with justice and mercy, compassion, patience, equity, respect, dignity, hope, wisdom, prophecy, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving – we are invited to gorge ourselves on this goodness that is the Kingdom and brings the Kingdom, that transforms us into Kingdom people.

O taste and see how gracious the Lord is – blessed is the one that trusts in the Lord.[4]

We thank God tonight for our gold-plated invitation.  I hope we will commit ourselves to try to respond and take responsibility for that choice as best we can in this coming year - and I hope too we will remind ourselves often that the abundance we need is not of this world, but can be found at a banqueting table overflowing with all that shows the Kingdom breaking into our community of faith and our world.

Amen.

 

---

[1] Vagabonds by Stewart Townend

[2] Isa 60.1-6

[3] Proverbs 9.2

[4] Psalm 34

On the death of the Queen - a much loved monarch.

In my role as Vicar of Huddersfield there is much to be done in the coming days to help my Parish community to grieve the death of Her Majesty the Queen, and to support their service to the diverse communities of Huddersfield as we share that grief.

But I wanted to say something for me and something for the not-very-interested-in-royal out there.

She had character. Not weird, eccentric, "tik-toc that" character. The things I was taught character meant. Dignity, grace, elegance, seriousness, wisdom, humour and a hope we can all aspire to.

Her Majesty was the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. So - not the boss-boss - but still in a very real way, my boss. I asked myself when I was ordained if I could in all conscience make a vow of loyalty to a monarch. It's not a system I would choose if we started with a clean slate.

I found that I could - not out of blind loyalty to an archaic hierarchy - but out of true loyalty and respect for her courage and sense of duty and her deep faith. She knew God comes first. It honestly felt like this vow, this expression of loyalty to her, was an expression of God always being greater than the coincidental structures of state.

I said there was something for the uninterested - congratulations if you've hung in this far.

It's been a terrible few years. Our nation has in recent years been fractious, self-critical and self-righteous. We have been wounded, grieving, scared and scarred. We have lost loved ones without the chance for the common decencies of grief, ritual, support and celebration. We have lost confidence in our democracy to guarantee what we thought we had that went without saying; good health care; good education; safe homes; light, heat, food and a shared understanding of the common good.

We have forgotten how to be together - how to let go of the things that divide us.

We should take this chance to cry, rage and mourn for all that seems lost. For the things we took for granted - as we took her stability, consistency and reliability for granted. We should take this chance to weep for ourselves and our nation. To acknowledge all the hurt we have pushed down.

But we should take this chance too to commit ourselves to serving one another to make things better - as she, our Queen, committed herself.

Whatever your "big picture" view of monarchy - Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth has lived a life of service to the common good. She has lived a life of integrity, sacrifice and service that is an example to us all of how to move forward and shape our nation for the better.

I cry for her tonight, even as I rejoice that she is safe in God's loving care. And I cry for myself. I will truly deeply miss all that she was and all she represented (yes, even the weird hereditary stuff - God knows you can mourn weird stuff that you might not agree with).

I will try not to be afraid that we will never see such commitment to serve again. I will, as she did, found my hope in God's strength and promises. I hope I will challenge myself and others to aspire to such service (just a fraction would be amazing).

There is more to life than what is convenient, easy or profitable. We have too often followed the example of those who have been driven by selfishness, greed, profit and individualism.

When the scripture adjures us to choose life, it is a life of compassion, morality, abundance, hospitality, attention, neighbourliness, service..... It is a life of love which is bigger than even our closest relationship - a life that is as big as the all-giving love of the God who made us, loves us, and will welcome us all home.

This is the astonishing breath of love in which my Supreme Governor, Elizabeth, put her faith. Even as I weep tonight I put my own faith and hope in that same breadth of love, the love that Jesus gave for her and for me and for you.

General Synod

So this week I am again at Synod. I have been live-tweeting a lot from the chamber. This helps me with processing and distilling the work of the Synod for myself. I hope it also contributes to the transparency which encourages engagement and participation.

This blog is about how it feels as a human to be here, and about balance in all things.

The first time I came to Synod last November I booked myself for all the things. We started early (or you're moving in and out of hotel rooms luggage wrangling) - the programme was full and th learning curve steep. I went to additional evening meetings, and left them exhausted. It was brilliant, obviously, but required a little management. 

So this time I came ready to get out for some exercise first thing, decided evening fringe events could manage without me, but to be present in the chamber as much as possible. So what's the upshot of trying to manage my mental and physical energy as best I can for this?

1. A jog round Westminster at dawn, even a very slow one, should be on everyone's bucket list. Take good headphones. Play your montage music 🙂

2. Being present in the chamber is really important, for the stuff that seems dull as well as the contentious/exciting stuff. Because boilers affect mission. Because the great ideas we lay on our clergy and laity can hinder more than help. It's what the imperfect privilege of being here is about. Be in the room where it happens.

3. I am a tribeless extrovert in a place full of people, many of whom I know (but not that well) and everyone is dashing about being very busy and on their way to the next thing. Combine this with long days and the disappointment of realising there are valuable points of view not being heard in the chamber* because there's just so much being squashed in, and yes, that's this vicar giving herself an early night and a good talking to. 

Our next Synod is in York and we will be on a campus together. I am told this feels much more collegial, and I look forward to it. But I also have a plan. Next time I'm in London for Synod (and might still do it in York), one evening there will be a tribeless place. A sanctuary in a bar somewhere with no pressure, for folks who don't have to dash and might just want to talk through the day. A decompression zone. You won't need a special invite and noone will be canvassing for your vote. 

If it turns out this already happens but noone told me.....🙄

*yesterday there was more than one maiden speech prepared (and request to speak submitted in advance) for the Clergy Remuneration debate, who did not get called. These were really important points about part time working, about women clergy (disproportionately) being pushed into SSM and essentially serving the church funded by a partners income and more. 

Faithful North

During the autumn term I had rather a lovely time with David and Richard from our Diocese of Leeds Comms Team chatting to people from across our amazing and diverse area. The subjects vary from our response as Christians to the climate crisis, two episodes about vocation, estates ministry and last but not least, "What is a Diocesan Secretary and what do they actually do?"

It sounds very churchy. Well yes. Yes it is. But it's very approachable too. We were trying to have some of the conversations that you might have if you found yourself stuck in a lift with an ordinand, a vicar off an estate, a parish volunteer doing some training, or, indeed a Diocesan Secretary. And all this without you having to get stuck in a lift, eh?

There are some lovely people living in and working out their callings in our Diocese. These chats were fun to have and I hope fun and informative to listen to.  I hope if you listen you will find connections too. I think it's wonderful when the folks who are the body of Christ can connect with eachother both by recognising our similarities and by enjoying our differences. 

Check out the podcasts here Faithful North | Podcast on Spotify or search Faithful North on your usual podcast app. 

God's Promises - Advent 2

This is my sermon for Advent 2 - preached at 8.30am BCP Communion and 10am Sung Eucharist on Sunday December 5th 2021

Last week we heard God’s messenger come to Mary to speak of God’s mission for her, God’s blessing, God’s promise, the double edged sword that would pierce her own heart too – and we heard about Hagar, the slave of Abraham and Sarah.

This week we again begin with Genesis – and this time we hear God repeat the promises made to Hagar for her son Ishmael – this time speaking to Abraham of the son Sarah will bear.  These aren’t new promises.  These are the promises which God has already made being reiterated, emphasised.

Just as Abram’s name was changed to Abraham by God – now we hear Sarai’s name changed to Sarah. The change of name a sign both of God’s authority in their lives, and of the new mission indicated by the name. Sarah means woman of high rank. 

Remember we are at a place in our story when there is as yet no ‘people of Israel’ – the 12 tribes born of Jacob are not yet a twinkle in anyone’s eye, and the Commandments for God’s people have not yet been shared on Sinai.   Abraham and Sarah are wandering around with God – not ‘on a journey’ like a Strictly contestant- but literally wandering from place to place, nomadic, outside the structures of any town, culture or tribe. 

God does not give Sarah a new name, a new designation, relative to how the world sees things, relative to her place in human society – this is not a promise that other people will give Sarah honour - God’s renaming, God’s acknowledgement of Sarah is about where she stands with God.

Despite her cruelty, despite her bitterness – God is working through her.  

Is this a relief to us, I wonder, that God can still work with honour and bless such unlikely people?

Then in Abraham’s conversation with God we see something else illustrated that I think I have always thought of as being something modern, but which scripture reveals is ancient.

People think they have to choose between competing good things.

God shows that with his blessings ALL may thrive.

It is Abraham that thinks in his heart that there must be a choice to be made between his son with a slave - Ishmael - and the son God tells him his wife will have, to be named Isaac.  It is Abraham who thinks that if there is to be blessing for Isaac then there can be no blessing for Ishmael. 

We have already heard this is not true, God has already spoken to Hagar of all that will be done through Ishmael.

It is not God who preferences one child over the other – it is not God who even suggests that such a thing is necessary or desirable.  It is Abraham’s assumption.  I wonder if it is our assumption too?

 

Do we always think for someone to have something good someone else has to go without?  Do we think that blessings are scarce and are we tempted to hold tight to goodness in case there isn’t enough for everyone?

This might seem a little left field to you but bear with me.

Why, when we hear of refugees desperate to reach the UK – refugees wherever they come from, driven by nothing more than the desperate desire to at least have a chance of a good life, and give their children a good and safe home – why are we vulnerable to voices that suggest that for those children to have a good and safe home, for those refugees to have a chance of a better life, our lives, our children and grandchildren must somehow therefore be disadvantaged?  Like Abraham, we think that if one is to be blessed then there can’t be enough blessing for everyone.

You may say – that’s not what I think Rachel – OK – but we allow our mainstream media to speak in these terms and we’re not all rushing to correct them.

God does not say because one person has good things another must have less.  God shows us, time and again that with God all people can be blessed.  With God there is abundance of goodness, not a scarcity to be fought over, hoarded and hidden from others.  With God Ishmael AND Isaac will live and thrive.  God does not create the competition – but neither is God absent from the world where we think there is competition for resources, for goodness, for a fair and happy life.

God is alongside the people who default to thinking the good things can’t happen. God is alongside those for whom such generosity, such mutual flourishing seems so counter intuitive, so against their experience – that they laugh in the face of God at the suggestion.

Again I wonder if it is a relief to us, that God can still bring blessing, through and with and in the company of, people who think mutual good so unlikely that they laugh at it.

Then we move to our Gospel – this part of the story known as the Visitation.  - the beginning of the encounter between cousins, Mary and Elizabeth – and again that word mutuality springs to mind.  We see in this encounter that there cannot be too much blessing, too much joy, that joy for ourselves and for one another can overflow. 

God is with them both, they know the power of the holy spirit moving in them – I’m sure in some spiritual and mysterious way which the text cannot convey – but also in very physical, earthy ways.  The baby leaps inside Elizabeth. 

We begin to sense, I think, under our own skin, just how life changing it will be that the one we wait for this Advent will dwell in the same bone and sinew, blood and vein that we inhabit. 

There can be no separation of time or space, we are not made of different stuff, no us and them, no either or – there is only both/and.  The blessing is for all. It will inhabit our own skin and will not be othered or separated.   

It will not be Isaac or Ishmael, Sarah or Hagar. All will be blessed.  Not deserving or undeserving.  Deserving and undeserving – and good luck guessing which one any of us might be.

It will not be us or the desperate and vulnerable on blow up boats in the channel.  All are offered blessing through the one who is coming to walk each step, bear each hurt, know each humiliation and share every joy.  We might even be the instruments through which God’s blessing is shown – and if we are I have no doubt that the blessings that will come back to us will be more than we can imagine.

Maranatha. Amen. Come Lord Jesus.

 

The Visitation, by Malcolm Guite

Here is a meeting made of hidden joys

Of lightenings cloistered in a narrow place

From quiet hearts the sudden flame of praise

And in the womb the quickening kick of grace.

Two women on the very edge of things

Unnoticed and unknown to men of power

But in their flesh the hidden Spirit sings

And in their lives the buds of blessing flower.

And Mary stands with all we call ‘too young’,

Elizabeth with all called ‘past their prime’

They sing today for all the great unsung

Women who turned eternity to time

Favoured of heaven, outcast on the earth

Prophets who bring the best in us to birth.[1]

---

[1] Sonnets | Malcolm Guite (wordpress.com)

When will it stop..... God rest ye merry Advent wreath

I'm going to stop doing this. No really I am.  but I may spend the evening leafing through Carols for Choirs....... another Advent candle lighting song - to God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

We light an Advent candle to show us the way
to find the Christ child waiting in a manger on the hay.
The mothers and the fathers of our faith all point the way.
O glory to God in heav’n and peace on earth
O glory to God in heav’n.
 
We light an Advent candle to show us the way
to find the Christ child waiting in a manger on the hay.
The prophets foretold long ago that bright and glorious day
O glory to God in heav’n and peace on earth
O glory to God in heav’n.
 
We light an Advent candle to show us the way
to find the Christ child waiting in a manger on the hay.
“The Kingdom now is close” said John, “Believe, repent today!”
O glory to God in heav’n and peace on earth
O glory to God in heav’n.
 
We light an Advent candle to show us the way
to find the Christ child waiting in a manger on the hay;
For Mary mother of our Lord her “yes” to God did say
O glory to God in heav’n and peace on earth
O glory to God in heav’n.
 
We light our Christ-light candle to show us the way
And we have found the Christ child in a manger on the hay;
And now we raise our voices with the angel host to say
O glory to God in heav’n and peace on earth
O glory to God in heav’n.

In case I hadn't made this obvious I'm happy for people to use these if they are of any help at all.  I'd appreciate being credited if you do use any of the words on here. 

Foundation Church - First reflection

In 2018 I was invited to be part of something called 'Foundation Church'.  My then Lay Reader in residence, Jenna, had been on placement at the local town centre civic church, in our diverse and busy university town. She had come away reflecting that surely not every young Christian who happens to come to Huddersfield University is of a conservative evangelical persuasion (though it seems most student Christians end up in such churches  - can't argue with great facilities, great music, great PR, great welcome  - and you can ignore the bits of theology you don't agree with for 3 years - heck - you might not even notice them).

Now you might think that's a little cavalier of me.  Maybe evangelical churches both within and outside the C of E teach their young people that church isn't just about place - your local Parish or other church as you grow up - which is why these are the young people who are seeking church when they leave home and go to Uni.  I take my hat of to that solid teaching and I think other traditions have learnt something from it and are getting better at it too.

I know this reflects my own experience of leaving home - when church became something I did when I was back home - and I wouldn't in a million years have sought out another church to make home.  I wouldn't go near the conservative evangelical dominated Christian Union, and back then I had no reason to believe that churches of a more central tradition were at all interested in young people  - I'd never seen it. But I know that a lot has changed in the nearly 30 years since then (gulp).

I am of a liberal cathomatic persuasion and have worked in churches who have a more traditional presentation but huge hearts for welcome.  My Lay Reader and I surmised over a glass of wine and a smoke that there must be students out there in our town who might be looking for something else, something both modern but rooted in inclusive liberal theology and catholic tradition.

This is the start of a longer reflection on this for me which is to do with planting new things, trying and failing, and more.

The Worship Song...

This is something I wrote to use in our local Infant school. After our last SIAS (Statuatory Inspection of Anglican Schools) it was found that though our collective worship was good, the kids weren't able to articulate what we were actually doing when we worship. So I wrote this, sung to the tune of Sing Hosanna

We gather and greet one another,

say hello to the God who cares,

say hello to our sisters and brothers

when we join to share our songs and prayers

Praise and worship, praise and worship,

praise and worship knowing God is near.

Praise and worship, praise and worship,

happy we are gathered here.

We will listen to stories God‘s given

Saying thank you for God’s good word

Open hearts, open minds, sharing vision

We will think about what we have heard

Praise and worship, praise and worship,

praise and worship knowing God is near.

Praise and worship, praise and worship,

happy we are gathered here.

We will pray for our world and our lives here

Saying thank you for the all that’s good

We will ask for God’s help with the hard things

God will help us live the way we should.

Praise and worship, praise and worship,

praise and worship knowing God is near.

Praise and worship, praise and worship,

happy we are gathered here.

We go on with our teaching and learning

thinking always of God met here,

ekep God’s love light inside always burning

in this season and throughout the year.

Praise and worship, praise and worship,

praise and worship knowing God is near.

Praise and worship, praise and worship,

happy we are gathered here.

God's Family - Our Family

I was asked by some of my parishioners to post my sermon from Mothering Sunday (which was nice of them) - so here it is. 

As we meet today we celebrate 3 things – we celebrate what we know as Mothering Sunday, we celebrate the baptisms of Isabel & Elanor and we celebrate our Eucharist – the communion feast of bread and wine.

Those of you who have been hard at work giving something up for Lent, chocolate, wine, unkind words, might be relieved to know that the real name for today is “Refreshment Sunday”. It’s a chance for refreshment in the thoughtful and perhaps challenging season of Lent – and a chance perhaps to indulge in the things you've been fasting from.  So you can have sin free chocolate today. You can toast Isabel & Eleanor’s celebration without guilt – but if you want to use unkind words I’d be glad if you could wait till you get home from church and just shout at the telly.

We've heard two bible readings this morning – stories which can break your heart – about Moses mother giving her child away to save him from death – and about Jesus on the cross giving his mother into the care of a friend. Sad readings perhaps – but also readings which tell us something about what it means to be family, what it means to love.

These stories can be really helpful to us today as we all, Shelly & Matt as parents, Kay, Charlene & Simon [needs correction - some godparents missing] as godparents, and all of us as the community who will support these girls as they grow, make promises which we want to keep, we long to keep, but which we might sometimes fall short of because we are human.

Our first reading from Exodus tells us that complex families are not the invention of the late 20^th century.  Moses ends up with a mother who he knows as his nurse maid, a birth family who watch him from afar, he is saved by a woman who should be his enemy – but shows compassion and mercy and love  - not just saving him but bringing him up in a role of great importance, great privilege.  There is great heartbreak in this short story – but there is also life and love, flourishing despite all circumstances which should have squashed them.  Sacrifices are made, sacrifices which we might look at and say "such sacrifices are beyond my strength".  I remind you today of the challenges that each parent here has already faced.  I ask you to listen carefully when we pray the prayer over the water in a few moments which reminds us of the time after time after time that God has offered his strength and love to his people when things seemed impossible. As we assert that Isabel & Eleanor are not alone but have God with them – remember that you have too.

The second reading we heard is about Mary – Jesus mother, as she stands at the foot of his cross – witnessing something no parent ever wants to see in their lifetime. And what Jesus tells us from the cross as he speaks to his beloved disciple John saying ‘this is your mother – this is your son’ is that what God is calling on all of us to be to eachother is as loving parents. We need to know that the best love and care we can experience in our families is the goal that we are reaching for in how we treat all our brothers and sisters  - the people we meet every day. It is our goal when we promise as a whole community to encourage Isabel & Eleanor as they learn and grow, to pray, to know God.

Today we celebrate the gift of motherhood, of parental care, knowing that our real lives and real relationships are often complicated and difficult. For some of you today is a day of celebration – for some a day of mourning good things past – for some a day of regret and misgivings for relationships which haven’t worked or don’t work as we’d like them to.

But we are not alone – Moses family, Jesus family – neither simple.  Jesus had a step-father Joseph, a good man who accepted him in the most difficult circumstances.  He had many half-brothers and sisters who he grew up with who loved him but were hurt, confused and rejected at times when he taught that his other brothers and sisters in this world were just as important to him as they were. And he had a mother – who knew her child was special, the most special child who all Israel had been waiting for, but who had been told that an arrow would pierce her heart before his story was at an end.

When I think of Mary at the cross I am always transported back to watching The Passion of the Christ – the Mel Gibson film – to the moment when Jesus, carrying his cross to Calgary, staggers and falls under its weight. His mother, watching, sees in her mind’s eye the little boy running in the yard of his step-father the carpenter’s house, stumbling and falling – and she rushes to comfort him, to lift him up, to rub his knees and make everything better with her love.

The purpose of this morning’s short gospel reading is to show the other side of that coin - that even in the midst of the hardest times – God’s love is there for Mary and for each of us. Jesus is making provision for his mother – thinking of her and her needs despite what is happening into him.  In what he does on the cross he makes provision for all our needs and offers us love which has no boundaries, no exceptions.

Today we celebrate with Isabel & Eleanor and family as they take the next step in their journey in God’s church, our mother church.  We might perhaps think about God our parent creator – how God, so often referred to as father though of course without gender, can also be thought of as mother – and how this might help us better understand the God who loves us and gives us life.  And we remember that through the waters of baptism, and sharing in the feast of bread and wine at God’s table in our Eucharist, we know that whatever the good or bad of our earthly family, we are brothers and sisters all in Christ’s body, part of the family which God has created, and which in Jesus he gave his life to show love for. Amen.

Must stop talking to that bloke

Been chatting to Rev Changing Worship again - about a) much modern worship music being thematically monochrome (Oh God, you are so great and amazing) b) there being a particular lack of recent songs with a social justice theme or the space to lament c) there being a need for clearer theology (we'd kind of like N.T.Wright to revisit each of his books and re-edit them as poetic song lyrics).

With this lurking in the recesses of my mind I sat down on the end of my kitchen table, lit a candle and started to read Morning Prayer for today.  Got as far as the Jeremiah reading (9.23,24) then had to go get a pen and paper.  I don't claim brilliance - or wisdom as the words say - and it certainly doesn't meet all the challenging criteria mentioned above - but if anyone wants to use it to write a nice worship song - you're welcome to.


Tho I'm not strong or mighty
I invoke God's strength in me
So i can break the chains that bind
set captive pris'ners free.
Tho I can't boast of wisdom
I've a longing to be wise
a desire that the scales will fall
show jaded human eyes


Love, justice, righteousness
so I can act and move
to know and grow and show delight
God's living presence prove.


Our riches are of this world.
Weak, we covet, judge and lust.
With words we sing of loving
tho our actions breed distrust.
God help us work for common good
our selfish thoughts replace
with one heart, one soul, one common goal
your Kingdom we embrace


Love, justice, righteousness
so we can act and move
to know and grow and show delight
Your living presence prove.

Baptismal Grace

I had the privilege of baptizing two young girls on Sunday morning. Baptism is always a joyful celebration but I was reminded by the comments of a lady attending the service of the strange attitude some congregations and clergy take to baptism.  She spoke of other services she had been to that were at best perfunctory, the sense of being barely tolerated by regular church goers, and coming away no wiser as to what was supposed to have happened and why.
I have myself on occasion been known to whinge about how many baptisms we have in my parish and the need to schedule extra services to deal with the demand (I know - what an idiot - only because I'm tired!) But I think we're in one of those situations where what was alleged to have happened in the rose-tinted imaginary golden days of church has been turned on it's head - and given us an amazing opportunity to share God's grace.
Church communities will comment that there is not enough Christianity in schools - that Christianity is no longer sufficiently part of the ingrained culture of the nation - that we need more Christianity - like we used to have (allegedly). Then almost in the same breath we complain about the number of people we don't know and have little contact with who come to our door expecting to be welcomed for baptism.
When my grandfather was a priest and nearly every child in the community was baptised and baptism service on a Sunday afternoon might have involved a couple of dozen babies - there was no opportunity to have baptisms in the main service as there were so many. I'm sure they were done with love and care, but the image that comes to mind is a bit of a cattle market - lots of people, lots of babies being passed back and forth. (As an aside I'm absolutely certain these kind of services could not have been quiet and calmly ordered - people are people and anyone who tells me old-fashioned babies didn't cry, throw up and generally act like babies is telling big fat fibs).
Now I work in a world were not everyone automatically brings their child for baptism. Bad times? Not a bit of it.  I have the luxury of getting to know the families who come to us for baptism. We have the time to talk together about who we all are and what it means - about God. I have the chance to make sure the language I use in liturgy is language which will communicate meaning to those involved. As a church community we have the regular opportunity to welcome and share in baptism in our main Eucharistic service.
I think my granddad would have given his right arm for these luxuries - and I think rather than whinging about less people being baptized than before we should recognize God's grace giving us the opportunity to explore the divine mystery of this sacrament.

Advent Songs

My song: Doris Corti

I sing my God
   in blue of skies and seas -
I sing my God in green and brown
And the magnificence of fields.

I sing my thanks for the orb of sun
and quiet of each moon,

I sing my God in what we sow,
   seeds scattered
and the hope of what is to come.

I sing about the brilliance
   that underscored each day,
the bread rolls, warm upon the plate
the milk poured from a jug

shafts of sunlight that hit the river deep,
and rain that splinters on a path;

I sing my God in his excellence,
his unknown ways - the life he gives,

     I sing my song.

New Post - New Post....

Well here I am - an incumbent -a vicar in the C of E. I've been a bit blog quiet lately because it's very tempting amid all this change to pour it all out to the listening ear of the bloggosphere. I've been very aware though of allowing my first impressions of my parish to sink in and settle down before rushing to praise or criticism - and I sincerely hope my new parishoners are allowing me the same lattitude.
I'm also aware of the change in 'voice' too. I am what I am (and all that) but being the cheeky curate blogging impressions and ideas was one thing, and blogging as myself the vicar (licensee's name over the door now y'know) is subtly something else. There are those who seem (judging by content) to tweet and blog with the assumption that  none of their actual parishoners will be reading it. This is not the case for me, and I'm adjusting to myself as an incumbent in cyberspace as well as an incumbent in the flesh.
More to follow.

Weird Gaps in Time

Not a reference to an exciting new episode of Dr Who I hasten to add.  I haven't posted here for some time as I have been in the middle of a move. Moving from my curacy to my first parish as vicar. (note if you follow the link - that fella in the collar on the homepage isn't me ;-)

I am to be vicar (as of the day after tomorrow) - though of course not 'incumbent' - as we are all now licensed under Common Tenure. As we are all now supposedly on the same terms and conditions I am unsure why some posts are still advertised as 'priest-in-charge' and others as 'vicar' - this used to be seen as differentiating between a 'vicar' who was an incumbent with freehold, and someone for whom the bishop was not extending that privilege.

Anyway - we have moved house, said a fond farewell to a parish and colleagues who have given me a brilliant curacy, and have been dealing with new nurseries, a new school, a big fight with BT over broadband service and vicarage phone number and all the other joys of change.  It has been a limbo-like few weeks - suspended between one place and another.

I'm excited about the challenges the new parish will bring, giddy to think about what God might have in store for this place and these people.  I feel both well prepared (nearly 10 years now since all this vocation stuff started - and that was without a hitch or a hiccup), and also completely clueless.  I'm trying to embrace this too in a "Hey, God, look at my blank canvas - come and make art!" kind of a way.

I think the blog may get a bit busier the next few weeks.

One moment in time....

There is so much going on - and at the same time this is the quietest time of the year. Things are moving slowly it seems but the things that are moving are massive - like monumental icebergs.  I am approaching the big curacy/incumbency move. All preparations are going incredibly well really, but this does not dissipate the tension.  The depression - of leaving a wonderful curacy, and I think most importantly a wonderful colleague in my training incumbent who has given me more than I think I will ever be able to quantify - is beginning to ebb. The excitement of all the challenges and 'getting to know you's' that lie ahead is starting to build.
In the meantime I wait for my mum to get a 'suspected anneurism' checked out which apparently needed blue light hospital dashes on Friday night but now just needs to wait for an appointment, and my wonderful, funny, strong, generous, loving godfather lies in hospital not knowing himself or anyone else anymore, waiting for only God knows what to let go of this life.
So it seems strange to have only just realised (reading the worship programme info for Greenbelt and bursting into tears) that going to Greenbelt for the first time this year, at a moment that couldn't really be more pivotal if it tried, is probably going to be emotional (understatement).  For those who have encouraged me to go and who I will be seeing there - I kind of apologise in advance.

Prayer for Today

Just been to a wonderful day seminar at the Mirfield Centre with Dr Paula Gooder. Below is one of the many things (including half a dozen sermons at least) I have come away from the day with - a creative and poetic translation of the Lord's Prayer from the Aramaic taken from by Neil Douglas-Klotz 'Prayers of the Cosmos'. It's one of several such translations - there are a couple of others here.

O Silent Sound,
whose shimmering music pulsated
at the heart of each and all,
Clear a space in us where thy melody
may be perceived in its purity.
Let the rhythm of thy counsel reverberate through our lives,
so that we move to the beat of justice, love and peace.
The, our whole being at one with thy song,
grant that the earth may be filled 
with the beauty of thy voice.
Endow us with the wisdom to produce and share
what each being needs to grow and flourish,
And give us courage to embrace our shadow with emptiness,
as we embrace others in their darkness.
But let us not be captive to uncertainty,
nor cling to fruitless pursuits.
For from thee springs forth
the rhythm, the melody, and the harmony,
which restores all to balance, again and again. Amen.

Giddy Kipper

I am excited! As if life wasn't fun packed enough as it is the BBC are coming to my church.  For some reason which still hasn't been explained, instead of broadcasting the Pentecost Eucharist from a big flash cathedral (apparently it's one of their obligations under charter - Christmas, Easter and Pentecost) - they are coming to my church.  For 59 minutes we will be live on BBC 1 on Sunday June 12th. We've known about this for about 3 weeks but now the planning meetings are starting it's sinking in, slowly but surely.  And my head is easily turned - when one of the technical crew started talking about how they rigged the Abbey for the Royal Wedding I was impressed. When he went on to talk about his lovely weekend working in Carlisle and how good Lady Gaga was - well that really got me!

I am staggered to find myself in the position of being a curate who is writing a sermon which will be broadcast live on national telly. I am trying not to be a dithering nitwit. I am failing.

Let us pray.....

I had an inspiring meeting this morning with some friends from the Calderdale Interfaith Council's "Women's Group".  They have kindly agreed to help me with a children's workshop on Good Friday exploring how we look for God - how we seek contact with that which is beyond us through prayer.  The conversation moved round to the physicality of prayer - and how rubbish and English we can be about this in the Western Christian tradition.

I assume that the rubric suggesting we 'sit or kneel to pray' which is so often used was introduced out of a desire to be inclusive of those who found it physically difficult or painful to kneel.  It seems though that what it has done is tied people to their seats.  I've notice this with some of the children in our congregation recently.  We have some members of the congregation who sit throughout the services because of back problems and such like - but this seems to have suggested to others that gluing bottom to seat at 10.29am and leaving it there (save perhaps a desultory slope to the communion rail) - whether praying, listening to the Gospel, singing the Gloria - until biscuit time, is a good idea.

I appreciate this tells you quite a lot about my own tradition - but talking to my friends this morning - a fellow Christian, a Bahai and a Moslem - we all felt we weren't talking about rules in worship, we were talking about entering into prayer, into worship, with our whole selves.

I'd been looking at some physical prayer in Sue Wallace's Multi-Sensory Prayer (which I was amused to discover you can buy online from Asda Entertainment! - and why not :) thinking it might be a good idea for the workshop.  I now have a clear vision of how we can physically and visually represent the commonalities in our faiths using movement and prayer positions. Thank you ladies!

If God is a DJ

OK - perhaps a shallow chat this evening - but bear with me.  I am a big fan of liturgical structure.  My sending incumbent indoctrinated me with the belief that you can do anything as long as it has intergrity within the liturgical structure.  He used to put together great "charismatic liturgical" evening services - if I remember rightly mainly because the diocese needed to take people on the local ministry course to experience some charismatic worship and there wasn't anyone else doing it in a 'safe' C of E context at the time. Back then I used to get to be the one who stood by the piano warbling - happy days.

This evening though talking to my bass player (sic. husband) we came across Morrissey's Angel, Angel Down We Go Together and thought it would make a good addition to Changing Worship's Alternative Hymnal.  Then as I thought this through I started to think about liturgical structure and the way a DJ structures music on a dance floor - creating atmosphere, inviting people onto the floor with the fmailiar and the comfortable (but fun), building the tempo to that part of the night when it seems only the strange and disconnected are not moving and dancing as one - swept away by the rhythm and joy.

I am torn as to how I feel about this  - I've been to some terribly manipulative worship where they obviously really got the DJ thing.  But are we learning enough from those who can fill a dance floor?

Or if the strange and disconnected are marginalised by such experiences - how can it express the gospel anyway?